Catch up drills do you really swim this way? (Page 2)

The point is that you are PULLING YOUR BODY FORWARD, NOT PULLING YOUR HAND/ARM BACK.

 In Doc Cousilman's book "Competitive Swimming Manual" (1977) he includes "A Biomechanical Analysis of Freestyle Aquatic Skill" by Robert Schleihauf. In that article Mark Spitz was used as the principal subject. The author concludes that "the right hand leaves the water in front of where it enters". He does note that "it is possible in the case of extremely poor swimmers to obtain hand motion that is predominately backward". But the point is: don't confuse hand motion relative to the body (pulling down the length of your body) with motion relative to the water.

He also uses the action of a propeller to describe Spitz's arms motion and contrasts it to the paddlewheel and Caterpillar (as in bulldozer tracks) motions. When I swim I visualize that my arm and hand, as a unit during the sculling motion of the stroke, are acting like a propeller. This might be old school (I guess it is since I'm doing it) but it works for me.