swimming - path of the stroke question (Page 2)

I can't answer your question (obviously as I'm the one who started with the question) but keep in mind much of the advice above is not meant to be a complete description of the stroke.  I intentionally wanted to keep the rotation of the body out of it for simplicity's sake.  Maybe now would be a good time for the experts to add that to the discussion.  It's hard to use terms like down, back, across your chest, etc. when you aren't clear about where your chest is relative to the bottom of the pool and which way is down at the time.

You might have the same problem as me and that's a weak kick combined with a poor body position.  My legs drag terribly and when kicking with a kickboard I've been known to actually go backwards.  That's not an exaggeration, BT'ers have seen it.  Learning to swim bilaterally and keeping my head lower in the water has helped my legs come up because my balance is better.  I've still got a long way to go, but I no longer skin my toes on the bottom of the pool. 

I felt, for a few moments, the whole "elbow high catch the water" thing during this mornings swim.  It was fleeting, but it was there.  Now I know what I'm searching for.  I'm a long way from coordinating that with everything else going on as I flail through the water AND build up the conditioning to do it for a long period of time, but I felt it.  That was cool.