Newbie question - backstroke "stroke"

Islandsox I did not always get sea sick this happened after about 5 years of swimming in the marathon races and I had not swum backstroke for 15 years. After the introduction of swimming goggles if I wear goggles when on my back I get violently ill. With all the chemicals in the pool you have to wear goggles to protect your eyes.

"be sure to kick with your arms over your head, hands clapsed together." Thanks -- that's a great tip. Like you, I've been drilling my kick on my back without the strokes a lot... but my instructor insists that I do it with my arms at my sides, which I've always found unnatural. I will DEFINITELY try it with my arms forward and clasped, as it makes a lot of sense and I think it'll feel better. Part of me wants to swim, swim, swim and get good at freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke and part of me wants to practice my kicking day and night until its perfect before I continue with the strokes. I find that when I get my body position and my kick/ankles just right, I can glide with ease without strokes... and when I get it wrong, no amount of strokes can save me. Therefore it seems to make sense to keep working on my kick, even if I do feel a bit dumb only adding in strokes once in a while. Incidentally I've never been taught breaststroke but I tried it today and I realized that I can "just do it". It's a completely natural stroke for me. Now of course I can't do it WELL, but it seems to be a great beginner stroke. The kick comes naturally to me. I don't put my head under when I do it... I just use it for short-distance maneuvering in the pool since backstroke is awkward for that purpose and I'm not much good on front crawl yet. Treading water is still totally impossible. I was in the deep end for a good twenty minutes experimenting with sculling, scissor kicks, bicycle kicks, egg beater kicks, and furious uncontrolled kicking. I had a life "belt" on, so it was hard to tell, but I didn't feel like I got any lift from ANY of those things.

Oh, I see now what you are saying about the seasickness. That is strange though that wearing goggles during backstroke has such an affect on you. But, like you said, it is imperative that we swim with goggles. In backstroke, they do keep the water out of the eyes and on sunny days, those dark ones sure do help!!! I didn't use clear or blue lenses until I gave up backstroke and starting swimming freestyle. Donna

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

Well I just had my first experience in a public pool during a 'fitness and rec' swim without my instructor. HOLY CRAP, it was a whole different ball game. There were EIGHT PEOPLE in the two lanes designated for recreation, and they were swimming LAPS. Slow laps, but laps. That meant I had no where to just practice floats or anything like that unless I stuck very close to the sides of the pool. I swam maybe four or five laps of backstroke myself -- not all at once -- but all of the turbulance in the water (I usually swim alone with my instructor) meant I got water in my eyes, nose, and mouth all the time. I can do a peaceful backstroke when I'm alone with my instructor... today, I felt anything BUT peaceful today with all the other swimmers. My first lap I went the wrong way down the lane and ran into some poor guy to whom I profusely apologized... the lifeguard subsequently told me which way to go =P Further, since I can't really swim straight when I add in my strokes, I was primarily just kicking, which was good practice, except that it was entirely too slow, even for the "rec" lanes. As I got more tired, it was harder to do proper kicks from a proper body position, and I got that awful feeling of kicking harder and harder and going slower and slower. That's when I decided to call it a day. I think I need to invest in my own pool. =( Oh well, I'll try the rec swim tomorrow...

I am sure happy a backstroker has come on because I get sea sick when I swim backstroke. It is not my favorite. The only thing was at the end or finish of the stroke our coach had us do a slight hand scull with the palm down. He said this gave the legs the lift. The other thing you should not clench your teeth relax the jaw. I like each shoulder to come out as you recover the arm so no water splashes on the arm before it enters the water. Just a note when kicking on the back in a crowd scull at you hips to help with bouyancy. Look at the ceiling to go straight.

Question: where's a good place (geochuck: in Ontario, Canada =)) to buy some goggles?

All the pools have stores and usually carry goggles. I used to buy mine when I lived in Hamilton at Kenneskies Sports. They used to make Goalie pads for the NHL. Any place that sells swim wear. I now live in BC but if you live in Ontario see if SWIMCO is there, they sell goggles. If you live in Kitchener http://www.aquagoggles.com/ Here are the listings for stoes that sell aqua spear gear they should all have swim gogles. www.aquasphereusa.com/.../canada_fr.html Costco has googles most of the time.

Alpha, When I swim backstroke I try to find a place in the ceiling to try to follow, even some of us backstrokers starting to swim again can wonder around the lane a bit, until we get back into the flow. Oh, try not to let your hand slap the water, the hand should enter pinky first. Try treading water next to the deep end or where you can still touch. This way if you get into trouble you can get to where you can touch bottom quickly. Oh, FYI no fog googles still fog, it was suggested to me on this board that before you get your googles wet, spit into them or some use no fog spray. I rub it all around the inside of the goggles, dip them under the water to wet the inside and put them on, don't take them off your head until your done, you can pull them up and rest them on the top of your head, but don't take them off, until your done swimming. I took mine off one time before I was done swimming, came back and they began to fog, lost the slime I guess.

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: