The backstroke is the strangest stroke for an amateur swimmer because you “go backwards” and you cannot see where you are going. Sometimes we do not pay attention to the reference points on the ceilings of swimming pools.
That’s right! Because the ceilings are full of marks to help you swim straight – or at least try to – and the flags placed 5 meters from each end of the pool are also there to let us know we are about to finish (or make a turn).
The backstroke can be broken down into two phases: catch/pull and thrust. It is an unbroken cyclic movement. Rotating the shoulders is also vitally important.
As you can see, the session is divided up as follows: warmup (300), steady swim (200) plus drills, main session (5×50+8×50), warm-down (100). Always follow this basic routine.
As we have already suggested, we advise you do some simple stretching exercises (we will look at them in another article), particularly for your shoulders, before beginning your warmup.
Enjoy your training… going backward!