Swimming technique

It may seem odd, but when I first went to masters swim practice I hoped that the instructors would see my stroke and then list off a multitude of things I'm doing totally wrong. I reasoned that if my stroke was flawed I could make some simple technique changes and suddenly I'd be a front of the pack swimmer. While I've received a few tips, the consensus among the instructors seems to be that my technique is not horrible. (As an aside, I was even told to "not change a thing" about my backstroke.) I recognize that instructors may have a laundry list of corrections I need to make and are doling out just one or two tips at a time so as not to overwhelm me, but the tips I have received thus far are minor things.

First, I've been told my right arm is a bit too straight during recovery. This is not too problematic so long as my shoulder is comfortable, but a bent arm can better position my hand for entry. I think I've made good headway over the past two swims toward having a classic bent arm during recovery so that my hand is traveling nearly straight forward upon entering the water.

Second, I've been told that I should roll each should forward a bit during the extension portion of the stroke. By rolling my shoulders forward, each arm's extension will be a bit longer, which in turn will allows for a longer stroke. Making this change is going to take a bit of work, as rolling my shoulders feels like it alters my timing.

In addition, I've also been tweaking a few parts of my stroke on my own accord. I'm trying to align each hand's entry with its respective shoulder so that I can roll my body to a position inline with that shoulder as my recovering hand extends forward.

Further, I'm paying close attention to the vertical location of my hand as I extend it forward under water toward the end of its arm's extension -- I'm trying to avoid letting my hand go above my shoulder (i.e., I'm trying to prevent my hand from being nearer to the surface of the water than my shoulder). I think having my hand vertically inline with or slightly lower than my shoulder may facilitate good leverage when initiating my catch/pull.

A final piece of my stroke that I keep in mind while swimming is having an open armpit during my catch. Having an open armpit allows for a high elbow during the catch. I've also heard that one's wrist should break slightly downward right before (or maybe at the beginning of) the catch, but I can't really feel this so I haven't worked on it.

Since my stroke is adequate, my progress is going to come from hard work in the pool. I've got to avoid becoming discouraged when I don't see immediate improvement. I'm not going to be doing holding sub 1:30 for 100m next week. Instead, I need to expect a gradual reduction in my times over the course of months. Shaving just 1.5 seconds/100m per month for each of the next nine months would add up to drastic improvement. However, 1.5 seconds/100m isn't an extremely noticeable change over the course of four and a half weeks, as 1.5 seconds is about the precision of my timing.

Finally, a tip for anyone working on flexibility: check out the YOGAmazing video podcast (available on iTunes). There are specific episodes for running, swimming, beginners, etc.