Swim Hand Entry

way forward, almost to a full extension.  Pull back, not down, if you are rotating, you will be using your core, not your shoulder.

ETA - i am no coach, just a swimmer

Edit to add - if you are pulling correctly (like ChrisM posted) you will also feel the effort on your lats not your shoulders

x3.

A couple things I've noticed....1) optimum point is about 1-1.5 ft in front of your head, based on olympic swimmers, 2) entering the water, the olympians seem to put their hands in vertically, then change to horizontally for the catch, and 3) (props to rstocks for this one), treat the entry is a 'mail slot'. Get your hand in, push forward with the glide though the slot. Interesting analogy, but it works.  

Cool, Rick, I like #3.....

BTW, when I answered I was watching the 4 x 200 men's heats.  No one entered at the goggle line.

Like Chris, Jorge and Rick said, extend the arm and enter well past the goggle line.  No use pushing against the direction of travel any longer than you have to.

Shane

As far forward as you can with elbow almost straight.  I like to have my thumb and index finger enter the same.  Scoop the water and pull back towards feet, hand along mid line, elbow bent at 90 degrees.  Push water down straightening arm to side.  -Lots of internal rotation of shoulder.-   You should feel a wave of water travel down your leg.  Return with you hands close to water and elbow up.  That the way I do it.  If you hand isn't moving down your body (ie down to bottom or to side) your just shoving yourself up or to the side.  I turn my head rather then my body to breath.  Yes I do get some rotation but try to stay close to flat as possible. 

Have at it TI guys. 

Plenty of good distance swimming coming up; watch the 1500m and 10km OW events.  I'll wager you'll see very few (if any) athletes swimming without a good extension before entry.  You will however see much less kicking

Shane

This is an underwater video of the US Mens 4 x 100 relay.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0812_hd_mul_au_ce493&channelcode=sportsw

When you enter your hand close to your head, you're doing two counter-productive things:

1. You're pushing your hand forward through a dense medium--water. If you enter closer to full extension, you're pushing your hand forward through air...much less dense.
2. And, by extension (uggh...worst pun ever), you're pushing forward through the water. There's a reason breaststroke is such a comparatively slow stroke--your hands recover underwater. So, why would you want to add resistance to a fast stroke?

^

What he (and others) said ...... why would you want to push through the water only to pull back?  Seems counterproductive to me.  No matter how "effortless" you can try to be entering at the head and pushing forward, you would still be fighting the momentum of your body and the resistance of the water.

Unless your arm is pulling through the water I would think you would want it having the least resistance possible, which would be the air.

Something else to add in that my swim coach said is that if you are seeing bubbles from your hand entering, then it is not going in right ........ slip it in, don't slap it in.

(Get your minds out of the gutter .......)

Regardless of entry point, the hand should extend through torso rotation (pushing shoulder and rest of arm forward as you rotate).  This gets you fully extended and gliding efficiently.  The pull does not occur at this point, rather as you glide forward your forward hand drops as you keep your elbow high.  Don't push the water down (wasted energy).  Glide forward then use lats to push the water down your side and past your hips.  The catch-up drill accentuates this glide and pull motion.  Picture yourself swimming through an 18-inch diameter tube - streamlined and quiet.