The Backstroke

Hey guys, and welcome back to my blog. Today we're no longer discussing about the butterfly style, that week is over. With every new week comes a new style, and this week, it's the backstroke. I know that your first impression about this style is, “Jason, what the #^&% is the backstroke? Is it a style that we have to swim backwards instead of forwards or something?” I know that you guys (or at least most of you) have some strange ideas about how the style goes. So, in this post, I'm going to brief you on some stuff about this style. So without further ado, let's get straight to it!

First of all, let me give you a little background about my history with backstroke. One thing I've learned about the backstroke is that it is one of the styles I've grown up despising (although, fortunately, not as much as the butterfly style). Why? Well, the backstroke is no longer the pain in the @$$ it used to be, but when I hadn't mastered it yet, it sure as hell was. In the backstroke, you have to face backward while swimming. May times I found myself smashing my head on the wall of the end of the pool, because like every normal human being, I don't have eyes at the back of my head.

Next was the fact that your head had to stay on the surface of the water swimming backstroke (and this is not just because it's a basic rule while swimming backstroke, but also crucial for you to apply this to yourself if you're going to survive swimming the backstroke. If you swim backstroke with your head submerged underwater, other than going slower than if your head is on the surface, you'll also be gasping for air as the water comes streaming down your nose (come to think of it, this also happens if you keep your head at the surface. It must be because your breathing is unsteady, causing the water around you to fly into your nose and choke you. I don't know, I've never been the backstroke expert).

So basically (at least for me), backstroke is more like a struggle for survival than a swimming style (at least before I mastered it). At least now I'm more skilled at it, so you can trust me on the teachings that I have just taught you guys (at least more than I did when teaching you about the butterfly style). However, nowadays I am still pretty troubled by how to do the style correctly, because I still haven't mastered it 100% correctly. I still sometimes (accidentally/intentionally) submerge my head underwater either by accident or to see how much longer the finish line is.

Anyway, here's something I probably should have told you long ago. I was just so caught up in my history with the backstroke (that's probably what this post's all about), so here's the link of the “swimming backstroke” video you were probably looking for since the beginning of the post. It doesn't really have much to do with this post, but I hope it might relate.

So that should be all for today. I'll be back with more about backstroke this week. But for now, goodbye and see you until the next post!