Back kick help

Hi,

Possibly not the right forum to post although plenty people with the right experience.

When trying to back kick I can manage it ok for a few stroke but then lose my balance and have to right myself. PITA and clearly doing it wrong.

Any tips to rectify this?

TIA,
J

have to see what you're doing to give you specific advice, but one common problem is actually related to what the front half of your body is doing. you want to be head up, with the back of your head near the manifold and back arched. if you don't have that you'll tend to go head down and then as you back kick you'll make that worse.

InTheDrink:

Hi,

Possibly not the right forum to post although plenty people with the right experience.

When trying to back kick I can manage it ok for a few stroke but then lose my balance and have to right myself. PITA and clearly doing it wrong.

Any tips to rectify this?

TIA,
J

Click to expand...

Try not kicking so hard and getting the form down. That was/is my problem.

A common problem ... well, the one I see most often anyway ... is getting your fin tips up too much. It might feel like you've got them flat, but they're actually pointing up. When that happens, you end up doing a "shrimp dance" ... which sends you up a little bit with each stroke, and before you know it, you're struggling with buoyancy because you're not at the same depth anymore.

Uncle Pug worked with me for a long time on that one, and he finally said something that clicked ... "make it feel like your fin tips are pointing down". I did ... and the problem quickly resolved itself.

Might not be your problem at all ... and without seeing what you're doing there's no way to know. But it might be worth experimenting with ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

This frequently happens if you are pointing your fin tips UP. Make sure that, during the extension phase, your fins are horizontal, and that should help.

Thanks all and sundry for the advice. I *think* I am already *trying* to do this as I have noticed deliberately bending my foot towards my shin helps... however, I can't keep it for more than a few strokes. Somehow I get out of shape such that it seems impossible to get back into the correct loading position.

It may be a head down problem - that's something I naturally slip back into and really have to focus to keep my head up.

It may also be the extension where fins are not horizontal. This hadn't occurred to me at all so definitely worth further investigation.

If (ha! if? when!) I don't make any progress I'll try to get someone to video me at the pool and post back here next week. At the very least it'll give you a giggle.

Thanks again,
John

I can't speak for anyone else, John ... but for me the back kick was a progression.

Went something like ... "impossible" -> "rocking back and forth" -> "shrimp dance" -> "A HAH!" -> "well, sometimes" -> "Oh ... now I get it"

Stick with it ... and if you can get a video, I'm sure a lot of us will at least be able to look at it and say "been there" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Yeah, indeed. The annoying thing, kinda, is that I did work out a fairly effective back finning motion from photography/video where I could stop or go backwards in really nice control by fast but micro ankle movements. It is also dynamite for holding position in surge when videoing a moving subject.

However, it is not the back kick as recognised by GUE or indeed probably the entire human race (myself excepted) and whilst very effective for video/stopping etc. I'm not sure how far back a cave you'd manage with it.

I presumed of course that being able to do this type of back finning would translate immediately into being able to (essentially) frog kick in reverse. Not so. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, but I feel right now there's something I'm doing wrong that if identified might give me a bit of a Eureka moment. Perhaps not. Will continue working on it and post a vid if I'm still not getting the hang of it.

The tips here are great. I'm in particular wondering whether it is my recovery/extension into the loading position as per Lynne's suggestion. Anyhow, there's a few things for me to look at next time.

Cheers,
J

Jax:

YouTube - diving back kick

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Hi Jax,

I've plenty of back kick videos and the UTD vids. If only it were that simple

What I missing is being able to see myself and someone that knows about this stuff identifying what I'm doing wrong. I don't have a video yet so just asking about common errors and have reaped a nice few from the other posts that I can take a look at.

Cheers,
J