Swim question - shoulders vs hips

You should start your rotation from the hips as your hand is finishing the stroke. Just a slight hip rotation will enable your shoulders to follow. Try this: Stand up straight with your right hand at your side and your left hand outstretched in front of you. Now rotate your hips to the right and watch what happens to your left hand. It extends out another 3 or 4 inches! This works the same way when you are swimming.

I am sure some better swimmers than I will chime in with their tips. I hope this makes sense.

I am most definately not the greatest swimmer, but this is why I hired a coach, and I made sure he was well versed in the needs of someone building for triathlons, his advice was exactly the advice you received, I am flat with my hips while my shoulders and head rotate, he has me doing side kick drills with arm outstretched to get used to the feeling of the hips being that far off flat.

It seems to work for me, well, so far anyway, I feel more fluid in the water and I also feel I am using less energy, perhaps it's the time swimming, but I think it's the change of technique also.

Ok so here's my question. I have heard from various people on the pool deck and here that you generate the rotation/power from the hips. They often use the baseball swing as an example. When the ball comes you twist your body in conjuction with and ahead of your arms to generate the power to hit the ball. I get it.

Here's where they lose me....in a baseball swing your feet are firmly planted on the ground. This allows your torso to push/leverage off of the ground to generate the power. In swimming, your feet are planted to nothing, so how can you generate anything from your hips?

Try this the next time you're in the pool: jump in and get in a streamlined position. Now, without using your arms or legs at all, try and twist or 'generate power from your hips'. It's impossible. You can't twist in a weightless environment.

To the OP, I agree that the hips play a part and they should essentially stay in line with the shoulders. In order to do this though, IMO, the hips cannot lead or generate the rotation. The hips need something to leverage off of, and that is one of two things. The kick or the pull. For the hips to lead the shoulders(preferred method), the kick has to initiate the rotation. If the hips follow the shoulders, then the pull initiates the rotation (like when you use a pull buoy).

If someone's shoulders are rotating but the hips/legs are flat, that tells me that your kick is countering and not helping your rotation, which goes back to our kick discussions..

If someone can explain to me how the hips start or generate the rotation, I would love to understand. I know I have laid out my explanation on how this doesn't happen, but I'm open to learning something if it makes good sense.

TJ