WHY IS THIS SO UNDERRATED? Swim Freestyle Faster with This Technique 

I am a swimmer only. I am now in the titanium club, both hips and one knee, so I need zero impact. The 3/4 catch up drill is what Raul over at Swim Skills NT calls 'boat' style. I do regularly use the catch up drill, and love using fins. Note on fins, I use the Finis Positive drive fins, and won't use the traditional frog feet. The reason being is that we do not have flat feet like frogs or ducks, our feet are more 3 dimensional. Proper foot position for flutter and dolphin kick is with the feet toed in/pigeon toed about 20 to 40 or so degrees. By toeing in, you get an extra 20 or so degrees of toe point, and you get to use the little toe side of your foot for a bigger surface area to generate thrust. The Positive Drive fins have a small blade on the big toe side, and a wider blade on the little toe side which moves your foot into the correct position for max thrust. There used to be some "Aqua Fins' which were a Michael Phelps signature fin, and they had the right idea, but I could not get my feet into them, even when I got the largest size and cut a big scoop out of the top side. Maybe my ankles are big from being a fullback/line backer when I played football. When swimming catchup, or drilling, I like to swim with the fins. What this does is to let you swim in slow motion. The purpose for the catch up drill is to get full arm extension/feel the stretch and get the top side shoulder out of the water for less drag, and to feel the rotation all the way down to your feet.

Sorry for a longer post. I am trying to get my IM swim time under one hour (I am in the 45-50 category trying to get my overall IM time under 9:20) and I found the drill you mention really helpfull and I did not find it anywhere else. It does connect a couple of things together really nicely. I started avoiding full catch up drills. I found out that they do mess up my timing. Concerning drills I like the closed fist drill, but I use antipaddles instead ("turtles") - these add two interesting additional benefits. Fist drill feels a bit akward because one has to concentrate on keeping the fist closed but with antipaddles it feels like natural swimming only with my hands slipping through water. Also when I "overswimm" and my shoulders feel a bit inflammed or funky, they take the stress away from the shoulders, so I can do a meaningfull session (instead of not swimming or doing a lot of backstroke). Plus I have the kind which can be filled with water (they have a plug) so they are heavy when not in water and the muscles responsible for carrying over my hand (on the back of my shoulders and around scapulas) get a real workout. They do what paddles do but above water :-). I am surprised people do not use them more, they barelly get mentioned, there is always someone coming back from a shoulder injury.

Great video again! Effortless Swimming calls it "front quadrant" stroke and it helps me A LOT! I believe extending an arm in front of you increases the body aspect ratio (length/width) and therefore reduces drag. In general terms this principle applies for boat hulls as well.