Swim hand entry position: helping with body "roll"

I have swam competitively for a lot of years (started when I was 6) and haven't had to do a lot of "thinking" about my stroke, but I think proper roll might be better facilitated by the arm stretch after hand entry.  You should be reaching like you are reaching for the wall on your last stroke in a race.  It's this stretch which aids in the body roll.

Just my opinion of course.

X2

This is what I do...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn3FWsQhkYE

Thanks for the reply guys, I am totally with you on hand position when entering the water. I guess what I meant was more of where do your hands enter the water relative to say your head or the center of your body

Here is a VERY crappy idea of what I mean.

Yellow is the centerline of the body

Red is entry position at, say, shoulder width

Green is the area I was experimenting with, closer if not right on the centerline

If you're pulling off a decent rotation then you will be on your side (plus or minus) as your finger tips hit the water, so it would make sense that your hand would enter closer rather than farther away from your centerline. I don't really know that that should be the point of focus though. Once your hand enters the water it extends fully as you rotate. IMO, that should be the focus. So where is your hand and what is your body position as the hand starts to pull? If its not fully extended and your body is not on its side then you should make some changes.

tj

Interesting.  This is how I have been entering, but my masters coach recently told me I need to work on entering pinky first.

x3 or 4 or 5

That's how I was told, how I've been doing it and how I've witnessed just about every swimmer faster then me do it.  Also, if you are entering pinky first, aren't you basically setting yourself up for a dropped elbow?

x3...

Thanks for the advice - I'd like to follow-up.  (Hope this is OK with the OP.)

The masters coach that suggested this to me is really well respected at the university pool I swim at.  And each time I swim she points out that I'm still not entering pinky first.  (It feels awkward, so it's been hard for me to do it.)

The reason she gave me for needing to switch to pinky-first entry is that I may injure my shoulders by entering thumb-first.  (Context: I've only been swimming 3.5 months, with no swimming background, and have been swimming ~daily.)  Is this something I should be worried about?  Currently, I have no shoulder pain. Knock wood.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, when your finger tips enter the water, you will be on one side(side with the hand hitting the water is up in the air). As your hand extends out in front of you, you rotate to the other side (arm that's about to pull is on the bottom). Hope I'm making sense.

hard to run in the pool

I've been told and watch many people that have a hand entry more flat or slightly with the thumb first,  usually they tell people to concentrate to think pinky first when the hand is so thumb first it's like making the thumbs down sign... (or they are over mid line) by telling them pinky first as an exaggeration they might get a flatter hand entry,,, usually the swim coach will them that it's an over exaggeration to get them flatter and watch to ensure they don't' over compensate though...  It really depends on what the coach is actually seeing and how you react to their feedback when they tell people things,, some people listen, others need to be told that over exaggeration to get them to do it

That's probably it.