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If you watch footage of great swimmers like Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe and others, you will notice that everybody has their hands very relaxed. Here are some still images from this video of Michael Phelps. By the position of the fingers one can see how relaxed his hands are in the water and fingers are merely there to provide a bigger "surface area" for support (hand) and for appropriate balance on that support.
The role of fingers in the swimming scenario is to provide larger support surface and better balance on support. The position should be straightforward, slightly open (however your fingers naturally do it) and relaxed. Keep in mind: relaxed does not mean flappy.
When your fingers are slightly open, it allows for a little more water flow in between thus slightly minimizing the resistance, but at the same time it creates a larger support surface. If fingers are pushed close together the flow of water stops, thus slightly increasing the resistance, but also making the support surface of your hand smaller. In water, having a larger support surface in combination with other factors will allow for better and faster movement forward. And the resistance in both cases changes so little that this trade-off makes complete sense.
When your hand is intentionally cupped or you attempt to keep your fingers firm and close together, it puts extra strain on your entire arm starting from your hand. That undoubtedly affects your swimming stroke in a negative way, which in turn affects your entire swimming technique and speed of movement forward. Look at this domino effect that could start from a small mistake.
As toes in running, fingers in swimming serve to achieve balance on support. Since from the Pose Method point of view, the hand is the moving support, the fingers help achieve better placement on support, thus assisting better movement forward.
Article by Dr. Nicholas Romanov
Composed by L. Romanov
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