Of the four strokes I’m really struggling with my backstroke. Not concerned about times, more so just a sense of comfort & fluidity in the water. I only tell myself three simple things: 1. quick recovery (get that arm up there, fast); 2. long straight arm on entry, rotate the shoulders; 3. little finger enters the water first. Obviously this is pretty basic stuff , and I think I’m doing well in that respect (as well as my arm action under the water). Where I feel I’m struggling is with the kick (feet are all over the place, can’t get a consistent beat going) and my breathing (lots of water up the nose, very rushed, no rythmn). Re the kick, I’m pretty week in that dept, laughable in fact during kick drills. I typically use a two-beat for freestyle, don’t get a lot of propulsion but at least it’s fluid & keeps me balanced. So what tips can the Fishtwitchers offer a struggling backstroker? FWIW I’m reasonable in the water otherwise…a 30min HIM swimmer, pretty solid breaststroke, happy with my fly. Any advice would be appreciated…TIA
There are some drills in this video you can try: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAt89iGyBpE
Good Luck!
V
It is always hard to say without seeing the stroke, but here are my experiences with problem backstrokes. Body position - a real tendency to let the hips sink. You need to make sure your hips are at the sruface of the water and your kick is near the surface Weak core - This is probably where your kick is having trouble. The kick needs to come from the hip, and the core needs to be strong to keep the body position. I find fins help this a lot. Improper rotation - the roation does not come from the shoulder, but rather the hip, just like in freestyle. Again though, you need a strong core to generate this roll and keep you from snaking through the water.
I would focus on some kick drills and one arm drills, using fins until you get yourself stabilized in the water.
Hope this helps.
As far as kick goes, you can’t get away with poor technique on backstroke like you can with freestyle since it actually plays something of a propulsive role in that stroke. The solution there is to do your kicking sets on your back, arms streamlined above your head. Kicking that way forces you to eliminate any bicycle kick actions and discourages you from kicking from the knee, and you’ll learn some lessons about kicking from the hips and ankles.
One problem someone from a run background might have is that ankle flexibility is an issue here even more than it is on free. You should be kicking with a nice relaxed toe point in order to have correct foot/lower leg position in the water.
Once you get the kick under control, it’s going to be easier to get your arms doing what they need to do. There’s a good chance that the emphasis on quick recovery is screwing up your timing. Unlike freestyle, backstroke is something of a rear quadrant stroke. Relax the recovery arm so that it’s somewhat opposite what the pulling arm is doing.
Relaxing the arms on recovery has a good chance of cutting down on the splash, which will help on the breathing. Also, think about timing your breathing so that you’re, say inhaling on the left stroke and exhaling on the right side just like you can breathe every two on freestyle.
That’s good advice, jriosa and FLA jill.
Another tool you can use is to practise kicking on your back, with your arms stretched out in front of you. This is quite a hydronamic position, so you can go at a reasonable pace, even with a poor kick. If this is too tough, try kicking on your back with a kick board clutched at your chest/stomach - but the former is a much better way to do things.
When practising your kick, try to use your glutes and hip flexors. Keep your ankles loose and let your knees bend a little but not too much. Don’t tense your calves, this is a common mistake. Flutter kick with nice relaxed beats, nothing to hard, just try to get the right muscle working. Flexibility is less of an issue with backcrawl kick, but keep stretching your ankles.
Try to use your kick to initiate your core rotation (easier said than done, it will take time).
Hey guys, thanks for the advice! I appreciate it.
Re the drills…I’m actually doing a lot of that at the moment, kick drills on my back, sides, front with arms out stretched, fly kick, etc and concentrating on kicking from the core…a little piece of Doug Stern advice I’ll never forget. But hey, I only started experimenting again with the other strokes, drills, fins etc maybe two months ago (I swam a bit in my childhood, poorly), this after a year of slogging away with long freestyle sets…I know, don’t start 
So perhaps I’m on the right track, just need to give it more time.
Is there a beat to the kick that you could recommend? Or don’t bother until I can develop more propulsion? I’ll try relaxing a bit more on the recovery, and use that tip on breathing rythmn (seems so simple!)…I think that’ll help…it is indeed the splash which gives me problems.
Thanks again everyone…