Drill to Eliminate Mistakes in Your Backstroke

There are aspects of backstroke technique that, if performed poorly, affect your ability to swim the stroke efficiently. Poor alignment means you’ll wiggle down the lane, and a poor catch means that you won’t have good power for your propulsion. 

The backstroke-entry position drill is a great way to fix several common problems in backstroke: 

• It helps train good alignment as you swim your backstroke. 
• It trains you to find a good catch position for an efficient pull. 
• It eliminates catching air as you begin your stroke, which creates lots of bubbles that reduce the thrust you're able to generate. 
• It eliminates the tendency to cross over on hand entry, which distorts body position greatly, increases drag, and wastes energy as you pull back out to the side.

To perform this drill:

• Push off the wall on your back and lift one arm above your head as your rotate onto that same side.
• Keep the other am next to your hip, which should be right at the surface of the water. 
• Keep the lead hand completely submerged and allow the other should to rise up out of the water. Relax the hand that’s by your hip.
• Kick gently and find that perfect, straight body alignment. Keep your spine straight with your head in line with the spine. 
• Once you’re in alignment, take three easy strokes and rotate to the other side and continue kicking on that side. Again, find that perfect balance point with strong alignment, keeping the core stabilized. 
• While performing this drill, keep the leading hand straight above your shoulder in the catch position, rather than letting it bend across above your head. 
• If your opposite shoulder is submerged, rotate more until your shoulder rises above the water’s surface. 
• Keep your body straight from the shoulders to the knees; don’t bent at the waist. 
• Keep your eyes aimed up—don’t look at your feet.
• Kick gently. This drill is not about working hard, it's about aligning yourself in a good position for the catch.

Use fins if you'd like, but the idea is to feel that you've got the proper body position, with complete spinal alignment from your head to your tailbone with the arm directly above the shoulder in the catch position, ready to begin an efficient pull.