So I recently went to my first meet a week ago and another one this weekend (yay!). A swam a couple of different events and learned a lot of stuff from the experience. Both weekends I raced the 100 back, and I'm using the term race loosely here. I just cannot seem to crank up the speed on this stroke. I went 1:48.9 the first weekend and 1:49 this weekend. My 100 ***, easily my worst stroke, was 1:52. This doesn't really make sense to me as I've always considered my backstroke to be a lot better than my breaststroke. Ultimately my question boils down to how do you race backstroke? I'm clearly doing it wrong and it's starting to frustrate me.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
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Former Member
I have the same issue! I have a pretty good flutter kick for my freestyle, but I feel like my whole lower body is sinking in backstroke.
I am the opposite. In freestyle I have a two-beat crossover kick and my kick sets with a kickboard are more pathetic than a kitten in a rainstorm. However, I have a pretty decent backstroke kick. Go figure.
Since I hate kicking except on my back and since I don't have a coach to make me do otherwise, I do practically all my kick sets on my back, which also allows me to get a lot of practice on my turns and underwaters.
I'm wondering if maybe you are trying to crank up your arm rotation too fast when you're racing and are losing your rhythm and technique. You could be expending too much energy on the recovery, leaving less for the underwater push. You could also be zigging and zagging in the lane which also does you no favors. But that is all a guess since I haven't actually seen you swim.
I have the same issue! I have a pretty good flutter kick for my freestyle, but I feel like my whole lower body is sinking in backstroke.
I am the opposite. In freestyle I have a two-beat crossover kick and my kick sets with a kickboard are more pathetic than a kitten in a rainstorm. However, I have a pretty decent backstroke kick. Go figure.
Since I hate kicking except on my back and since I don't have a coach to make me do otherwise, I do practically all my kick sets on my back, which also allows me to get a lot of practice on my turns and underwaters.
I'm wondering if maybe you are trying to crank up your arm rotation too fast when you're racing and are losing your rhythm and technique. You could be expending too much energy on the recovery, leaving less for the underwater push. You could also be zigging and zagging in the lane which also does you no favors. But that is all a guess since I haven't actually seen you swim.
