Once your kids are comfortable with the basics of the backstroke, you’re ready to start teaching them some refinements. These six areas to focus on will help your kids develop their backstroke beyond the basics.

6 Backstroke Refinements

1. Grab the water. You’ll probably recognize this from teaching your kids the front crawl. Ask your child to think about grabbing a handful of water and pulling it down to his hip. Have him imagine that he’s trying to keep the water from falling out of his hand. He should keep his fingers together and his palm gently cupped. How does it feel?
2. Push the water toward the feet. Have your child concentrate on pushing the water toward his feet, not pushing down on the water. As he becomes comfortable with the movement, have him imagine that he’s trying to push the water in a straight line from his head to his feet. This will encourage him to bend his elbow instead of stroking through the water with a straight arm.
3. Bend the elbow in the water. Bending their elbows will allow your kids to generate more power with less effort. It will also keep them from wasting energy moving their arms down through the water. As the arm approaches the end of the stroke near the thigh, they’ll straighten it to get the most out of that pushing water toward their feet.
4. Straighten the arm out of the water. For the best recovery to the streamline starting position, your kids should bring the recovery arm straight through the air.
5. Don’t forget to kick. Once they’re comfortable with the arm movements of this swimming stroke, let your kids practice kicking simultaneously until it comes naturally.
6. Play with the timing. This tip will be familiar from teaching your kids the nuances of the front crawl. Your child will naturally start to play with the timing of his arm movements. It’s particularly easy to do when he’s practicing the backstroke, because he doesn’t have to worry about taking a breath. Encourage him to experiment. What happens if you start moving one arm back while the other arm is pulling back? What happens if you start moving one arm back while the other arm is returning to streamline position? Foster an awareness of timing and the different results different approaches to timing yield.