The Backstroke Lane

I have troube with getting equal hip rotation. My coach says that I do a good job of rotating to the left side, which provides me with a catch that is deep enough, but not too deep to be effective. He says that I don't rotate much to the right side, which is causing me to catch and pull right near the surface. Any advice on how to get my rotation equal on both sides?

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? Send me your email. I'll email you the list of videos I've watched from YouTube in the last year. There's a bunch of them. Better than any advice an old guy like me can give you.

I have troube with getting equal hip rotation. My coach says that I do a good job of rotating to the left side, which provides me with a catch that is deep enough, but not too deep to be effective. He says that I don't rotate much to the right side, which is causing me to catch and pull right near the surface. Any advice on how to get my rotation equal on both sides? Wookie, this is a similar problem to what I had in the spring, except I was pulling too deep on the right side and too shallow on the left. I did a lot of paddle work--wearing paddles, take very slow strokes and follow the paddles with my eyes. That allowed me to see where my hands were entering, where I was making the catch (or, back then, not making the catch on the left side), and how deep I was pulling. The paddles also helped with figuring out how to make a good catch. From there, once I was able to see how shallow and ineffective my left pull was, I was able to do the same drill while overemphasizing the roll to that side. After several days of that, I was able to focus on rotating sans paddles. The first few weeks, it felt like I was having to overrotate to the left just to balance out the stroke, but now it feels pretty natural, and I don't *think* I overrotate to the right anymore.

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: Thanks! I used to cross over like crazy with both arms, and it's something I have to focus on to keep from doing during a swim. Unfortunately, my mind is usually preoccupied with trying to get enough oxygen (oddly, I have no problem doing underwater 50s, but put me in a backstroke race and I start to go into oxy dep), not cramping, trying to keep my head tilted forward, and not dying, so I start to crossover from time to time. I've really been working on the SDK and will continue to work heavily on them through Nats.

Habu, Thanks for the tips. You mentioned that you had a coach that told you to swim with your chin almost touching your chest? Did I read that correctly? Seems like that would make your neck muscles tight and breathing very difficult for you. That's correct--the coach told me to swim with my chin almost touching my chest. With how I float in the water, when my head is in the neutral position, I've got water constantly washing over my face on backstroke. Back in highschool, I was plateaued at 1:00 in my 100 back for about an entire season. Both of my coaches threw pretty much everything in the book at me, trying to get me to break that plateau, but nothing worked. One of them finally told me to curl my head forward and sit up more in the water. The next meet, I dropped about half a second in the 100. It's never been a source of breathing difficulty for me, though. Yes, it is easier to breathe with my head in the neutral position (well, ignoring the water that is constantly washing over my face), but it isn't markedly difficult to breathe with it tilted forward. It doesn't especially feel like my neck muscles are tight, although I've had my current coach (the one who gave me lessons all summer) point out several times that she can see how tight they are. On a slightly different note, I've always been mystified that the elite backstrokes are able to swim with their foreheads so high out of the water while their necks are relaxed, since that is impossible for me, haha.

Wookie, this is a similar problem to what I had in the spring, except I was pulling too deep on the right side and too shallow on the left. I did a lot of paddle work--wearing paddles, take very slow strokes and follow the paddles with my eyes. That allowed me to see where my hands were entering, where I was making the catch (or, back then, not making the catch on the left side), and how deep I was pulling. The paddles also helped with figuring out how to make a good catch. From there, once I was able to see how shallow and ineffective my left pull was, I was able to do the same drill while overemphasizing the roll to that side. After several days of that, I was able to focus on rotating sans paddles. The first few weeks, it felt like I was having to overrotate to the left just to balance out the stroke, but now it feels pretty natural, and I don't *think* I overrotate to the right anymore. Habu, Thanks for the tips. You mentioned that you had a coach that told you to swim with your chin almost touching your chest? Did I read that correctly? Seems like that would make your neck muscles tight and breathing very difficult for you.

From the USMS web site. New www.usms.org/.../articledisplay.php

Hey, Backstrokers! I am working on improving my 400 IM and would like to receive some constructive criticism on my backstroke technique. I would appreciate it very much if you would check out these videos and let me know your thoughts: http://youtu.be/NqQ38Fn9CQI (Side view) http://youtu.be/5FWmu-wErwg (Front view) Thank you very much and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR! :chug:

Pleeeeease? :bouncing: I really have been working hard on my backstroke :agree: because I would also like to improve my 50, in addition to my 400 IM. Backstroke used to be my worst (and slowest) stroke and I am finally swimming it faster than my breaststroke. I have two more videos from today and would be interested in your feedback. There are no starting blocks at my community pool, so I did my best to duplicate a backstroke start. Should my SDK (if you can call it that :rolleyes: ) be narrower kicks or is it ok; just not powerful enough? What improvements need to be made on my stroke? I have a developmental meet on Saturday and will attempt to race the 50 backstroke, following my 200 breaststroke :drowning:. I will also be swimming the 100 backstroke, in an upcoming meet at Auburn, as an extra event; one I have never attempted. So, any last minute advice would be most appreciated! Quicksilver? Wookiee?? Swimosaur?? ANYBODY?? :whiteflag: www.youtube.com/watch (Underwater view of start) www.youtube.com/watch "race". On this one, I know my start comes almost to a dead stop before I surface. It was my 9th start- at the end of my workout- and I had to really muster up the energy to get it into gear and keep moving!) Thank you very much! :smooch:

Sorry, Elaine, I can't comment on your backstroke videos. Can't see them here at work. Your comment to the thread reminded me that I have a question about backstroke starts. I swam in a local meet a week ago, 100fr, 100bk, 50fr, 50bk, in that order. I swam a SCM meet back in October, and just down-converted my times to SCY to get seed times for this meet. I've been pleased at the (apparent) progress I've been making with backstroke in practice, and thought this meet would be a good test to see if I could capture that in a race setting. My first three swims were in lane 5, the last in lane 4. (This is significant.) I hopped in for the 100bk got set, and .... EPIC FAIL .... the pad felt like it had oil on it. I slipped badly and basically had to start from a dead stop. Needless to say, I didn't beat my seed time in the 100. The time came for the 50bk and I was seriously considering just pushing off from the wall. When I hopped in though and brought my feet up, the pad in this lane (4) felt much stickier, so I did a normal backstroke start, had no trouble, and did, in fact, beat my seed time. Here's the question: Should I have said something to the meet officials about the pad in lane 5? I'm not a very experienced meet swimmer. I had no idea if the pad in lane 4 would have been as slippery as the one in lane 5 until I got in for the 50, so I figured initially that was the way it was supposed to be and I was just a doofus for not being able to get off to a clean start. (I had no problems with the pads in the SCM meet - a different pool). What's the proper protocol here? Skip