Backwards Freestyle and Corkscrew

I remember doing backwards freestyle when I was a club swimmer. I enjoyed it, and I thought it was kind of cool to do. I use backwards freestyle now with my swimmers. Some of them pick up on it quick, where as other it takes time. When I began this with much younger swimmers (ages around 7 - 10) it was for the purpose of just having fun by still doing a swimming activity (I always tried to make swim-like activities fun, and not as much games, as I would eventually want them to enjoy the training and developing as a swimmer).

Why Backwards Freestyle? It focuses on body position and stabilizing the body to be inline. Legs need to stay together and so do feet with toes pointed. The swimmers must "lean on the lungs" to stay afloat better because there is no kick to propel you to assist the body on the surface. The core muscles must stay activated to prevent a bend in the body to help the body flow through the water with a low amount of resistance. This body positioning and activating of the core muscles will help the swimmer realize good body position. If the body bends or the hips sway side to side, they are not keeping the core activated as the bend is occurring at the core. If the legs are sinking the are balancing on the normal center of gravity, and not on the center of buoyancy while in a liquid medium.

The arm motion is purely recognition of what is forward and backwards. It also allows the swimmer to work on catching water and pushing against it. Since the kick becomes a negative force in the stroke, ability to push water with the arms is the only form of positive movement, thus to be good at this drill you must have a good feel for the water.

Forget about breathing. There is no really good spot to breathe, so I really just tell them to breathe in the most comfortable spot. I have thought about using snorkels to just take that aspect out of the equation all together.

The Corkscrew is very widely used as a way to do a fun lap in practice. Kids like it, and they all like the idea of getting a little dizzy in the stroke. This is another activity that I use to avoid just games (I also really like relays). To do the corkscrew really well, a swimmer must be able to to effective rotate in at least one direction (I have done it where I told them which arm is freestyle and which is backstroke and made them change directions, talk about getting them dizzy). If the core muscles stay activated the corkscrew can be done very effectively and quickly. If the core remains relaxed you will see the corkscrew go every which way, as the hips are now all over the place.

For my summer league, I do corkscrew as I want them to get use to the motion. It makes it easier when backstroke flip turn day comes around, and you have them corkscrew into a front flip. They enjoy corkscrew and recognize the motion that it normally makes it easier to instruct the turn.

Like I've said, I am not good at games. I do them on occasion, but I try to come up with stuff that can be fun while in the format of swim practicing. These are two things that I use to accomplish that. They are also fun things that can help the swimmer develop swimming skills and basics.