How to Swim Freestyle.

Step 4 We don't need flat palms here.

Next we are going to look at the upper body. This includes how to shape your hands, the motion of your arms, and how to position your torso. This part of the lesson does not require you to actually start swimming, but hopefully you will be able to.

First the hands. Make sure all of your fingers are tight together, and your thumb is pressed against the side of your hand. Curve your hand slightly, as though you were holding a hand full of marbles or a small amount of water. This will help to create more pull when you are going through the water.

Pro Tip: When you take a stroke, keep your hand like it is in the picture, except there should be a slight space between the fingers. It requires more concentration, but you'll get a better pull.\
PRO Pro Tip: Once you feel comfortable enough with your stroke, you can straighten your hand, move your thumb away from your palm and relax your fingers. Unless you want to swim like the flappers.

Comments

[swim right]

No swimmers swim with tight fingers, you should have your fingers straight and relaxed. Nor should your thumb be pressed against the side of your hand, just watch any underwater video of a world class freestyler and you'll see the thumb is away from the hand (you can watch a snippet of Kara Lynn Joyce at the GoSwim site to see some great underwater shots). And third, no one is "cupping" their hand anymore like in the photo, that went out in the '40's

[sokamiwohali]

Give Him/Her a break please...swimming is a personal thing. you swim the way YOU want to swim...if this is the way that they prefer to swim, dont cut them down about it. swimming is a science...EVERYONE has their own way of doing it. I actually swim underwater with my fingers "feathered" and then i stremline them closed to each other as they streamline with my body. i also just so happen to dolfin kick while doing this. i get more speed out i of my body when i use my technique.