i find when side drilling i have the shoulders about 60degrees
but the hips about 45deg ie highside hip cocked down

so a twist in the body

this allows water to come in with minimal resistance profile from shoulders

and then "slip out" from under the highside hip

i find you only need to rotate hips to get the "wing" (iliac creast) out of the way and let the water slip out from under it

if i lock hips to shoulders im unbalanced

Hello ZT,

Think you've my answer some lines down yourself :-) At least pulling or pushing through the water will be easier done with a log than with a rubber-block. And some rotation is necessary for a recovery (or it will become uncomfortabel and highly inefficient). If you simply undock hips and shoulders -or twist the front of the rubber-block- you'll find automatically loss in streamline or balance-issues caused by miss-alignment or in the rubber-case internal friction losses.

The dolphin is a wrong example here. He's getting his whole forward-movement from well tuned movement of is body-muscles. That's what some elites show the first meters after turn or at start, not FS, quite complicated and difficult, because most of us don't have dolphin like muscles, their admirable coordination skills and feet like dolphin-flukes... If I remember right, fishes which swim forward with help of their fins are always stiffen their core, unless they want to go right or left.

See above... But the rotation doesn't matter. It's "simply" easier to lock hips and shoulders... and (might be more important) healthier for the lower spine.

Yes, "Hold the line (in skate)" - "Draw the line (recovery-fingers)" - "Switch (Spear and rotation)" is a mantra in our beginners courses. But as posted several times, later on "Hold the line" will be modified to "..and set the catch"...

Just today I realized it's difficult to distinguish from tuned continues roll in rhythm to hold the edge during the recovery. Where I found the latter offers more powerful spears and helps "effortless without loosing energy" rotation to the other side, if (and only if) I do not undock my hips and shoulders.

Black and White... Seems to me everything in swimming (and not only) is modyfied individualy. I recognize all my students just by having a short look at their recovery from outside, although they are doing well...

Best regards,
Werner

I dont agree with a lot of your points, but about rolling like a log.

KPN rolls almost like alog, and it works for her, Thorpe has much more twist and it works for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1AwgCVdjC4

so , no general conclusions can be drawn. Alot depends on personal preference and ability.

Hello ZT,

Yes, but what is best (easiest to learn?) to be taught and have the next improvement in mind?

And as mentioned sometimes, how to decide to pick a single point (and which?) from one of the elites, if I'm not able to do all the rest as she does? (That's personal preference too.)

Best regards,
Werner

PS: Anything else would be a historical event :-)

the rolling like a log idea is probably the most simple mental model to stick to for learning for the most people.

See, we can agree sometimes....-)