Level: beginner
Unlike the other three competitive swim strokes, the backstroke is the only one swum on your back for the entire race. This means that a good sense of direction is important as well as coordination.
Historical overview
Nobody really knows how the backstroke came into being; it was only introduced into competitions in 1906 and was swum with one synchronised backward rotation of both arms with a breaststroke leg kick until 1914.
Body
Keep your body straight with your legs slightly lower than your upper body, so that they can work properly. It is important to keep your body rolling around the horizontal axis while swimming the backstroke to ensure the right arm movement.
Legs
The leg kick is very similar to the freestyle, an alternating fluttering movement with your knees bent and feet pointed. The legs serve two purposes:
- Stability: they help you keep a good buoyant position in the water, counterbalancing the lateral-negative action of the arms
- Propulsion: they provide more forward propulsion than the leg kick for the crawl.
Arms
The arms contribute most of the forward motion as they sweep backwards in two phases:
- The power phase: this is when the arms work underwater in an extended-flexed-extended sequence. The edge of the back…
