How to drop time in the 100 backstroke?

Posted by admin on 12/17/2011

Hi,I did the following:

Question: How to drop time in the 100 backstroke?
I’m having a lot of trouble dropping time in my 100 backstroke. The regional qualifying time this year is a 1:12.49 for 2A high school women. I’m only a sophomore but I really want to make it and our last meet is in about two months. I currently swim a 1:23 as embarrassing as that is. Over the summer I swam it way faster by I haven’t been able to shave off any time since then. How can I achieve my goal? Please provide any helpful practices, dry land workouts, technique tips, and race plans. Thank you!

The following is the answer:

Answer by dancergirlie
practice, practice, practice!! i swim about the same time as you, give or take a second. Make sure you have a nice clean start, clean turns and good form. Believe me i have to practice those myself. make sure one arm is out of the water and under the water at the same time, and just keep that form going, almost like a windmill.

Answer by Kayla B
oh wow im like 50s well anywho kick kick as fast u can do the fastest flip turn ever just got not to fast untill ur last lap

Answer by Corey G
KICK KICK KICK

Answer by tonyfeng12
Contrary to what many say, the kick in backstroke is actually one of the most fundamental abilities. You need to make sure that you have a 6-beat kick in such a short distance as well as kick off the walls (dolphin kick) at least 8ish meters. Ideally, you want to be getting 15m off each wall, but I realize that’s a bit of a stretch at your level.

So to begin training for the 100 back, I recommend you do plenty of kick sets. However, you shouldn’t do these streamlined; do them with rotation. Keep your arms by your side and after each 3 kicks, switch to the other side. This will build a habit of doing 3 kicks and then rotating, which is a necessity to good backstroking.

After doing that, it’s time to work on underwater dolphin kicking. I recommend practicing holding your breath when you kick, rather than blowing it out. Try to cover your nose with your mouth, or wear noseplugs. Trust me, it helps a great deal. After doing that, you need to find the ideal amplitude and frequency for your dolphin kick. Begin by kicking large kicks and after you have the large kicks down, you want to try and kick them as fast as you can. When you do this, it’s likely that you won’t be able to keep the same large kicks, but you should try to make it as large and fast as possible. You also need to be generating lots of power from your hips and flicking your ankles a lot.

And last, you should do some work on your arms. You need to be able to catch lots of water and time your strokes with your rotation properly. Make the most of your rotation to generate power, but still make sure you can swim quickly. My coach has me do one-arm backstroke with large kick; it really helps my backstroke sprints.

Good luck improving! Feel free to fill me in on your improvement

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