Late last Summer after doing a 2 mile race in Lake Superior and not liking my results very much I took a very critical look at my stroke and decided I was doing something wrong.
After some research I learned of the “high elbow catch” and spent several months changing my arm stroke to reduce drag and wasted motion.
A few weeks back I was dong lap swim as usual and got smoked by a woman in the next lane. What an amazing stroke! She was a former NCAA D1 swimmer (Florida State) and very helpful. She fixed the rest of my stroke (I hope) and changed me from a flat front crawl to a hip driven stroke that marries well with the high elbow catch! My strokes per length have dropped and my core is REALLY engaged now.
Above is the drill video I found most helpful in working on the hip driven transformation. I thought others here might find it interesting too.