What causes the most propulsion in backstroke--arms or kicks

Such questions are very misleading, in backstroke or any other stroke. The reason is that arms and legs are not independent of one another. For example, in backstroke my kick helps my rotation and keeps me high in the water, giving my arms better leverage for the pull.

backstroke propulsion comes mostly from the arms when SWIMMING backstroke, not sure what the percentages are, but kicking is very important. maybe 60 - 70% arms 30 - 40% legs kicking is critical especially SDK Is it possible to be fast (not the fastest) while being weak in one or the other? Not really

Some say in backstroke propulsion comes mostly from the arm movement, while others say kicking is the most important. What do you think? Is it possible to be fast (not the fastest) while being weak in one or the other? Well, provided that most of backstroke these days is underwater SDK I would say legs and then arms once on top of the water.

Well, provided that most of backstroke these days is underwater SDK I would say legs and then arms once on top of the water. OK, by "kick" I meant flutter kick. :)

Such questions are very misleading, in backstroke or any other stroke. The reason is that arms and legs are not independent of one another. For example, in backstroke my kick helps my rotation and keeps me high in the water, giving my arms better leverage for the pull. Exactly. I just took his question as to which (arm/legs) provides the most propulsion in general. You really can't have one without the other.

The reason I post this was that I am a very poor kicker, almost don't kick at all in backstroke or freestyle. The few kicks I make are just for balancing purpose. But I can swim in reasonable speed and faster than many who kick much more. I'm sure if I improve my kicks I'll be even faster.

One could probably measure or estimate the force produced by arms and legs during the backstroke swim, and I would bet you'd come up with pretty low numbers for the legs, maybe 15-20% of the arms. But that's deceiving. I know that if I tried the following two expts: -- tape ankles together and swim 100 back with no UW dolphins (ie, arms only) -- tape wrists together in a streamline position and do 100 back kick, dolphin allowed (legs only) I would be much faster in the second 100. Bottom line, though: work on both.

Ideally you can't swim a good backstroke without a steady kick. It's 6 beats all the way. (The kick isn't providing a huge amount of propulsion so much as it offers leverage and side to side rotation.) But to counter that comment, if it weren't for the 15 meter rule...here's a college swimmer who almost broke :47 for the 100 while just dolphin kicking:swim-links.blogspot.com/.../hill-taylor-100yd-underwater-dolphin.html

-- tape wrists together in a streamline position and do 100 back kick, dolphin allowed (legs only) What if dolphin not allowed, only flutter kicks? :rolleyes:

I tried doing four dolphins kicks off each turn in 2009, and I was going slower in my backstroke races. I was better off flutter kicking for a little bit off each turn and then surfacing about seven or eight yards from the wall, similar to my freestyle turn. I do four dolphin kicks off the start, only to help me get to the surface. I've been working on a shallower start, but it's slower at the moment.