I am so disgusted--I've done the TI drills, had lessons, had swim team college kids give me tips, yet I still just can't seem to get the freestyle arm action right. Do you exactly move your arm in the recovery phase the same as you move it in the fingertip drag drills? Or do you do a wind up motion of your shoulder to bring the arm out of the water? No matter what I try, I am so pathetically slow--more often than not, I am feeling like it is all wrong. I am a good breakstroker and decent flyer, and great backstroker, but geez, I need to be able to do the free - I swim about 12 miles a week. Any tips are sooooo appreciated.:bow:
I think the fingertip drag drill is to encourage you to be relaxed during recovery, but that is not how you should be recovering your arms. In my mind, they should be relaxed, pretty close to the water and to you, but not dragging against the water. People recover their arms all different ways (just think of Janet Evans's windmill arms (I think?) recovery, very unique), but recovery is sort of your rest time, so with rotation you should have enough momentum to get them back up to extended pre-pull without wasting a lot of energy. If you are rotating your head too much to breathe or not keeping your body in alignment, you may throw your recovery off, but I take that time as a rest time, such as it is, and try to use very little effort, relying on my rotation and momentum, again, such as it is.
The place my coach says to use the most energy is the pull (duh) but all the way through the pull, and not only energy, but as much speed as you have.
I think the fingertip drag drill is to encourage you to be relaxed during recovery, but that is not how you should be recovering your arms. In my mind, they should be relaxed, pretty close to the water and to you, but not dragging against the water. People recover their arms all different ways (just think of Janet Evans's windmill arms (I think?) recovery, very unique), but recovery is sort of your rest time, so with rotation you should have enough momentum to get them back up to extended pre-pull without wasting a lot of energy. If you are rotating your head too much to breathe or not keeping your body in alignment, you may throw your recovery off, but I take that time as a rest time, such as it is, and try to use very little effort, relying on my rotation and momentum, again, such as it is.
The place my coach says to use the most energy is the pull (duh) but all the way through the pull, and not only energy, but as much speed as you have.
