I really think that if you focus on...
- keeping your wrist in line with your forearm at all times
- fingertips pointed down as mentioned
- maybe ever so slightly lead with your fingertips downward at the beginning of the stroke
- press down with your entire arm
- actually keep a relatively straight arm
You won't have much of a bend in your arm or 'high elbow catch' until you get to 45 degrees or more below the surface of the water, and you certainly won't have an 'early vertical forearm'. I really think though that the number of swimmers who 'think' that they have an EVF is much much lower than you would think. Much much lower than a lot of coaches would have you think.
Grant Hackett has one yeah. Thorpe yeah. Janet Evans, nope at least in the terms that most people are talking about. But all of these swimmers and every decent swimmer have a 'high elbow' in the sense that it is always above their hand. The examples commonly used are great examples and ones that we can all learn from. But, they are all really really physically strong swimmers that are commonly used. And, they have massive massive kicks, which generally means they have a much slower turnover. Again, you can learn something from all of them.
Here's one that a lot of people probably use, or at least one very similar to this one. Hackett.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhQfPokRMA0 And, here's Janet Evans. No offense to triathletes, but their physique is probably a lot more similar to Evans than Hackett/Thorpe/Phelps. And her technique is probably a bit closer to the 'high turnover' swimming that was brought up on a different thread.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71CN4yNMgtY
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