How can I prevent my legs from sinking while swimming backcrawl?

Question

How can I prevent my legs from sinking while swimming backcrawl?

Answer 1

Keep your body straight in the water and push upwards on your hips and abdomen and tighten your buttocks. The kick for the backstroke is a basic straight legs, just allowing the knees to bend enough to prevent them from locking (not locking them in of course) and most of the power is from the hip and thigh. Good Luck.

Answer 2

You should keep your hips up and keep your legs straight. You should use your thighs to kick, not your knees. You'll go faster and farther if you use your thighs instead of your knees. Trust me!! It really works and helps you to swim faster.

Answer 3

by swimming fast if you slow down you will start sinking.

Answer 4

there are a couple things that you can do:

first of all try arching your back more. it may feel like you're over-doing it, but what feels like too much is probably right.

next kick you feet. alot of people don't kick hard enough so try REALLY kicking hard!

finially make sure that your arms are moving fast enough. you might not think that your arms are the problem but it could be so try moving your arms in a "graceful" motion

Answer 5

Push your stomach towards the ceiling when you are swimming!

Answer 6

work on good balance in the water. start with doing ab work

Answer 7

Work on your core strength. You need to keep your abs tight and hold your body straight.

Answer 8

try and make sure your head is back in the water, because if you start pulling your head too far out of the water, then your legs will sink. lean back with your back too, so that the water isn't covering most of your body.

Answer 9

If your legs are sinking, it means you're not kicking enough or not kicking productively. Start practice kicking on your back -- don't worry about arm pull for awhile. Here's what you need to do:

1) Get the right hand position.

Put one hand on top of the other, fingers facing away from you. Wrap the thumb of your top hand around the side of the bottom hand. Now extend your hands in front of you and straighten your elbows. Use your thumb to brace yourself.

2) Get the right body position.

Now lie on your back and put your hands in the position I described above. Squeeze your elbows against your ears. Stretch yourself long and straight and streamlined.

3) Get the right head position.

You want to look behind you at about a 45 degree angle. You don't want to look straight back at your feet or you'll end up "sitting down" in the water, but you need to be able to look down with your eyes and see your knees and feet.

4) Start kicking

DO NOT BREAK the surface with your knees. You should have "boiling water" at your feet.

Use a pair of fins if you are not flexible or just need a little help getting going.

Good luck!