faster backstroke

Make sure your head is looking straight up, or as close to that as you can get. I think the natural tendency is to drop your chin and this causes your legs to sink.

i agree w/ the above post, keep your head back, it will help you float better. keep your hips up! (push them upwards) just keep working hard on your drills and work your butt off... you gotta manage a good mesh b/t quality and quantity. work on your starts/turn/finishes... streamline and underwater kick are both so imporant. if you look at a backstroker from the side (underwater), the pull is in the form of a wide W, pull that water! keep your fingers together, you don't any water to slip through your fingers!

Here is a secret too... Backstroke, like butterfly, has a tempo, rhythm. You can't just speed up one part of the stroke, kick, or turnover, it all must flow together. It cannot be rushed. This is where backstroke stops being technical and becomes and art form. Beside the other input that is all true, power comes from finishing the stroke past the hips, the kick is a constant "figure 8" (of sorts) in three distinct quadrants, the right side as your right hand enters, the midline kick as you are rolling on the plane and then the left side as your left hand catches the water over your head. The kicking NEVER STOPS! Backstroke can be quite tiresome. Backstroke is a weird stroke because you are moving forward (OK backward) on one plane of water and side to side simultaneously on the same plane! Are you totally confused yet?

This week’s Speedo Tip of the Week comes from Judson Aungst, former assistant swimming and diving coach at Bucknell University. Aungst is now the swim-clinic leader of goswim.tv, and he offers a backstroke drill that helps improve turnover. Aungst’s Tip: When I was a kid, I used to watch reruns of TV westerns. The good guys were always quick on the draw and could shoot the bad guy down from their hip. I realized at a young age that being quick on the draw is more than just having quick hands. It starts with the shoulder. All backstrokers can learn a thing or two from these gunslingers. Why Do It: Quick-draw backstroke teaches you to use your dry shoulder while swimming backstroke. By drawing the shoulder up, you can free your hand for a clean exit and quick turnover. How To Do It: 1. This drill, in its basic form, is single-arm backstroke. You have one arm extended and the other arm at your side. The focus is on the arm that is at your side. 2. When your lead arm is extended and initiating the pull, shrug the shoulder of your trailing arm up toward your chin. Make sure you are rotated onto your side so that your shoulder can clear the surface. 3. As you shrug the shoulder of your trailing arm, your hand should pop out of the water. Let the hand come up out of the water, then relax the hand and let it fall back to your hip. 4. After taking three or four strokes with one arm, take four full strokes. While you are swimming whole-stroke backstroke, concentrate on shrugging your shoulders to clear you hands. How To Do It Really Well (the Fine Points): 1. In order for this drill to work, you need to rotate your body so that your lead arm is deep in the water. If you are flat on your back, it is difficult to shrug your shoulder. 2. Make the shrug an aggressive motion. The more pronounced the shrug, the more acceleration you'll generate in the hand that comes out of the water. Make sure not to hit yourself in the face with your shoulder. 3. Try to have the thumb pop out first as your hand exits the water. 4. Start by swimming with one arm on the first length, and with the other arm on the second length. When you feel that you have the gist of the drill, mix in some whole-stroke swimming. For example, you could do some 50s, taking 3 strokes with one arm, 3 strokes whole-stroke, then 3 strokes with the other arm. www.usaswimming.org/.../ViewMiscArticle.aspx

Thanx for the replies. I looked at that Piranha Backstroke site it was very helpful, and I'm excited to try the drills that USA swimming had this week. I haven't been able to get to the pool recently (finals ick!!), but I have doing my stroke in front of the mirror and found something that feels like it might make me go faster. So are your hips supposed to move in more of a figure 8 rather than just back and forth? I usually just roll back and forth but when I was doing the figure 8 (on dry land mind you) it felt like if I were to do this in the water it would really help my shoulder shrug and pull and give me a lot more power. Is this true or close to something at least? Thanx!! ~Kyra

If you have a moment, there's a good article posted on the web. In your internet search engine try typing in "Piranha Backstroke". The web site address is too long to type out. They have some really good pointers on technique similar to Ali's post.

I don't know what your current time is but let's say we're talking about your 50 time and you're currently swim a 50 back in 45 1) improve your start (1 second) 2) improve your underwater dolphin kick (3 seconds) 3) improve your backstroke (3 seconds) arm cycle, feel for the water, body position and kick 4) improve your turn (1 second) 5) improve your touch (1/2 second) 6) improve your splitting (1 second) 7) get stronger (3 seconds) 8) get super psyched (1 second) 1 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 0.5 + 1 + 3 +1 = 13.5 correcting some of these might even help you improve by more Ande Originally posted by Seagurl51 Not sure if this goes in this forum or not, but I could really use some help on this. I finally have got my freestyle times to be below 40 sec. consistenly for 50 yds (i know it's slow but it's the fastest I've ever been personally), and now I would like my backstroke times to come down. I feel like I've tried everything I know to make them faster and I'm feeling kind of stuck. I do some interval training but they still seem to be in the mid-40's for 50 yds. I think I roll enough (I show my shoulder on every stroke) and my kick is decent, but when I kick hard, I feel like I sink. I've tried everything that I can think of and all kinds of combinations of kicking and arm speed to get myself to go faster and no matter what I do, I still can't get my times to come down. So anyway, now that I'm done complaining (sorry)I was wondering if anyone had any tips to help me out? Thanx a bunch!! ~Kyra

I recently started trying the backstroke starts, which are fine for me initially, however, I have a lot of trouble with the underwater kick, and learning to breathe out from my nose sloooooowly.. I breathe out quickly then absoultely have to get to the surface for a breath, as water starts going up my nose.. Are there any tricks to training for a longer underwater dolphin kick on your back? thanks! J.

I have a way to flex my nose so air can't get in or out. I think you should hold your air when dolphin kicking under water. some swimmers can't hold air and bleed it out till they get to the surface. i think we swim faster with air in our lungs because we float better. I've heard of swimmers pumping air into their intestines before a big race. eww ande Originally posted by jswim I recently started trying the backstroke starts, which are fine for me initially, however, I have a lot of trouble with the underwater kick, and learning to breathe out from my nose sloooooowly.. I breathe out quickly then absoultely have to get to the surface for a breath, as water starts going up my nose.. Are there any tricks to training for a longer underwater dolphin kick on your back? thanks! J.

It's good to know I am not the only one getting water up the nose when doing backstroke, yuck. How does one prevent this?