How to Kick for Backstroke

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Part of the video series: How to Swim Competitive Backstroke

Summary: The leg motion in the backstroke is similar to the flutter kick of the freestyle, but inverted. Learn how to kick for the backstroke in this free swimming lesson on video from an expert on health and fitness.

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Presenter

By Phillip Toriello
eHow Presenter

Phillip Toriello was a competitive swimmer for Salinas High School, USAFE Swim Team and Cuesta College. He has also been a surfer, a lifeguard, a swim instructor and a junior lifeguard...read more

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rafaelnadal said

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on 8/19/2009 Hello my name is Nicole. I am 36 years old. I wish that I could show Philip how well I can kick in the water laying on my back and laying on my stomach. I know that I can do that kick that he just demonstrated in the video because I float just like a cork in the water

Video Transcript

"PHILLIP TORIELLO: Hello and welcome to Expert Village, I'm Phillip Toriello from the Avila Bay Athletic Club. The leg motion in the backstroke is very similar to that of the freestyle except for, once again, your body is going to be inverted. Your belly will be on top of the water as well your hips. Toes pointed with your knees not breaking the water. But again, keeping your hips high, legs straight and toes pointed, utilizing the flutter kick. While I reiterate the point of keeping your legs straight, everybody kind of adapts their own approach to that. What I find with myself is that I utilize a slight 30 degree bend of the knees to really help with a wavelike motion or a flipper type motion with my legs. So again, it's just going to be a slight bend of the knee about 30 degrees starting in--beginning the kick with the hip going down to the knees with a slight bend and following it through all the way with the toes so and you get a nice steady rhythm as far as your kick is concerned. I'll give a small example of that right now. As you might notice of the backstroke kick that I just give an example of is that there is a nice boiling of the water as I was kicking through where my toes were. My feet or my toes didn't come out of the water but instead, caused a nice boiling of the water up on top. Another point that you might have noticed as well is that my knees didn't break the water surface. It's really important to keep those things in mind."