Want to swim faster? Forget what your instructor told you and SPREAD your fingers

It may seem illogical, but letting the water flow between your fingers is the most effective way to swim. In what experts admit seems to go against common sense, spreading the fingers was found to be up to five per cent more efficient than keeping the fingers together. What scientists call the'rake' style is more efficient than the'paddle' or'closed' approach. Scientists believe they have cracked the secret to the perfect swimming stroke. Scientists from the Eindhoven University of Technology and colleagues found that spreading fingers increases the drag of the hand through the water.