For all the backstrokers out there, how many of you swim with the thought of keeping your face at or even slightly below the surface of the water?
For me, I was reminded today that I need to focus on keeping my face just below the surface of the water. The body rotation allows the water to break on every stroke for a breath.
When I try to keep my face at the water surface, I find that I do a chicken neck move. This causes me to raise my head higher and higher out of the water, dropping my hips and legs.
The only remedy that seems to work in my case is keeping my face slightly below the water surface.
Has anyone else done this or swim this way all the time?
When I swam age group, I had major problems with keeping my face out of the water--when my head is in the neutral position in backstroke, my face is practically submerged with the wash of water coming over my head. Just something funky about how I float in the water, I guess, since the rest of my body position was fine. My coach then had me really try to tuck my chin in towards my chest, which helped a lot.
Fast forward to today, and that's still how I swim. My chin isn't touching my chest, but I swim with a definite chin tuck (I tuck it forward enough that I can easily see my kick). Still get the water washing over my face, but it's not bad at all, and doesn't hinder my breathing in the slightest.
When I swam age group, I had major problems with keeping my face out of the water--when my head is in the neutral position in backstroke, my face is practically submerged with the wash of water coming over my head. Just something funky about how I float in the water, I guess, since the rest of my body position was fine. My coach then had me really try to tuck my chin in towards my chest, which helped a lot.
Fast forward to today, and that's still how I swim. My chin isn't touching my chest, but I swim with a definite chin tuck (I tuck it forward enough that I can easily see my kick). Still get the water washing over my face, but it's not bad at all, and doesn't hinder my breathing in the slightest.
