Seems most people use 6-beat for backstroke. When is the time to kick left leg? Is it when your left hand exits the water? I find the coordinations between kicks and hands/arms are even more crucial in backstroke than in freestyle. I can only do well on left side; the right side gets chaotic :(
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Former Member
I find BK pretty much requires a 6-beat kick, otherwise legs sink and the stroke gets "lurch-y" for lack of a real word to describe it.
This is why the end of a 200 BK lights your quads on fire. Even when you're saving your legs in a longer BK set or at the beginning of a race, shallower, less intense 6-beat kicking is needed to maintain tempo and form.
I'll also add that, as someone who returned to the sport about a year ago, only when I added moderate-to-high core-strength dryland about 6 months ago did my BK start to feel good again. My lower and upper halves seem connected. I anticipated core training to benefit my fly more than anything (and it certainly has), but backstroke is where I feel the greatest benefit.
I find BK pretty much requires a 6-beat kick, otherwise legs sink and the stroke gets "lurch-y" for lack of a real word to describe it.
This is why the end of a 200 BK lights your quads on fire. Even when you're saving your legs in a longer BK set or at the beginning of a race, shallower, less intense 6-beat kicking is needed to maintain tempo and form.
I'll also add that, as someone who returned to the sport about a year ago, only when I added moderate-to-high core-strength dryland about 6 months ago did my BK start to feel good again. My lower and upper halves seem connected. I anticipated core training to benefit my fly more than anything (and it certainly has), but backstroke is where I feel the greatest benefit.
