Grip in the upper arm?

[WFEGb]

Hallo,

wondering how to get grip in the upper arm...

Mostly I am able to get a well perceived grip equally distributed on lower arm and hand, but never feel a good grip in my upper arm. How to get it?

Tried to get it with an extreme forwarded elbow, but then the spine bends and my stroke becomes more snaked and much more worse than already.

Or may that be neglegded?

Let TI renew your swim an life,
Werner

[andyinnorway]

Werner, not sure,

I would think if you windmilled you would feel more pressure on the upper arm than if you had a high elbow stroke, so cultivating and upper arm grip may be counter productive?>

[Richardsk]

My impression is that the upper arm contributes very little to propulsion, if anything, but may contribute to drag. I could easily be wrong.

I'm sure that there have studies on it and will try searching for anything I can find.

[Richardsk]

Here's one article, but concentrating on the hand and forearm, and not very conclusive as far as I can tell:

http://w4.ub.uni-konstanz.de/cpa/art...ewFile/907/825

and a quote from Ernest Maglischo's Swimming Fastest

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c...imming&f=false

And this one on swimming by amputees
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20106479

Incidentally, I have seen a swimmer with a probably congenital stunted arm swim a most beautiful butterfly and keep pace with swimmers with two perfectly formed arms, so it obviously is possible for the upper arm to contribute in this case, but whether it contributes much in the case of 'normal' swimmers is another matter.

[CoachSuzanne]

At the front of the stroke until at least midpoint of the body roll/mid point of the opposite arm spearing, you want to cultivate a sense of SUPPORT for the upper arm...not grip. creating grip in the upper arm is going to casue more drag in the first 1/2 of the stroke cycle than it will contribute in propulsion due to limited applicatoin of force in the direction oppsosite you want to swim.

Upper are should feel lifted as the lower arm, wrist & palm have a grip.

[WFEGb]

Thanks for all your fast answers!

@Andy,
think, I wan't become a windmiller...

@Richardsk,
will take some time to read all your hints... Nice slopes the hand takes under water...

@Suzanne,
my upper arm feels lifted a little from the moment start opening my armpit at the end of spearing...

First intermediate result: There are many other points to be focused in my stroke before going back to upper arm grip...

Let TI renew our swimming and life,
Werner