Jeff . . . . look at this motion . . . it's won major smackers and a couple of majors . . . doesn't get his arm way in or up on the backstroke . . . Can probably beat all but 1% or maybe even 1/10% of the members on this website.
notice where his hands are at his top . . . just in of his torso . . . but he really releases #4 and he doesn't do much rotating at all . . . just kinda dippy slides it thru there . . . keeps it pretty much on the elbow plane the whole swing. You can get to his top . . . just take your arms in as much as you can without the left arm breaking down . . . AND TURN YOUR HIPS. Short arm swing = gooooooood. All that elbow releasing stuff is tough to return to the same spot every time.