5. Therefore, focus on driving the recovering hand and arm hard to the water (fully extended).

I think we agree that the Bernoulli effect at the speed of swimming and with the small size of the wings (hands/arms) it is not a significant force. Sculling, if purely a motion out and back will generate lift but no propulsion. The hand(s) must move backward to do that.
You are correct in that when we try to move the hand in a direct line backwards very quickly, the hand swerves a little. If you kick very fast with fins on and one arm is pointing straight down, we don't have the strength to keep it straight. It swerves from the tremendous amount of drag it is causing. That small amount of excursion of the hand caused by the frontal drag forces is not the same as the in sweep or out sweep so often seen in swimmer's pulling motions.
As the hand passes the shoulder on its way back, the elbow and upper arm elevate in order to try to keep the hand moving backward, not upward. The hand sort of cuts off the corner of the circle from 6 to 9 o'clock on its way back, so the motion is more linear than you might think.
Someone in the thread mentioned that the arm is a class 1 lever. It is not. Like the forearm, the entire arm is a class 3 lever with fulcrum being the shoulder joint, effect load being at the insertion of the major muscles moving the arm into the head of the Humurus, very near the fulcrum. Even if the force load is 2/3 the way down the arm (as you suggest) or at the hand (where I believe most of the force is being applied), the mechanical advantage is far less than one. While the EVF brings the hand closer to the fulcrum, increasing the mechanical advantage, meaning we can push the hand through faster with the same amount of force, I believe that we lose too much biomechanical advantage in this awkward motion to win in the overall propulsion battle. But we do win in the drag battle, and that takes precedence, unless we are swimming a 50 sprint.

Am I to understand that the (often referred to as recovery arm) plays no roll in forward movement?
Maybe you believe there is some benefit there, maybe you dont. But you have not talked about it.

As far as fist swimming, in my experiences, similar to another poster here, I have seen times within 2 or 3% of non-fisted swims (this is for experienced college age swimmers and advanced age groupers).... in the tri community that % is even closer as the closed fist allows triathletes to move through that "pull phase" (horrible name) and get to the arm throw (recovery as its often referred to) much easier and thus takes a lot of strain off the shoulders and back. IE they go just about as fast without trying to apply all that force on the hand under the water.

my simple points are:

The throw over the water is all to often neglected in swimming and is an area that can create more propulsion than any effort UNDER the water. (I would argue its less taxing energy wise to move ones arm through air than water... no?)

That throw over the water changes your (yes dan) anchor arm into a first class lever.

And the challenging thing in what you do with your arms when you swim is that the movement is simple. However our feedback loops, based on survival, and how we are wired make it extra hard to keep this simple. Over analyzing and over detailing only the underwater aspect of swimming w the arms is not surprising based on this knowledge. And also highlights our desire for more information here. Heck we have a whole host of swim tools that highlight our desire to focus on where our brains are getting feedback, while in the water... hands / paddles of all shapes and sizes and claims of improvement and feet / fins of all shapes an sizes and claims of improvement. And coaches who promote focusing only here by using fancy terms.

daved

The kinetic energy of the recovering arm (particularly at the end of the recovery) as the hand nears the water, and the kinetic energy of the rotating body (shoulders and hips rotate at different times about .2 seconds apart) do, in fact, augment the effect of the two sources of propulsion, pull and kick. We call these motions Coupling Motions. Neither one generates any propulsion, but when they occur during the propulsion, or while the propulsion is still in effect, they will augment the effect.

It just so happens that the aggressive arm/hand entry will cause the shoulders to rotate faster, increasing the kinetic energy in both motions. That is the BOGO I refer to. Sprinters tend to use a straight, fast arm recovery with very high SR to maximize this coupling effect.

Popov used a medium octane recovery with very hard hand delivery and fast shoulder rotation-great coupling motions. He also did 21.9 with a SR of 110, about the slowest of any swimmer under 22 seconds. Great propulsion and DPS from strong pull and kick and great coupling.

Caeleb swims the 50 m sprint today with a SR of over 130, yet still has great kick, pull and a much better start. He is also going a second faster.

Gary Jr's stroke rate in the 50 was around 125 with a great kick.

We have a bunch of free videos on Youtube (and Lane 1 on our subscription). Or you can take a deeper dive and subscribe to Lane 2 or Lane 3. Lane 3 now has over 300 videos...many on freestyle technique.

I don't know your age, but it is common for many older Masters swimmers and all triathletes to use a SR in 50's and 60's for distance events (over 200 meters), so don't despair. Get a Tempo Trainer (Finis..you can find them on our website) and train with it. Start with what you can handle for your aerobic sets. Prefer to do shorter repeats (100's 150's 200's with short rest) holding SR. Gradually build it up.

Remember that we are developing a more shoulder-driven technique, so don't spend a lot of time pushing out the back. Most of your propulsion should come around when the pulling hand is near the shoulder. Then release the hand quickly in the back quadrant and get it back out front.

Some swimmers will simply do better with a hip-driven technique, even with no significant kicking propulsion. So keep that in mind.

Dan,

Here is one propulsion story you might enjoy (not widely known).

In 1992, there was a world-class backstroker from Gainesville FL, Martin Zubero. He had dual citizenship, USA and Spain, as his father was Spanish. Since the Olympic Games were in Barcelona that year, Spain offered $1Million to the first Spaniard to win a gold medal in the Games.

Spain doesn't usually win too many gold medals, and with Swimming going off the first week of the Games and Martin having a good chance of winning, he did the capitalist thing and decided to swim for Spain.

A couple of months before the Olympic Games of Barcelona, Martin swam the 200 backstroke in a rather rinky-dink meet in Alabama, going 1:56.5, smashing the world record. He was unshaved and untapered, and put the swimming world on notice that he was the man to beat in Barcelona. Apparently it worked, as he won the Olympic Gold medal and, being the first Spaniard to do so, won $1M. Not bad for a day's work. His winning time in Barcelona was 1:58.4, almost two seconds slower than he had done in that little meet in Alabama.

I was intrigued when I looked at his swim in Alabama that he nearly even-split the race. Out in 57+, back in 58+. No one had ever come back nearly that fast in that race. How did he do that, unshaved, untapered, no less? Years later, he confided in a friend of mine, who knows Martin much better than I do, that he came off of the turn at the hundred and all the way down and back during the second 100, he pulled on the lane line markers with his strong right arm. The stroke and turn judges at that meet, whom I am sure were not experienced, never caught him doing that.

I am not sure what the moral to this story is, but it clearly proves that if you want to swim faster, you should pull on the lane line marker, or another swimmer's ankle or a ladder or any other heavy or immobile object you can find underwater. That technique definitely will increase your propulsion.

BTW, your notion of EVF giving you more anchoring is not entirely wrong, especially when compared to a pull where the elbow is leading the hand by a lot. A vertically placed forearm will cause more drag (moving backward) than an angled forearm....just less than the hand causes.