Hey guys, welcome to this week's video from Propulsion Swimming. I'm Scott and
in this week's video we are back in the swimming pool taking a look
at our three favourite drills to help improve your backstroke body rotation.
Body position is hugely important to the stroke of backstroke, that's because the
rotation itself puts your arm pull and body in a stronger and more effective position
to perform the underwater pull phase of the stroke. By having a good body rotation in your
backstroke stroke, you will enable yourself to use the bigger and stronger muscles in your back
which will increase your propulsion through the water. One of the most important elements
of backstroke rotation is making sure that your shoulders and hips rotate together
simultaneously. Rotation helps to drive the tempo of your arms. If there's even
the slightest discrepancy in the timing of your rotation it's likely to decrease
the efficiency of your stroke. Now there's a few things that you can do to help improve
your overall backstroke technique, and we've chosen three drills that will specifically
enhance it the most, especially when it comes to improving your body rotation and timing.
Rotator kick is a drill that puts full focus on your body position and body rotation in backstroke
and we feel it isn't fully utilized by teachers and coaches. It's a great drill to perfect the
correct body roll required for backstroke and is especially important when we start adding arms to
later, more progressive drills. To do it all you have to do is lie on your back keeping both arms
by your side and maintain a straight head position whilst rotating your body side to side trying to
bring your shoulders and hips out of the water. You should rotate at a steady rate so it isn't
rushed and your body can get used to being in the right position before you rotate back onto the
other side. Rotator kick does require a strong six beat leg kick and a fair amount of core stability
to remain balanced in the water. A main thing to keep in mind is that whenever swimming backstroke
you should try to keep your head perfectly still looking straight up towards the ceiling. Some
swimmers try to concentrate so much on rotating their body in this drill that their head can also
rotate at the same time. Try to maintain a still head for the full duration of this drill. Once you
feel confident enough that your body is rolling and rotating effectively, the next drill you can
do to improve your backstroke is Human Drill. Human Drill is a great way to improve your body
rotation and combine it with the underwater pull phase of the stroke. It's a progressive drill that
follows on from rotator kick quite nicely as all of the body rotation elements are much the
same. It's just that you're now adding a further focus on top of that to look at your arm pull.
To perform a human drill you rotate your body onto one side like you do on rotator kick and
then move your hand up the side of your torso until you're touching your shoulder.
Once your hand is at your shoulder, you then reach out behind you and stretch as much as you can,
keeping your hand close to the surface of the water. For a more effective arm pull bend
your elbow and then drive your hand to your hip, making sure you fully extend your arm for maximum
propulsion. As you're doing your underwater arm pull, you should rotate onto your other side
at the same time getting ready to move onto your other arm. Your main aims of this drill
are very similar to rotator kick. You're looking to maintain that balance as you rotate from side
to side, you want to keep your head in a still and neutral position throughout the drill, and retain
a high body position in the water. Something you've got to be aware of on Human Drill,
is to make sure that when you're stretching your arm out behind you, you are fully extending and
at the surface of the water. If you don't do this you are likely to miss out on a big portion of the
catch phase of the stroke and you're also going to be inhibiting your body rotation. After doing both
Rotator Kick and Human Drill, you should be seeing a lot of improvement in your body rotation and the
underwater arm pull phase of backstroke. So for the final drill of this video we're gonna put it
all together in one combined movement and we're going to use Six Kick Switch for that.
Six Kick Switch is one of the best backstroke drills you can do to enhance the timing of your
rotation. It's basically a slowed down version of full stroke backstroke, with just longer periods
spent on each side to get you used to the feeling of where your body should be when you rotate. The
way to do this drill is to start on your side, similar to a Swordfish position. Your face
should be looking towards the ceiling with your shoulder and hip at the surface of the water to
keep your body position high. You then perform six continuous flutter kicks and as you finish
your final kick, switch sides by rotating your body and switching your arms around. Whilst doing
this you should maintain a straight body alignment and keep your core engaged throughout. You then
repeat this action again and again. Body rotation should occur at the same time as one arm is on the
overarm recovery phase and the other arm is on the underwater pull phase. Remember when performing
Six Kick Switch to maintain a strong six beat leg kick throughout the entirety of the drill.
Stopping or slowing down your leg kick when you're switching from side to side will train yourself
to do this when you're swimming full stroke backstroke, and that's something you certainly
don't want to be doing. With the arm pull phase being the main propulsive element of backstroke,
you want to maintain your leg kick to help push you through the water as strong as possible, and
it will also enable you to keep your body position high in the water. When you combine all three of
those drills together you should really see a marked improvement on your backstroke rotation
and timing. If you want a deeper dive into each drill you've seen in this video, we have produced
individual videos for them. And to find these you just need to have a look in the description
of this video where we've linked them. That's it for this week's video from Propulsion Swimming.
I hope you've enjoyed it if you have please like this video, share it with your friends and family,
and don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to the Propulsion Swimming YouTube channel for
more great swimming content coming soon. I've been Scott and I'll catch you on the next one!