Drill of the Week - Backstroke Start Drill

The angle at which you leave the wall on backstroke can help you enter the water faster, and ready for your underwater dolphins.

Why Do It:
Learning to explode OUT rather than fall back into your backstroke start can help you enter the water more cleanly and carry more speed into your backstroke.

How to Do It:
1.  While you'll typically have your toes below the surface, for this drill some people may feel the need to wrap their toes just a bit over the edge.  This will give you a little more ability to push out of the water.
2.  Start in a typical backstroke start position, but instead of diving back, try to get your entire body OUT of the water, entering the pool with your backside, and with the legs going through a single hole.
3.  Explode UP and OUT rather than back, doing your best to escape from the water.

How to Do It Really Well (the Fine Points):
Be a gymnast!  See if you can get out of the water far enough to grab your legs like a gymnast doing a tumbling routine.  While this may seem to be a drill only possible by youth, our model is a masters swimmer... so give it a try.