Karlyn has what’s called a wide-entry freestyle.  Her hand enters flat and slightly outside the shoulder.   

Her stroke is based on the same principles used in surfing and paddling.  If you’ve ever paddled a canoe, you know that you never reach out and put your oar in front of the board or under the boat.  

It’s the same when you paddle a surfboard.  The hands reach forward, but not in front of the board.  If you reach in front, you will zigzag down the pool.  

The hands go in to the side and pull back alongside the board – like this.  

When Karlyn applies this concept to swimming, it’s all about where the power is in the stroke.   There’s very little power if your hands cross the centerline of your body.

Here’s something you can try to get a feel for where your power is.  In the deep end, place your hands palm down on the deck and push yourself up and out of the water.  

Where did you place your hands?  Without thinking about it, you probably placed them just outside your shoulders.  This is where you have the most power and leverage.

When you swim freestyle, try entering each hand just outside the shoulder.

The hand should enter flat, with your palm as close to the surface as possible. 

Let’s watch that in slow motion.   Karlyn thinks about skimming her fingernails just under the surface.  They won’t be that high, but the idea is to not drive the hand toward the bottom.  She wants to create a flat surface for the catch.  

Imagine your hand is like a plane coming in for a landing.   It dips slightly into the water to start the pull.  The flat hand provides a solid platform -- or ledge -- for the start of the stroke.

Use the black line as a reference point for hand entry.  Each hand should enter and stay outside the black line, at least until the finish of the stroke.    

Here’s the black line again, from a different angle.

Here’s what Karlyn calls the water-polo drill, and it’s great for watching your hand entry and learning not to cross the centerline. 

Put on some fins.  Swim half a length with your head out of the water and looking straight ahead – not side to side.  Use a wide-entry stroke and don’t cross the centerline.   

Finish the length with your head down, but maintain the same hand width on entry.

Stick with 25s for this drill, and look straight ahead when your head is out of the water.

Notice that when Karlyn swims with a wide hand entry, her shoulders are somewhat flat.  She thinks about “quieting” the shoulders as she places her hand in the water.

If Karlyn rolls her shoulders, it looks like this.   This makes it difficult to have a wide hand entry, and it makes her wiggle down the pool.

Rotation in swimming comes from your hips and core, not from your shoulders.  

Here’s a drill that will show you the difference between core rotation…and shoulder rotation.  Swim half a length with minimal shoulder roll…

…then swim half a length with lots of shoulder roll.  

Repeat this for several 25s.  Be sure to emphasize shoulder roll and not hip roll.  This should convince you that rolling the shoulders is a misapplication of rotation.  

Now quiet the shoulders and swim again, this time rotating just the hips and core.  

From this angle you can see that Karlyn gets lots of body rotation, and that her hands are still entering wide and flat.  

She rotates, but her hands don’t cross the centerline.  Karlyn has found that this is a very powerful combination for swimming freestyle.  


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Don't Cross The Centerline