Help with back stroke timing

larrydk, Was thinking about you this morning during my swim and a couple of things came to mind to pass on: I mentioned not to be too worried about lack of ankle flexibility - I should qualify that statement. For a good backstroke kick, I suggest making sure the toes are turned inward so the big toes actually touch when passing each other. This orientation ensures max amount of surface area and keeps the knees from pointing outward and maximizes the ankle flex. As a speed skater, this is a different orientation than you are used to, right? Think duck footed. Second, I use speed skating (distance, not sprinting) when describing timing of the freestyle/backstroke. I suggest to swimmers that their lead arm should stay straight and out in front while the pulling arm finishes. I tell swimmers to visualize a skater who sets the lead skate and pushes off with the other foot and then the skater glides glides along the ice. Hope this description makes sense. When done well, the lead arm (by virtue of being way in front of the chest/head) makes it much easier to glide in the water while the other arm finishes and starts the recovery. It results is less drag and a feeling of easily gliding through the water. The final comment involves the pulling pattern. Sometimes backstrokers, because they can't see their hands, end up pushing water towards the bottom and don't even realize it. When this happens, the pull is almost straight arm and can negatively affect body alignment. When this happens, I tell them to make sure their thumb touches their side during the pull or to pull on the lane line. Neither of these will result in a technically good pull. However, they WILL help you know that your hand needs to be close to the surface instead of pushing water towards the bottom. Hope these help a bit. Paul

Thanks for this, and thanks for thinking about it! I like your comparison to skating. I recognized my duck feet were (and are) an issue, I've been training with two different fins that are supposed to "retrain" your feet to point in. The Aquasphere Alphafin (which I love because I can keep up with the really fast swimmers when wearing these) and the Finis PDF fins (which honestly are better, because they require much more work when using). I believe that my head position still is a huge issue as well as just building the core strength necessary to back stroke properly.....I'm going to get some video hopefully so I can see what's really going on and let this group help also. Thanks again.

Have you joined a Masters tea? Swim it like free only on your back. Yes, the hands/arms should be in opposition to each other