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Backstroke

Backstroke is a descriptive, if not terribly imaginative, term for any stroke that is performed on the back. In fact, US and International Swimming rules for backstroke state just that. As long as the swimmer's shoulders do not break the plane perpendicular to the waters surface at any time, anything goes. You might think that with such a broad definition of the stroke, one might see a number of different approaches to these events. However, over the years of competitive swimming a very distinctive way of moving through the water has emerged.

Test Yourself

Place the backs of your hands together. While leaving the backs of your hands together extend your arms until the insides of your elbows touch. If you can't do it, don't worry, most people cannot.

Those few of you who can, may have a talent at backstroke. Why is this? No one really knows. Some believe that the nature of the stroke allows doublejointed elbows to add an extra push at the end of the stroke. Others think that this backwards bend allows a better placement of the hand at the beginning of the stroke.

Having this particular "advantage" myself, I have developed my own theory. When you're making your first grab for the water at the top of your stroke, a backstroker has to rotate his shoulder down and arm back to get the first feel for the water, or catch. It is my opinion that the extra range of motion that a doublejointed backstroker has allows him a smoother and more extensive catch at the beginning of the stroke. A better catch, leads to a larger differential pressure on either side of the swimmer's hand, generating more power through the rest of the stroke. In other words, the doublejointed backstroker feels like he grabs more water.
Backstroke, being done, of course, on the back, requires a very specific body position. Lay on your back in the pool. If you're not naturally buoyant, then you may need to flutter kick a bit in order to stay afloat. You'll want to imagine a string from your navel reaching all the way to the ceiling holding your belly at the surface of the water. Your head should be tilted backwards so you can see up and back. You should be able to feel the waterline at the very top of your forehead. This body position is the foundation of backstroke. Swimmers who cannot maintain this body position while doing backstroke tend to drop their hips into the water and slow themselves down needlessly.

Backstroke is a rotational stroke, which means that while one side of the body is generating power to move the swimmer forward, the other side is in recovery. More precisely, though, it also means that shoulder roll is terribly important to efficient use of your arms in backstroke. While you're on your back in the water and you've achieved the body position detailed above, begin to flutter kick and roll your shoulders back and forth without letting your arms leave your sides. Now some people hear shoulder roll and think they need to go into a dance routine, but for a backstroker, shoulder roll means simply to bring one shoulder up towards the ceiling and the other down towards the bottom of the pool, then reversing the position. The shoulder that was down, then moves up while the shoulder that was up, moves down. Avoid shrugging. A swimmer whose shoulder roll involves too much shrugging will be seen to "snake" down the pool as they swim.

Now that we've established the foundation of the stroke, we can add the arms. Now if you've read my section on a "feel for the water" you know that swimmers use Bernuli's Principle of lift in order to move through the water, but when you're swimming, you don't really feel the differing pressures. You feel like you've got a ball of water and you're palming it through the stroke. Anytime you've dropped that ball, your hand will feel a shaking as your hand stalls. Avoid that feeling.

Each pulling motion, or full rotation of the arm, is usually broken down into four phases: the catch, the pull, the release, and the recovery. The foundation of a good pull is the catch. This is where you first find the water "ball" that you'll be using to propel yourself forward. In backstroke, the catch is performed by raising the arm over the head with the pinky finger entering the water first. The shoulder rotates downward allowing the arm to move straight down and the hand to start the first sculling motion of the stroke. It is here that the swimmer first catches the water "ball" that will be used for the entire stroke. I cannot impress enough the importance of a good catch. The water that you get at the beginning of the catch is the water you will be interacting with the entire stroke. The better you catch is, then, the more powerful and efficacious your whole stroke will be.

Now that you have your catch completed we can start using that water to move forward. Once you have your water "ball" at the top of your stroke, you will drop your elbow slightly in order to begin the pull. From this position, palm the water "ball" down towards the bottom of the pool until your hand is even with your shoulder. Next, rotate the "ball" up towards your hip. Once your hand is near your waist, you will reverse the curve of your pull and extend your arm down, straightening the elbow, finishing the stroke down by your thigh.

You will notice that from the start of this pull to the end, we have made a large "S" shape in the water with our hand. This is intentional. To provide the power we need, the hand must make a sculling motion through the entire stroke. While it may feel like we've got a ball of water palmed in our hand, never forget that we're using that water to fly forward. So once you've got the arm rotation of the stroke down, begin to pay attention to your wrist. It is far too easy, for instance to lose power in the middle of your stroke because you've stopped the sculling motion of your hand through your stroke because of the limits of shoulder and elbow range of motion. At these points of the stroke, the top, bottom, and middle sections of your "S" curve, you can be sure to maintain the power of your stroke by simply rotating your wrist a bit. This action keeps the "ball" of water under your control and keeps your stroke power high.

Once you've finished your stroke at your thigh, it's time to recover the arm for the next stroke. The "ball" of water that we've been using to move forward is now released. Since you're no longer using the water to your benefit with this arm, it needs to exit the water in the most streamlined manner possible. In backstroke, this is accomplished by raising the arm up in time with the shoulder rotation we covered earlier. The shoulder leads the arm up and out of the water and into the recovery phase of the cycle.

Backstroke Arm Recovery
Backstroke Arm Recovery


Simply put, recovery is when the swimmer gets the arm ready to be used again. In backstroke, the shoulder rotation leads the arm through the entire cycle and in recovery, the arm raises out of the water palm down and is rotated over the head with arms straight. The shoulder rotation at this point should place the arm back into the water over the head, with the pinky in the water first, ready to start our next pull.

Now I know you've probably read many depictions of strokes just like this and are still just as lost as you were before. Well here's how the stroke feels to me when I'm doing it well. My head and neck are isolated while the stroke moves about me. My back feels arched slightly, leaving my chest and stomach at the waters surface the entire time. My shoulders lead every element of my stroke. Each catch finds ample pressure to work with and that pressure on my hand is constant throughout the pull. I'm on a zipline attached to my chest, careening towards my attack on the wall at the other side of the pool.

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