As your leading hand slides down to where it can "hold on" to the water, you other arm is just finishing the stroke. Rather than swing your arm up and out, keep it relaxed and lift your elbow from the water. Always lead with your elbow until it’s even with your head. If you visualize yourself from the side, you should imagine seeing your elbow moving in a rough circle. Try not to use a windmill recovery; arm swinging hurts your balance. "Keep your weight as far forward as possible," says Quick. That helps your balance, he says, so you can use "your kick for propulsion rather than to keep your hips and legs up."

Back to "A Quick Fix".

As the elbow of your recovering arm passes your ear, "get ready to vault over your leading hand," says Quick. Meanwhile, that leading hand is still holding its place in the water. The "vault" is the revolutionary, energy-saving way to propel yourself forward. Instead of making your arms do all the work, Quick recommends you use your shoulders and hips. "Anchor that front hand and vault your body over it," he says. To do that, Quick explains, shrug your trailing shoulder forward and roll to your other side. The more effective your vault, the less strain you put on your arms.

Most swimmers breathe every stroke cycle, and most favor one side. But Quick says that if you learn to breathe by rotating your body rather than turning your head, you could even breathe with every stroke. For most people, breathing every cycle (or every other arm stroke) works best. Quick suggests you continue to do that, with one change: Alternate sides with each lap. As you get more comfortable breathing to both sides, you can try breathing every third stroke, also known as alternate breathing.

This may all seem pretty complicated - changing or refining your stroke is never easy - so keep it simple initially. Don’t try everything at once. It takes more than one practice to change ingrained habits.

Divide your stroke into segments and concentrate on one segment at a time. At first, spend part of your practice focusing on the entry of your hand and arm, keeping your body long, exaggerating the shrugs. At another point in your workout, try to develop the sense of vaulting over the arm anchored in the water and rotating to the other side. The main objective should always be to keep your body as linear as possible, to try to create that long, narrow boat hull. The secret to doing that successfully, says Quick, "is to maintain a certain amount of tension in your body, but relaxed tension."

Swimmers and their coaches are discovering that conditioning and yardage are not enough on their own. You need to redefine the act of swimming, to make it more efficient. "Otherwise," Quick says, "you’ll just reach the point where you can’t go any faster. You’ll never reach your full potential." That’s true, Quick says, whether you’re an age-group swimmer, an Olympian, a Masters swimmer, or a fitness swimmer. Everyone has greater potential for speed and efficiency, and the way to tap into it is to incorporate more technique drills in your workout.