Can anyone tell me a positive reason for doing a double arm backstroke drill? The only thing it seems to be good at for me is hurting my shoulders, so I refuse to do it. When I think about it, I can't come up with any reason why this drill would do you any good anyway. In real backstroke, you are supposed to roll your body from side to side, right? That's a key part of the stroke. When doing a double arm recovery, you can't roll at all. So what is the point?
Whenever a coach assigns this, I just quietly do something else. If they were to try to "encourage" me to do it anyway, I'd tell them what they could do with that idea.
The drill helps some people correct some of their backstroke flaws:
- Some swimmers benefit as it helps them 'feel' and improve the early catch;
- It helps some swimmers better 'feel' the correct hand entry, helping them correct their tendency to enter the hand across the center line;
- It helps some people 'feel' the right neck, back and hip positiion and correct problems of 'posture.'
- It helps some people 'feel' how to maintain a steady kick on their back.
The drill helps some people correct some of their backstroke flaws:
- Some swimmers benefit as it helps them 'feel' and improve the early catch;
- It helps some swimmers better 'feel' the correct hand entry, helping them correct their tendency to enter the hand across the center line;
- It helps some people 'feel' the right neck, back and hip positiion and correct problems of 'posture.'
- It helps some people 'feel' how to maintain a steady kick on their back.
