Learn To Swim Backstroke: Drills and Exercises

This article proposes a series of exercises for learning backstroke. The backstroke is a swimming style that is swum on the back.

The arms perform similar but alternating movements. The arms recover from the hips forward above water and pull back to the hips from the front under water.

The legs perform a flutter kick. They kick alternately up and down.

You can find out more about the swimming technique of the backstroke here.

Swimming Drills and Exercises

Learn The Flutter Kick

Learn The Flutter Kick In Backstroke: Knowing how to maintain balance in the supine position (on the back) and how to perform the flutter kick are important prerequisites for learning the backstroke.

This article teaches you this basic swimming technique.

Head-Lead Supine Balance Drill

Learn To Swim Backstroke – Head-Lead Supine Balance Drill: This is an important drill to learn the backstroke, as it teaches how to be balanced and supported on the back using the lungs’ buoyancy.

Being balanced means that the body is horizontal in the water while swimming the backstroke.

Head-Lead Side Balance Drills

Learn To Swim Backstroke – Head-Lead Side Balance Drills: These swimming drills are the next in the sequence to learn how to swim backstroke.

Here you’ll learn how to float more on the sides rather than flat on the back and using a supple flutter kick.

Learn The Arm Stroke On Dry Land

Backstroke Technique Drills – Learn The Arm Stroke On Dry Land: This article demonstrates how to do the arm movements in backstroke.

Learning the arm movements is easier when you first rehearse them on dry land.

Hand-Lead Side Balance Drill

Learn To Swim Backstroke – Hand-Lead Side Balance Drill: The next drill to learn to swim backstroke is a simple variation of the head-lead side balance drill.

But instead of keeping both arms at your sides, you’ll extend one arm in front of you while keeping the other at your side.

This teaches you how to keep balance while swimming on the side with an extended arm.

Under Water Arm Sweeps

Learning to Swim Backstroke – Under Water Arm Sweeps: The next swimming drill to learn to swim backstroke lets you practice your balance in combination with underwater arm sweeps for propulsion.

Single-Arm Backstroke Drill

Learning to Swim Backstroke – Single-Arm Backstroke: The next swimming drills let you practice the arm recovery above the water.

However, to learn the arm movements correctly and to keep things simple, you’ll only practice one arm at a time.

This lets you focus better on the arm movements and avoids synchronization issues between both arms.

Slide and Glide Drills

Learning to Swim Backstroke – Slide and Glide Drills: The Slide and Glide swimming drills are the last ones of our series to learn to swim backstroke.

You will now practice simultaneous arm movements.

Learning Path for the Backstroke

Below is an overview of our series of articles on learning the backstroke. Each article in this series contains one or more drills that have to be mastered. The current article is highlighted:

• Learn To Swim Backstroke: Drills and Exercises
• Learn How to Flutter Kick in the Backstroke
• Backstroke Swimming Drills – Head-Lead Supine Balance
• Backstroke Swimming Drills – Head-Lead Side Balance
• Backstroke Technique: Arm Stroke Drills on Dry Land
• Backstroke Swimming Drills – Hand-Lead Side balance
• Backstroke Swimming Drills – Under Water Arm Sweeps
• Backstroke Swimming Drills – Single-Arm Backstroke
• Backstroke Swimming Drills – Slide and Glide Backstroke

Once you have gone through all the steps of this learning path, you should be able to swim backstroke without any problems.

Good luck!