When swimming freestyle, our goal with the arms is to create the largest paddle from the fingers through the entire arm, this starts with the wrist.

While the focus of early vertical forearm needs to continue to be focused on, making sure you don’t bend your wrist when you initiate your pull can give you a better surface to pull from.

While you can see a slight tilt of the fingers at the initiation of this swimmer’s pull, by the time the arm is partially through the pull, the fingers have fallen back into a straight line with the forearm.

During the majority of the pull, the wrist is fairly flat, or straight.

If you want to see how you’re doing, grab a pair of large paddles and turn them around.  Hold the BACK of the paddle with your fingers.  The front of the paddle will push into your forearm if you’re bending the wrist too much.  Feeling the paddle press against your arm with an even pressure is the target.

Rotate and extend the arm with the upside-down paddle held with your fingers.  Drop the hand into the pull and the paddle will keep the hand and wrist straight.

Now take the paddles off, and swim feeling the wrist stay straighter, creating that long paddle from the fingers through the forearm.

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Keep the wrists straight