Trying to reacquaint myself with my backstroke, it seems to be the slowest to come along thus far in my comeback. From a couple angles here.
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I wasn't pushing pace at all, but I didn't feel like my stroke rate was quite as shockingly slow as the video shows - that's the first striking thing! Other things I see -
-Sloppy underwater: Too deep attack angle, too much kick amplitude, bad transition into flutter kick, feet too far apart
-Probably sculling down too far before flipping elbow. This could be a lot of my stroke rate issue.
-Looks like I might not be getting my shoulders all the way rotated around before hand entry?
-To the positive side I'm pretty happy with my body position and my flutter kick.
Anything else?
It's not any kind of race/fast pace at all - just some stretch it out 50s near the end of practice, trying to maintain a "normal" stroke and not look overly pretty compared to practice or race pace. Attempting to catch glitches at slower pace to make the fixes muscle memory for faster pace.
Great backstroke! Thanks for sharing this with us. You already pinpointed many of the issues you need to work on. I'd like to share one screenshot (below) that I think will highlight the issue of your transition from the right side to the left side. You'll need to work on this transition and the rotation that is inherent to this. Improving the backstroke will take time, but it's time well-spent and will pay off in the end. Good luck!
11454
There are two aspects of your backstroke that you might want to experiment with:
a) Pulling pattern of your right arm is quite different than the left arm. For the most part, the left arm pattern is good - elbow bend, depth, etc. The right arm pattern is more straight arm and deeper release. This will definitely slow tempo when you try to race. Making the right arm more like the left will help.
b) With your UDK, it looks like you might be emphasizing the kick in the upward direction (towards the surface). This results in the greater amplitude you see. Try focusing a bit more on the "downward" kick (towards the bottom). This means pressing the bottoms of your feet towards the bottom without much knee bend. Streamline dolphin kicking on your back on the surface can help you develop a better feel if you are not quite getting it. Less knee bend and more hip undulation might be another way to think of it.
I think that once you are able to refine the right arm, you will be able to increase your kick tempo. Right now, your kick has to slow down to stay connected to your arm tempo.
Good Luck.
PW
Hiya!
Your hips seem low in the water to me, possibly due to having "slowed down" your kick. Core is critical in the backstroke and maintaining horizontal body position through to the feet as well.
Do you have any video at a less relaxed speed that might belay my fears about kick frequency and core/body position?
Matt
a) Pulling pattern of your right arm is quite different than the left arm. For the most part, the left arm pattern is good - elbow bend, depth, etc. The right arm pattern is more straight arm and deeper release. This will definitely slow tempo when you try to race. Making the right arm more like the left will help.
This is definitely something I need to work on. My right shoulder is a bit weaker than my left, it's definitely a bit "worn out" from back near the end of my college career. Just need to more actively think about it.
Great backstroke! Thanks for sharing this with us. You already pinpointed many of the issues you need to work on. I'd like to share one screenshot (below) that I think will highlight the issue of your transition from the right side to the left side. You'll need to work on this transition and the rotation that is inherent to this. Improving the backstroke will take time, but it's time well-spent and will pay off in the end. Good luck!
I think I figured out something related to this - I've been swimming backstroke as more of a "front 1/4" stroke like freestyle, but the more I play with it recently, the more I think that is counterproductive and might be the cause of both the late rotation and slow stroke rate. I will work on this more.
Do you have any video at a less relaxed speed that might belay my fears about kick frequency and core/body position?
No, I should have plopped the camera down during some of my pace work today but I didn't think about it. I will try to get some next week.
Thanks for the input, guys!
