Last week, while I was concentrating on freestyle, I did bleed into some backstroke. The main reason was because of my frustration of watching these young swimmers kick.
The flutter kicks were inconsistent, and lacked downward propulsion on the finish of the flutter kick.
We have done some streamline work, so I had them do some backstroke kick in streamline. I believe there is no reason to have them kick with hands to their side, as you'll be teaching them body position and buoyancy with a different center of buoyancy than when they actually swim backstroke. When the hands shift to above their head, then you move their center of buoyancy. This is the position the need to learn how to float. If they swim backstroke with a center of gravity with their hands down, it is develop buoyancy for a backstroke that has the hands down to their side, and the will swim one arm stroke until both arms are back to their sides and then an arm stroke with the other arm. We have all seen this stroke. They have develop knowledge of how to float with this center of gravity, so they use this backstroke technique to be able to use that buoyancy method in their backstroke. Teach back kick with arms above head!
Eyes dry; chest up; belly button out of the water; and always boiling water at your toes. These are what I was yelling at them throughout their 25's of backstroke kick. This begins to build the leg muscle to finish through the downward portion of the freestyle kick, as well the feeling of pushing water with the top portion of the foot.
I think next week will have a plenty of this backstroke kick on back, as we have to get this flutter kick better in the Green and White groups for their success now, but mainly for their long term success in the sport, as I believe the kick is the foundation of good strokes and fast swimming.
No comments:
Post a Comment