Breaststroke video for critique

Hi - Some things my coach is working on with me (I'm not an expert!) 1. Hands at end of forward arm extension are best in a V position with thumbs down (not up). The thumbs-down position calls into play some big back muscles that will prove useful shortly. 2. On outsweep, hands should be flat, palms facing down, while sculling, to present less surface area to water. It looks like the swimmer in the video, with palms angled out and up almost from start of outsweep, is pushing water. 3. Per Maglischo, once hands are outside shoulders, the palms can rotate outward a bit. (Ernest Maglischo, Swimming Fastest, goes on a bit about hand orientation just before and during catch.) 4. It looks like the elbows are coming a tiny bit too far back, but that may be camera angle. 5. Not clear what feet are doing. In the breaststroke whip kick, "the soles of the feet are the primary propulsive surfaces" (Maglischo, again). I think there should be ankle flexion and outward rotation of the feet, then invert at the ankles and mindfully move water as soles come together, like two hands in a clap. It's a sort of semicircular motion with each foot; feet travel out, back, down, and in. See position at 4:49 in linked video. I didn't see that independent foot action in the video, but it is critical to an effective breaststroke kick. Regards, VB P.S. I have a few video URLs I'll try to post later today. Here's one: a 5-minute tutorial, some slow mo, some diagrams. This helped me a lot: www.youtube.com/watch Note the swimmers have an undulating spine action, so hips come up high before the "lunge."

Hi - Some things my coach is working on with me (I'm not an expert!) 1. Hands at end of forward arm extension are best in a V position with thumbs down (not up). The thumbs-down position calls into play some big back muscles that will prove useful shortly. 2. On outsweep, hands should be flat, palms facing down, while sculling, to present less surface area to water. It looks like the swimmer in the video, with palms angled out and up almost from start of outsweep, is pushing water. 3. Per Maglischo, once hands are outside shoulders, the palms can rotate outward a bit. (Ernest Maglischo, Swimming Fastest, goes on a bit about hand orientation just before and during catch.) 4. It looks like the elbows are coming a tiny bit too far back, but that may be camera angle. 5. Not clear what feet are doing. In the breaststroke whip kick, "the soles of the feet are the primary propulsive surfaces" (Maglischo, again). I think there should be ankle flexion and outward rotation of the feet, then invert at the ankles and mindfully move water as soles come together, like two hands in a clap. It's a sort of semicircular motion with each foot; feet travel out, back, down, and in. See position at 4:49 in linked video. I didn't see that independent foot action in the video, but it is critical to an effective breaststroke kick. Regards, VB P.S. I have a few video URLs I'll try to post later today. Here's one: a 5-minute tutorial, some slow mo, some diagrams. This helped me a lot: www.youtube.com/watch Note the swimmers have an undulating spine action, so hips come up high before the "lunge."