Before getting there, 4 steps :

1/ Controlled arm entry

2/ Shoulder extension FAR ahead

3/ Turn the elbow's crook towards the bottom

(CAUTION: without rotating the hand)

4/ Bend the forearm on the arm

And the little bonus when you don’t have the mobility of this guy who swims an average of 56 on 1500 :

FIND the RIGHT DEPTH for your catch to be comfortable and improve it progressively.

Because if your “HIGH ELBOW” is too high as I sometimes see?

You put yourself in an IMPOSSIBLE POSITION to catch large amounts of water or to pull that water towards your feet!

(Essential for swimming faster and gliding smoothly over time)

Because your elbow doesn't stay higher than your hand after the catch...

It will DROP or RECEDE on the rest of the stroke !

Which means you don’t pull much in the end, even though the intention was there.

What I propose today:

Work on these 4(+1) ESSENTIAL POINTS to improve your CATCH and gain some/a lot of SPEED.

With 4 “weeks” of ready-made swim sessions (SENSORY exercises on video).

4 weeks that I've been using for a few months now with my remote coaching students.