#back swim

Participants kick with their hands on their hips. They roll to get arm out of water then do six kicks on side then roll to the other side and repeat.

Swimmer looks at a single object/point on pool deck while swimming.

Have them practice entering their little finger first like they are doing a karate chop entry -- thumb first exit, pinky in.

Have participants stand on deck parallel against a wall and have them go through the different phases of the arm motion for back swim, working on a simple backwards rotation. This focuses on the movement of the arms for back swim.

Swim backstroke with only the right arm pulling while the left arm remains at the left side of the body. One the way back, repeat the drill using the left arm. The next progression would be to alternate the arms after 3 arm strokes: 3 pulls on the left, 3 pulls on the right, repeat. This drill focuses on the arm pull and rolling of the shoulder.

Participants hold a flutter board above their head while doing flutter kick across the length of the pool. They can progress to no flutter board and just doing streamline by extending the arms above the head while kicking on the way back. This works on a strong kick and keeping the body at the water surface.

Have participants pick two coloured blocks. The blocks are magnets that repel each other therefore swimming arms should always be opposite of each other. Have them perform their back swim with the magnets.

Tell participants one arm is the cat and the other arm is the mouse. The cat needs to chase the mouse so they should always be moving their arms when performing back swim. Tell them that the mouse is quicker than the cat, so the arms should always be opposite.