As a swimmer, I loved all things backstroke. I even took to the underwater craze as Jeff Rouse introduced it to the world in 1992....almost liked it too much and had the DQ slips to prove it. But backstroke came so naturally for me as a swimmer, I struggled as a coach to teach and coach it up. I couldn't identify with bad body position, inability to sink my hand down, or the problem of overreaching. I was searching for ways to simplify the stroke and maximize the efficiency. I have focused on three different keys to teaching backstroke to younger swimmers:
1.) HEAD POSITION: I always tell my swimmers that the most important thing they could do for backstroke is have good head position, because the body follows the head. Good head position=better body position. So I always tell them to keep their heads back and their heads still. We have a few things we do to exaggerate this concept, but the most useful thing we do is to drill while having their goggles resting (unstrapped on the head) on their foreheads. This forces them to keep their heads back and still. Some kids find a way to angle their goggles on their head to where it won't fall off if their heads are too far out of the water, but I typically can see that and let them know to get their heads back more. We have drilled up to an hour doing exactly this.
2.) PROPER KICK: My coach used to say that backstroke was 70% legs and I wholeheartedly agree. But I see too many swimmers that hinge their kicks from their knees, limiting the power they have with their kick. I stress the importance of kicking from their hips as opposed to their knees. We do alot of posture/streamline kicking with fins, both to teach and work underwater work (that's another blog post entirely) as well as to ease into strengthening the hip flexor muscles that take time to develop.
3.) DRIVING SHOULDERS: I tell my kids that backstroke was misnamed and should have been named sidestroke because if swimmers swam with their bodies flat, they wouldn't be nearly as fast. So a lot of our backstroke drills emphasize shoulders, then thumb exiting the water first, then driving our shoulders and pinkies towards the bottom of the pool as it enters. We have a drill sequence that I call "Build-A-Backstroke" that accentuates this exact thought process.
I'm curious to see what focus points other coaches use and how they apply the concept to their swimmers strokes. These are the big three for me. Have a great day!
