Dear fellow swimmers
So you want to swim backstroke?
I received an email from a reader last week asking for advice on backstroke. She loves to swim
backstroke while watching the clouds and birds.
“It feels like a stroll after running practice,” she says. And could I advise on some gear and basic training?
Backstroke is perfect for relaxing and admiring the
sky, whether it’s clouds, a full moon or a sunrise. It’s also relaxing and great to kickstart your recovery if you’ve done a long front crawl swim. Some swimmers talk about “unwinding their shoulders”.
I’m partial to backstroke as it was the stroke I raced as a child, although I prefer to race front crawl now.
Waving or drowning? Or swimming backstroke?
But backstroke has a problem in open water. In events and at some venues, it’s not permitted. The reason: if you get into trouble while swimming, you’re asked to roll onto your back, float, and wave your arms for
attention. Swimming backstroke may distract the safety team from rescuing someone who might actually need rescuing.
Second, it’s harder to navigate on backstroke.
That said, backstroke is one of the four
recognised competitive strokes for pool racing and several people have swum across the English Channel using backstroke. It’s a legitimate and pleasant stroke to swim, so how do you go about it in open water?
Read the rest of this article here – including tips on backstroke technique and navigation on our website.
