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This article suggests a swimmer's hands are more effective with the fingers spread open slightly, rather than closed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48035184/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.T_DDr46cP0s

Art_Deco saidThis article suggests a swimmer's hands are more effective with the fingers spread open slightly, rather than closed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48035184/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.T_DDr46cP0s

Cool advice… I swim a couple times a week, mostly working on technique. Gonna try this out.

calf said

Art_Deco saidThis article suggests a swimmer's hands are more effective with the fingers spread open slightly, rather than closed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48035184/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.T_DDr46cP0s

Cool advice… I swim a couple times a week, mostly working on technique. Gonna try this out.

Please let us know your results. Perhaps a Google search will give more detailed information than this article.

I'm not surprised. I've noticed that some of the Olympic swimmers don't completely close their fingers.

The article says the ideal distance between fingers is 0.2 - 0.4 times the diameter of a finger. If you hold your fingers together and then just relax them, they seem to fall (roughly) into that spacing.

This is nothing new. We knew this when I swam in high school and college in the 70's and 80's.

MikeOnMain saidI'm not surprised. I've noticed that some of the Olympic swimmers don't completely close their fingers.

The article says the ideal distance between fingers is 0.2 - 0.4 times the diameter of a finger. If you hold your fingers together and then just relax them, they seem to fall (roughly) into that spacing.

OK, I must have missed that. And I'm not a swimmer, just thought this of interest to those on this site who are.

For anyone trying to improve their stroke, and is NOT a Div I or Olympic swimmer, small changes to your finger spacing are the last thing you should probably think about. It's an interesting notion of course, but for most of us mere mortals of swimming, you would do better to focus on proper rotation, kicking, and anchoring.

Finger spacing isn't going to help if your'e still dragging your body through the water with low hips or a high head (which are far more common issues to overcome).

It's true. You can grab more water by allowing your fingers to slightly seperate during the pull phase. However, this will oly be noticeable if you already have good technique. And few people have sufficiently advanced technique t bother with this trick.

I've always let my hands open up only slightly to grab more water. I heard about this 20 years ago or so. Before my coaches said to cup the hand which was wrong.

My coach always told me to not keep my hands perfectly cupped, it used up too much energy and doesn't provide enough speed. Most of the resistance is on the palm and your actual forearms

That makes sense, you kind of "feel it" when you are in the water... surfers also paddle with the hands slightly spaces apart

Yup, that was my technique for sprints on freestyle and butterfly. It does add just a little bit more surface area to the hands, you spread them just a little bit and you won't feel the water slipping through.

My coach told me this about 3 months ago and I've got it down pretty well. I noticed today that it makes a difference (especially when a sprinter like me is doing a distance set, I need all the help I can get)