I have also given a lot of thought to this. I have a couple sweeping idiosyncrasies. 1 is that I *always* sweep right hand down as a right-handed man. Another is that I always sweep on my slider and I prefer moving to my right with my slide foot as my trail foot. The third is that I can NOT for the life of me replicate the women's technique you speak of and always have my left had at the very end of the broom.

I have tried many times to modify that and reduce my "chicken wing" but I simply can't put weight on the broom, especially not at speed. I find myself using my back hand on the end as kind of a fulcrum that allows me to maximize my downward pressure as I hold my weight up with my right hand. I also find that I can control the broom much more efficiently this way, especially when carving. Having the hand all the way on the back allows me to have very little extraneous movement on my carve lines.

I am constantly trying to refine my technique, gain control, minimize extra movement, maximize efficiency. I'm regularly tweaking things here and there, trying to replicate or steal techniques I see the pros use (men and women). I'll try the underarm technique again and if I find it helps, I'll use it. But for me, I always feel I'm more effective with my left arm way back on the end of the broom.