At first I thought I liked the backstroke, but now I'm all confused about the stroke.
I started doing the stroke "not thinking about it", but now that I'm _trying_ do it right, I can't do it anymore. =)
The recovery phase is fine -- obviously, it's relatively easy. My hand is in front of me and I'm not doing anything too crazy with it.
It's the push/pull. I find it awkward to do much of anything behind my back, perhaps because of low flexibility.
During recovery, my arm stays in the vertical plane, close to my head. But once it enters the water, it tends to veer out of that plane and to the side because I can't put my arm behind my back with my palms facing my feet very easily.
Since my stroke goes out to the side a bit, it steers me off course and destabilizes me.
While writing this, I'm practicing my stroke in the air, and I just noticed that rolling into the stroke makes a HUGE difference for me.
My instructor didn't tell me to do that... I'm beginning to wonder how good she is... she's a good swimmer... effortless in the water... but she doesn't verbalize very much.
Ahh, rolling, maybe I answered my own question. My shoulders REALLY hurt when I don't roll, but when I do, it feels great. That definitely helps.
Okay, I have one more: I don't wear goggles when I swim and I find that even when I minimize the splash, I still get water in my eyes during backstroke. Should I just swim with my eyes closed, will I get used to it, or what?
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Former Member
I just had to jump in here. I like a lot of what geochuck has had to say. I have been a backstroker for about all of my swimming career.
Backstroke requires a great kick. I always had a 6 beat kick; 2 on the left side, 2 center, and 2 on the right. When my hand/arm enter the water over my head (position is 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock), my little finger enters first. In order to get the most out of the pulling portion, I rotate my hips so my pull is not to the side, but more underneath. As the pull starts to become the push, I am more on my side and my hand/forearm shove the water past my thigh thus creating great forward movement.
I also want to say here that there should be almost zero head movement. We used to practice a drill with goggles or coins placed on our forehead while we were swimming backstroke. Think of being a skewer and your body is the chicken roasting. Swimming quietly is key here.
Also, just for those old timers who might remember this, during the push phase by the thigh, on the shorter distances we would push downward which aids hip rotation. On the 200, we would change our hand position to the upward position and push upward. But I never could get the hang of that and found it to be of no benefit. Coaches "used" to say it helped with conserving energy. I couldn't get it to work for me. Ah, constant changes all the time.
A note for people new to backstroke: watch out for those backstroke flags in outdoor pools when the wind is blowing. Look at the line, not the flag for it will change your stroke count coming into the wall before flipping over!!!
I love backstroke!!!
Donna
Reply
Former Member
I just had to jump in here. I like a lot of what geochuck has had to say. I have been a backstroker for about all of my swimming career.
Backstroke requires a great kick. I always had a 6 beat kick; 2 on the left side, 2 center, and 2 on the right. When my hand/arm enter the water over my head (position is 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock), my little finger enters first. In order to get the most out of the pulling portion, I rotate my hips so my pull is not to the side, but more underneath. As the pull starts to become the push, I am more on my side and my hand/forearm shove the water past my thigh thus creating great forward movement.
I also want to say here that there should be almost zero head movement. We used to practice a drill with goggles or coins placed on our forehead while we were swimming backstroke. Think of being a skewer and your body is the chicken roasting. Swimming quietly is key here.
Also, just for those old timers who might remember this, during the push phase by the thigh, on the shorter distances we would push downward which aids hip rotation. On the 200, we would change our hand position to the upward position and push upward. But I never could get the hang of that and found it to be of no benefit. Coaches "used" to say it helped with conserving energy. I couldn't get it to work for me. Ah, constant changes all the time.
A note for people new to backstroke: watch out for those backstroke flags in outdoor pools when the wind is blowing. Look at the line, not the flag for it will change your stroke count coming into the wall before flipping over!!!
I love backstroke!!!
Donna
