Practicing backkick in pool w/o fins...works

[jagfish]

Was in the public pool with the family last week (3 foot kids section)
My wife (also a diver) was asking about the back kick I was telling her about. She couldn't imagine what it looked like.

I held my breath, sank into the water in dive posture and tried the kick with just my feet to demonstrate. I'll be darned, it worked, surprisingly well, in fact.

I've decided to make it a part of my regular swim routine...

 

[d33ps1x]

Was in the public pool with the family last week (3 foot kids section)
My wife (also a diver) was asking about the back kick I was telling her about. She couldn't imagine what it looked like.

I held my breath, sank into the water in dive posture and tried the kick with just my feet to demonstrate. I'll be darned, it worked, surprisingly well, in fact.

I've decided to make it a part of my regular swim routine...

I explained it to my swimming instructor and she went and tried it without fins the next day and taught a group of 6 year olds to do it. Never to young to get those kids started with fundamentals I say!

 

[bwerb]

I tried it in the pool too. It definitely works...as do helicopter turns but...and here's the caveat...the actual motion you make in the pool is much more "leg" than fin, and I believe it could actually teach your motor memory a "wrong" motion which will not be optimal once you put the fins on.

 

[reubencahn]

I explained it to my swimming instructor and she went and tried it without fins the next day and taught a group of 6 year olds to do it. Never to young to get those kids started with fundamentals I say!

My 12 year old son audited the fundamentals class my wife took. First dive, he's moving backward with ease. None of the adults managed it. I certainly didn't when I first tried.

 

[Soggy]

The key to that damn backkick is finessing it. My problem was that I was always trying to muscle it and move too fast, which lead to me going forward.

Now my problem is that I can either do 3 sequential "big", full-stroke back kicks and end up standing on my head (which then requires a few kicks forward to right myself), or I can do lots of little back kicks the "wrong" way and do pretty well.

 

[FreeFloat]

I hear ya about doing it the "wrong" way. I can now back kick with startling regularity imagine that!) however when I asked a DIR buddy to critique me (my previous attempts were around nno-DIR buddies) this DIR guy told me my whole body got pretty far off horizontal trim. For some unknown reason i don't actually move toward the surface, but I do tilt head-down and then proceed to move through the water in that orientation.

Grrrr................

Now I guess I gotta work on arching my back more while not messing up my foot motion..........

 

[northcoast_diver]

Was in the public pool with the family last week (3 foot kids section)
My wife (also a diver) was asking about the back kick I was telling her about. She couldn't imagine what it looked like.

I held my breath, sank into the water in dive posture and tried the kick with just my feet to demonstrate. I'll be darned, it worked, surprisingly well, in fact.

I've decided to make it a part of my regular swim routine...

Yes it works extremely well. You can also practice the helicopter turns this way as well.

All you then need to do is match your feet/boots with an appropriate pair of fins that do not interfere with the execution. Turtle fins work extremely well, as do ScubaPro jetfins (not split), for finning backwards and helicopter turns.

 

[ScubaScott]

The key to that damn backkick is finessing it. My problem was that I was always trying to muscle it and move too fast, which lead to me going forward.

Now my problem is that I can either do 3 sequential "big", full-stroke back kicks and end up standing on my head (which then requires a few kicks forward to right myself), or I can do lots of little back kicks the "wrong" way and do pretty well.

Soggy - I'm right there with you. By the time I actually notice I'm moving backwards, I'm almost doing a headstand.....

Why, oh why, can't I get this kick.....

SS

 

[Reinoud]

The key to that damn backkick is finessing it. My problem was that I was always trying to muscle it and move too fast, which lead to me going forward.

Now my problem is that I can either do 3 sequential "big", full-stroke back kicks and end up standing on my head (which then requires a few kicks forward to right myself), or I can do lots of little back kicks the "wrong" way and do pretty well.

The key is to arch your back and keep looking up.

 

[underwater daphne]

how does this kick go?