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?
Parents
Former Member
Geochuck: Seasick? There must be an awful lot of body movement or head movement going on (LOL).
Alphatree: 8 people in two lanes is 6 people too many!!! No wonder you had such a "wonderful" experience.
Because I live on an island and there is no such thing as goggles here, I use the website pureblueswim.com and order all my swim goodies from them. My favorite goggles are Racetech by Tyr ($9).
I want to mention that because backstroke requires a tremendous kick, I always used the red zoomers because they develop great hamstring strength and foot flexibility. I probably spent more time kicking than swimming backstroke. Thousands of yards. My Masters swim coach would actually give me a lane to myself twice a week and I would kick for one hour straight.
And just to throw this in, be sure to kick with your arms over your head, hands clapsed together. What this does is promote proper body position and it lifts your diagraphram up slightly reducing air volumes in your lungs. After all, when you swim backstroke, your arms are constantly moving over your head and the air volumes are decreasing because of it. Might as well get accustomed to this. And secondly, you know you are kicking incorrectly if your knees are breaking the water surface--that's a no-no.
I still love Backstroke!!!
Donna:groovy:
Geochuck: Seasick? There must be an awful lot of body movement or head movement going on (LOL).
Alphatree: 8 people in two lanes is 6 people too many!!! No wonder you had such a "wonderful" experience.
Because I live on an island and there is no such thing as goggles here, I use the website pureblueswim.com and order all my swim goodies from them. My favorite goggles are Racetech by Tyr ($9).
I want to mention that because backstroke requires a tremendous kick, I always used the red zoomers because they develop great hamstring strength and foot flexibility. I probably spent more time kicking than swimming backstroke. Thousands of yards. My Masters swim coach would actually give me a lane to myself twice a week and I would kick for one hour straight.
And just to throw this in, be sure to kick with your arms over your head, hands clapsed together. What this does is promote proper body position and it lifts your diagraphram up slightly reducing air volumes in your lungs. After all, when you swim backstroke, your arms are constantly moving over your head and the air volumes are decreasing because of it. Might as well get accustomed to this. And secondly, you know you are kicking incorrectly if your knees are breaking the water surface--that's a no-no.
I still love Backstroke!!!
Donna:groovy:
