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.
I don't much like backstroke but I think double arm backstroke is a decent drill for concentrating on the acceleration past your hips at the end of the stroke. When I was coaching age-groupers, I looked at drills as a tool to concentrate on certain aspects of stroke improvement and also as something different that helps develop general coordination in the water. And it can be fun.
Actually, anything that makes a swimmer slow down and THINK about what they are doing is a little bit helpful, IMO. If double arm backstroke hurts your shoulder or irritates you, don't do it.
I don't much like backstroke but I think double arm backstroke is a decent drill for concentrating on the acceleration past your hips at the end of the stroke. When I was coaching age-groupers, I looked at drills as a tool to concentrate on certain aspects of stroke improvement and also as something different that helps develop general coordination in the water. And it can be fun.
Actually, anything that makes a swimmer slow down and THINK about what they are doing is a little bit helpful, IMO. If double arm backstroke hurts your shoulder or irritates you, don't do it.
