the elbows being kept higher than the arms throughout the stroke – both over the water and under the water except as mentioned below a la Michael Klim
the arms recover as though "the hand is coming out of a pocket" with the shoulder and elbow assisting to lift the hand clear of the water and then swinging the arm out to the side and around to the front, across the surface of the water. (see Fig 3. – Arm pathway 1). The momentum of the push back combined with a gradual change in direction of the hand as the arm fully extends to the hips means the arm recovers at a much faster speed than the speed of the underwater part of the stroke. The increased speed is also due to reduced resistance experienced by the arm moving through air. The elbow usually recovers higher than the hand though if the latter part of the underwater stroke is deep there may be a tendency to recover the arm "over" rather than "around" because of the upward momentum. This will lead to an alternate pathway where the hand is higher than the elbow such as swum by Australian, former 100 metre Freestyle world record holder, Michael Klim (See Fig 3. – alternate pathway)