Herb, I recently bought and watched the Swimsmooth catch masterclass DVD. Although I'm on a masters swim team I try to get help wherever I can and I have always been a fan of the Swimsmooth stuff. Anyhow, one of the tricks the guy talks about is concentrating on your middle finger on hand entry. In other words, let your middle finger be the guide and have it enter about 1.5 feet directly in front of your shoulder. This also helps with the thumb first problem. The problem with crossing over is that it makes the catch on that side more difficult. Another problem it causes is some wiggle in the body position.
Check out this video of one of the swimmers in his DVD, Jono Van Hazel (Athens Australian team). Some really good footage of his alignment and hand entry. Obviously the actual DVD has better footage, but this is pretty good.
YouTube - Swim Smooth: What Is An Efficient Freestyle Stroke? Part 2
Herb, I recently bought and watched the Swimsmooth catch masterclass DVD. Although I'm on a masters swim team I try to get help wherever I can and I have always been a fan of the Swimsmooth stuff. Anyhow, one of the tricks the guy talks about is concentrating on your middle finger on hand entry. In other words, let your middle finger be the guide and have it enter about 1.5 feet directly in front of your shoulder. This also helps with the thumb first problem. The problem with crossing over is that it makes the catch on that side more difficult. Another problem it causes is some wiggle in the body position.
Check out this video of one of the swimmers in his DVD, Jono Van Hazel (Athens Australian team). Some really good footage of his alignment and hand entry. Obviously the actual DVD has better footage, but this is pretty good.
YouTube - Swim Smooth: What Is An Efficient Freestyle Stroke? Part 2
