Freestyle - My Secret to the Pull

I've drawn several analogies in my tips. Today and next time I'm going to include two more to give you an idea of how I approach the free-style pull. On dry-ground with your left hand touching your hip, stand on your tip toes and reach with your right hand as high as you possibly can. Imagine you are reaching for an apple hanging from a high tree branch. You can reach the bottom of the apple, but just barely. The way you get to your hand around the apple is to thrust your body up expanding your reach by the length of your lunge. The is where you start your freestyle pull. You've snagged the apple. You pull in down. Bring it to your waist and at that point, throw it back as far as you possibly can. Now repeat this with the other hand. Sounds silly right? Well, that's literally what you must do in the water. You must lunge as far forward as you possibly can, maintaing the torpedo profile. Cup your hand to hold as much water as possible. Maintaining that water in your hand pull it through to your waist (open your hand and you drop the apple - i.e. lose the water - where you throw it away behind you as hard as you possibly can. Your hand should end up touching your hip. Try it. You should get two distinct propulsion results out of this arc. First is the pull between picking the apple and your waist. Second is the push, where you throw the apple away. If you already know how to swim, you may find you can increase your speed proportionally to how much you increase the force of either (the pull and push) parts of the arc. Next post I'll tell you about the next analogy - climbing the ladder.