How does your catch feel?

I have come to certain perception cues that seem to belong to  proper underwater arm mechanics.
No idea how it really looks, but these perception clues are exactly the same in free or backstroke.
First is the feeling of prying the hand between 2 sheets of cardboard.
Slice the hand in between them and feel a bit of friction of the boards at the surface of the hand followed by slowly lifting on sheet from the other.
Next action is moving thehan and forearm a bit over something leading with the outside fingers of the hand.
Water flows from fingertips over palm to inside forearm.
When the anchor is made and the pressure starts to build the arms feels like a big banana curved paddle with pressure from fingertips to inside bicep.
It strongly resembles the pressure on the arm when you lay your arm around/on top of someones shoulders.
The whole action goes through a curved path. I dont believe in a straight pulling path.
Going from the recovery into extension and toward the anchor point just works best and most natural with small outward  and inward curve instead of just dropping the hand under the elbow.
If anyone is interested I can show all the important steps in my view with photostills.

SA wrote:
Going from the recovery into extension and toward the anchor point just works best and most natural with small outward  and inward curve instead of just dropping the hand under the elbow.

Is this what we used to call "excavator" stroke? Or an S shaped pull? Yes, maybe some pictures could help. I'd also add that feeling a subtle stretch of the lat when the forearm gets vertical is a good sign for me. When I don't feel this stretch, chances are that I'm not catching well.

Salvo

My swimming-sensations seem completely unrelated to SAs ones.

But what is suspiciously missing is the lat+chest-feeling: a *massive* load on the lat, the lat "firing", and if I go really hard, then also the chest-muscles are "firing".
(Not a "subtle stretch", as with Salvo.)

That sounds to be the complete opposite of

SA wrote:
It strongly resembles the pressure on the arm when you lay your arm around/on top of someones shoulders.

I guess the stroke you are describing has a (very) low stroke-rate?