Courtesy of Eney Jones
One secret to swimming faster is right at your fingertips – spread your fingers!
When students ask me how their hands should be when they swim, I have them throw a pull buoy against a wall ( hopefully it is not an EneyBuoy) After they throw the buoy, I have them look at their hands. To throw you must be active and relaxed at the same time. When you cup your hand, you lose surface area and it uses energy and it is hard to throw If your hand is too relaxed you have no control.
Here is the link to read about the exact finger placement measurements and results for swimmers to maximize speed: Want to swim fast? Spread your fingers
According to the study presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics, “The researchers calculated that a finger spread of 10° could boost a swimmer’s speed by 2.5% compared with swimming with fingers held together. That speed difference translates into several tenths of a second over a 50-meter freestyle race, an enormous margin considering that the 2016 Summer Olympics 50-meter women’s freestyle race was won by 0.02 seconds.”
Use the empty space to create more space, movement of water, and relax to use less energy.
Think of Katie Ledecky when Bruce Gemmell told her to relax on 08/04/2015 and she broke the World Record in the 1500 almost by accident.
Read that article here and look at Katie Ledecky’s fingers in this photo: Katie Ledecky Breaks World Record, Almost by Accident
Being active and relaxed at the same time will not only help you physically but mentally as well. Spread your fingers and enjoy your new speed.
Eney Jones has achieved remarkably diverse success as a leading pool, open water and Ironman triathlon swimmer, and is also a yoga instructor.
- Masters National Champion 100-200-400-500-1500-1650 5k freestyle 2009
- Open Water 5k Champion Perth Australia, May 2008.
- National Masters Champion 200-400-1500 freestyle Champion, Portland Oregon, August, 2008.
- Overall Champion Aumakua 2.4k Maui Hawaii, September 2008
- Waikiki Rough Water Swim 3rd place 2006, second place Overall 2009, 3rd place 2012
- European Record Holder and Masters Swimming Champion, 2005. Records included 200, 400, 800, 1500 m freestyle
- Over twenty time finalist in U.S. Swimming Nationals, including Olympic Trials 1980
- Gold medal NCAA 800 yd freestyle relay 1979, silver Medalist 200 yd freestyle 1979. United States National Team 1979-1980.
- Professional Triathlete 1983-1991. First woman out of the water in every Hawaiian Ironman participated (6).
More about Eney Jones.
This really isn’t new. 50 years ago, Doc Counsilman published “The Science of Swimming.” In his first chapter, Doc compares three hand forms that he had experimented with in a wind tunnel. The cupped hand was weaker than the flat hand or spread hand, which were roughly equal, though the spread hand has less tension for endurance. Check it out.
This one is tricky. When giving a maximal effort on the arm pull, the hand tends to tense up as well, so it’s hard to keep the fingers from going together. If the fingers are spread, relaxed, and moving through water at high speed, they’re also susceptible to moving with any small turbulence, possibly exceeding the optimal spread for some portion of the stroke and losing out on propulsion.
Still, it is true that a slight finger spread increases the effective pulling area of the hand, so it’s worth practicing.
I’m not sure the 10 degree measurement is the best way for scientists ton conceptualize this, though. For someone with longer fingers, this might cause too much separation at the… Read more »
Thank you for the details! This is all news to me, very informative.
One has to be very careful with researches that simplify the problems of swimming technique and are using inappropriate analogy to support the results of the study. Swimming with straight arms will make you even faster than just with spread fingers. I have seen nobody doing that in events longer than 100.
The superiority of pulling with straight arms in freestyle at any distance is not settled science. For pro-straight arms, follow Gary Hall Sr. For con-straight arms, follow Dr. Rod Havriluk.
Even Gary Hall Sr. will agree that the frontal drag produced by the straight arm pull in freestyle eventually negates any power advantage gained from that pull because of muscle fatigue in distances of 100 yards/meters and longer.
That’s why I said at any distance. Dr. Havriluk believes that a straight arm pull at all distances is inferior.
Interesting opinion from Dr. Havriluk, and maybe some context/definition as to how he defines “inferior”? For speed, straight arm is clearly superior, BUT it is highly inefficient in terms of energy expended and drag, so the diminishing returns limits its application to sprints only. Maybe Havriluk is talking about efficiency/drag when saying the straight arm is inferior? Watching underwater videos of the Rio Olympics in slow motion, most racers in the underwater footage appeared to be pulling straight arm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PAXVy0WViE
I believe Gary suggested that straight arm be limited to the 50: “For every event, other than the 50-meter sprint, the pulling motion of elite freestylers is strikingly similar. We often refer to that correct motion as the high elbow pull.” See his earlier discussion here: https://swimswam.com/high-elbow-pull-freestyle/
A bit confusing, there are two distinctly different “straight arm” techniques:
1. During recovery (above water): the discussion here goes over the Pros and Cons https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Triathlon/News/Blogs/Multisport-Lab/2016/June/20/Straight-Arm-vs-Bent-Arm-Part-3-Pros-and-Cons
2. During the pull (underwater): universally agreed that this technique creates more power, but results in so much drag and energy consumption that it’s not sustainable beyond the first 50, so it’s limited to sprints only.
I assume you mean #2? Because #1 is still up for debate and may be biomechanically limited by the swimmer’s own physiological preferences. Janet Evans used it successfully in longer distances, but she has shorter arms so it was perfect for her.