hard to tell from the low angle shot but it looks like you're elbow is lower than fingertips/hand/wrist when you start the pull

You could stretch your arm further out and make your self longer.

You're pulling a lot of air down under water with that left hand, even at "cruising speed." I'd try to clean up that entry. You seem to be going in heel-first with your fingers curled a little so you have a bubble of air in you palm. Your fingertips should lead your entry.

Then drive that hand forward and slightly down, fingertips continuing to leading the way. You're dropping your elbows on both sides a bit before you set the catch. Anytime you start the stroke with your elbow below your hands, you're losing power.

Some swim methods/coaches call the entry "spearing." I think its a good metaphor. Put some more energy into "spearing" that hand forward, sharply and cleanly, and get your arm fully extended. Then set the catch by dropping the fingertips (slight bend at the wrist) and forearm (bend at the elbow, but keep it above the forearm). It should feel almost like you're wrapping your arm around a big ball of water.

To get a good visual, go to this video, and put the speed to 0.25: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ybjx2RucjM

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Hello.
You seem to have very limited range of motion in your shoulders. You won’t be able to get your elbows higher to improve your catch, or to lengthen your reach, unless you can lift and rotate your shoulders higher/closer to your ears. I would recommend you spend more time on shoulder flexibility.

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Two wheels good. Four wheels bad.

I am definitely very inflexible, especially in the left shoulder (2x broken clavicle). Is there anything you can recommend to help this? I already do streamline stretch with strechcordz and the streamline and pec stretch in the doorway.

The angle between my upper and lower arm stretched out is nowhere near 180°. Is that due to inflexibility in triceps? Working on the air in the left pull now, really easy to tell when it happens now that I'm aware.

A friend commented that I lead my rotation with my pulling arm instead of from my core and that is having a huge impact on my snaking/scissor kick. Anyone have drill suggestions for countering this other than just conscious awareness during sets?

ntc wrote:

A friend commented that I lead my rotation with my pulling arm instead of from my core and that is having a huge impact on my snaking/scissor kick. Anyone have drill suggestions for countering this other than just conscious awareness during sets?

I know very little about swimming (also swam a 1:03 at Santa Rosa ;) so take this with a grain of salt but this drill seems to help on general body position, rotation and flutter kicking. Hopefully that could translate into less snaking and better overall rotation? Ideally the fish here can chime in.

https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/...-week-6-kick-switch/

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Of course it hurts. The trick is not minding it hurts.