The Backstroke Lane

...might try both block and gutter grab. Would appreciate some feedback on potential back issues. You could have someone time you to 10m and experiment with both the block start and the gutter start. When the coach suggested it I thought she was crazy but she insisted that a fair percentge of backstrokers, including some very good ones, are faster with the gutter start. Well we did the experiment and she was right! The average difference was about 0.3s for me, and none of my block starts were faster than even my slowest gutter start. We repeated the experiment a year later, the difference was smaller, but the qualitative result was the same.

Does anybody have a good video showing an effective gutter start? I would be interested to see it- and, copy it! I'm not a backstroker, but every once in awhile I race 50 backstroke for the heck of it. :D 2-19-12 - Kirkland, WA - 200 Back - YouTube Not good, but I do this when the walls or pads are extremely slippery (or playing around). I use a "normal" gutter start 90% of the time though. I don't really lift up at all at the signal, just prep for my explosion backward into my streamline and dolphin kick like mad. Here's another one I found, but it's from a distance: 11-20-11 Cheney, WA USA-S 200 Back - YouTube And a 3rd one, this one is better for a view of the start: 3-26-11 200 Back.mp4 - YouTube A 4th one, which shows my gutter start vs. That Guy's block start, and we are basically in the same position at the 25 meter point of the race, showing that the start position doesn't necessarily dictate the race: 6-12-11 200 LCM Back - Corvallis, OR - YouTube

Thanks James! :applaud: Great job on those starts, too! :cheerleader:

Thanks for those videos James.

Thanks James! :applaud: Great job on those starts, too! :cheerleader: Thanks for those videos James No problem! It's nice to be able to go back and see how I did at certain times of the year, or how I swam a certain race one year.

every once in awhile I race 50 backstroke for the heck of it. :D I raced 50 back for the heck of it on the weekend (first time in almost 25 years). My race goal was "don't be embarrassing" (my squad is very freestyle-based). To my astonishment, I swam a time that would have made the final in our state open swimming championships this year (it includes multi-disability events). Much to my frustration, I can only swim one day of this season's state champs (they inconveniently clash with paratriathlon nationals :bitching:). 50 back is not on the program for the day. 100 back is. Backstroke turn... help! :afraid:

Rio 2016 for paratriathlon? That's the plan. First stop, 2013 Paratriathlon World Championships in London. It's our first Australian Paratriathlon National Champs this year - we're quite a few years behind the UK, US and Canada that way. I didn't know the Paralympics were a thing as a teenage swimmer in the 80s - joined a club at 13, gave up 2 years later thinking I was crap. My 80s PBs are semi-crap by the standards of today, but looking at finals times from 1992 (when they switched to the current classification system), it seems I was one of the fastest in the world back then. We just weren't training like Paralympians do today (ie like elite athletes). You can only get so far in junior development squads, or segregated disability land, training 3 times a week. I do practically all my kick sets kicking on my back, which allows me plenty of practice with my backstroke turn. Maybe that would work, even though your squad is mostly freestyle based? And there's nothing to stop me swimming backstroke for part of a speed set. Very few people in my squad are interested in form strokes, but the coaches would get what I was doing (they saw that race and they can do the same calculation I did re state champs - they've trained other people to the Paralympics in swimming, so the multi-disability race stuff makes sense to them).

Much to my frustration, I can only swim one day of this season's state champs (they inconveniently clash with paratriathlon nationals :bitching:). 50 back is not on the program for the day. 100 back is. Backstroke turn... help! :afraid: Bummer! Rio 2016 for paratriathlon? I do practically all my kick sets kicking on my back, which allows me plenty of practice with my backstroke turn. Maybe that would work, even though your squad is mostly freestyle based?

Hey folks, Back in the day, I was a backstroker and butterflier. Used to be mid 50s for both 100s and in the 2:00-2:05 ballpark for the 200s. After a good while out of the water, I started swimming again last summer. My backstroke was horrible all last short course season (swam the 100 back twice, with the first time being a 1:11 and the second, at the end of the season, being a high 1:06). Since May, I've spent quite a bit of practice time working solely on my backstroke, trying to get my technique and speed/power back to an approximation of what it used to be. On top of that, I've spent a good deal of time with one of the other coaches on my team, working one on one with her to have someone improve my back. Could y'all take a look at this video of my 100 back from the end of October My 100 back - Sprint Classic at GMU - 10/28/12 - YouTube (I'm the one with the tattoos)? Since September, I've dropped down to a 1:02 from that high 1:06 in the 100 and am aiming for a ~:58 in the 100 at Nats. My technique has come a long way since last season, but I've still got plenty to work on. From the video, here's what I see, and I'd like to hear what y'all think, too. -My flip speed is pretty pokey. That's something I've been working on since that meet, so I'm pretty confident that it's faster now. -I need to continue working on my SDK--I'd like to eke more out of it at the 50 and 75 turns. I used to hit the 12.5 off my turns consistently back in the day and would like to work back out to that point. -I can't tell how good my flutter kick actually is. Since I rotate at the hips, my feet spend most of the time pointing everywhere but up. When I'm doing flutter kick on my back in practice, I've got a fairly powerful kick, but I can't tell how well that translates to actually swimming back. -My head naturally sits pretty far back in the water. My coach from 10 years ago had me curl my head forward almost to the point where my chin was on my chest and that helped back then, but I'm currently having problems remembering to do that consistently while racing. -I think I still need to work on my catch. This was one of the main things that was wrong back in the spring--I had a garbage catch back then and I've made big strides since then, but I can't help but think I could still catch and push more water than I am now, and more efficiently, too. Whatcha think?

Hey folks, Whatcha think? Seems like you are making improvements with both your technique and time drops. Overall it looks like a solid swim to me. Your body position looks neutral and your head relaxed, things I have to work on due to the extra pounds I'm lugging around these days. The only technique thing that I can see is with your left arm, looks like it is crossing the mid-line of your body. Maybe feel out your body rotation to see if it is consistent on both sides. You might be kicking too fast, so work on pointing your toes and tilting your pelvis up. Keep working those skd's (I have followed Ande and other's advice about having a set number of sdk's off each wall) and your underwaters will really make a difference in speed. Keep up the good work! :cheerleader: