BACKSTROKE - THE TEMPO STROKE
Volume 1: Tempo Word Problem, Foundations of Tempo, The Tempo Cliff, Sustainable Vs Unsustainable Progress
The feedback desiring more purposeful content meant to help developing swimmers and coaches was expressed clearly.
Underwater dolphin kick aka the fifth stroke, is the #1 skill that separates the best from the rest.
Tempo matters as well - and I chose this topic because it will help coaches set up their backstrokers for long-term success.
INTRO
I was coaching some backstrokers with beautiful strokes.
They were getting crushed.
It was frustrating.
Despite holding more water and kicking more efficiently, they were not holding their own against the better backstrokers. What was I missing?
Turns out that tempo is REALLY important.
Let’s work through this word problem to help establish just how important tempo is in racing outcomes.
TEMPO WORD PROBLEM
Swimmer A takes 100 strokes per minute and travels 20 inches per stroke
Swimmer B takes 70 strokes per minute and travels 20 inches per stroke.
Swimmer B wants to swim faster than Swimmer A without increasing tempo.
Is this possible?
After 1 minute, Swimmer A has travelled 2000 inches, while Swimmer B has travelled 1400 inches, a difference of 600 inches. To beat Swimmer A without increasing tempo, Swimmer B would have to go an additional 601 inches in those 70 strokes.
601/70 = 8.59
“Yes” Swimmer B can swim faster than Swimmer A if they travel 8.59 inches further per stroke.
Is this probable?
Here is where Swimmer B faces reality and where I learned some hard truths about backstroke.
Swimmer B would improve from 20 inches per stroke to 28.59 inches per stroke.
That’s a required improvement of 43% in distance per stroke—an unrealistic leap considering that the reason my swimmers’ tempos were low was due to focusing too much on details.
I don’t want readers to be confused or led astray.
Technique matters, tremendously.
However, technique without sufficient tempo is just pretty swimming. And tempo without technique is a dead end. The two cannot exist as separate entities.
FOUNDATIONS OF TEMPO
The best 100 Backstrokers attain and sustain a stroke rate of 100 BPM - at every level.
Here are the three foundations to backstroke tempo:
Kick Speed
Kick Technique
Inside-Out Recovery Orbit
Kick Speed
To maintain a stroke rate of 100 BPM with a 6-beat kick, swimmers must kick at 300 kicks/minute.
6 kicks per stroke cycle → 3 kicks per arm stroke
100 strokes/min x 3 kicks = 300 kicks/min
To increase arm speed in a balanced and measured manner, you must begin by increasing kick speed. Any other approach leads to a gross imbalance and a gyrating mess.
Kick Technique
Main obstacle to 300 BPM kicking: excessive knee bend
This creates drag and slows down stroke tempo potential
One of my former swimmers came home from school complaining that his backstroke felt sluggish. One glance on camera and we found the culprit. He was bending his knee too much.
“Slowja” was allowing his knee to bend too much in response to the resistance of the water. As a result, his heel and calf were getting too deep, creating more drag than propulsion. Increased knee bend is a common coping mechanism, especially during heavy periods of training where muscles are fatigued and reluctant to act against greater amounts of resistance.
Check out this before and after of Addison Barrett of CAP Swimming.
Top video = before, bottom video = after.
In the video above, the kicks are big, slow, and creating more drag than propulsion, severely limiting the ability of all working parts to synergize at higher tempos.
Those two videos are the same swimmer 15 minutes apart. AMAZING! One video shows a swimmer set up to attain and maintain a stroke rate of 100 BPM. The other does not.
Great kick technique not only avoids drag, it creates propulsion and improves the plane of the vessel - or swimmer. The speed, inertia, planing, and drag reduction from great kick technique is a major factor in attaining and maintaining higher stroke rates.
Inside-Out Recovery Pattern
One of the most mind-blowing things I’ve ever seen? Kathleen Baker swam a 200 BK at age 12 while maintaining a tempo of 120 BPM for an entire race. Coaches knew it wasn’t a sustainable way to race the 200 BK, but they marveled at how she could do it.
When USA Swimming sent Rick Bishop to STAR Aquatics for a consult, the coaches inquired if they should slow her stroke rate down in order to prevent injury.
Rick showed videos of several elite backstrokers at the time. Coaches were shocked to see that Kathleen was naturally doing something that the elite had been doing.
After reviewing the videos of the elite, the coaching staff adopted the following description of the recovery orbit:
the orbit of the stroke needs to be set such that the wrist and hand are slightly inside the body line during the recovery, slightly outside the body line upon entry, and wider than the body line during the pull.
To get an understanding of the inside-out recovery/entry pattern, watch the video below.
The degrees to which the arms are inside- or outside-the-body line in this demonstration are exaggerated. When analyzing the trajectory of your swimmers’ arm exits, it’s important to note that an orbit that is even slightly outside-the-body line can significantly impair your swimmer’s ability to hit and hold higher tempos.
THE TEMPO CLIFF
Do not translate what I am saying to suggest that you should just have your kids move their arms faster.
There has to be a structure in which sound kick technique and kick speed supports the desired arm speed, and some arm speeds are too fast.
Increasing tempo with no guardrails is a dangerous game due to the tempo cliff.
Below is a graph in which I show my general and theorized understanding of the relationship of tempo and velocity in backstroke. Understanding the three different phases is important.
Phase 1: 40-100 BPM = “Linear”
Phase 2: 100-120 BPM = “Diminishing Returns”
Phase 3: BPM > 120 = “Tempo Cliff”
Coaches’ and swimmers’ understanding of the relationship of tempo and velocity comes from our observable windows. We typically view backstroke tempos between 60 and 100 BPM in practice. Within those tempo ranges, the relationship of tempo and velocity appears to be somewhat “linear.” But have you ever imagined what happens as that tempo rises above 100 BPM and approaches 200 BPM?
Between 100 and 120 BPM, velocity increases slightly. It comes with great cost of energy, however. This is the area of “diminishing returns,” where increasing tempo will yield marginal gains, but those gains are quickly wiped out by the high energy demand. As tempo increases above 120 BPM, swimmers begin slipping water as a coping mechanism. The faster the arms, the more slip. As this occurs, drag increases. The decrease in propulsion and increase in drag sends velocity over the “tempo cliff.”
Simply put, if you keep increasing tempo, at some point you will end up going slower. Eventually, it will look more like drowning than competitive swimming.
SUSTAINABLE VS UNSUSTAINABLE PROGRESS
Because of the relationship of tempo and velocity, it is critical to introduce the concept of sustainable versus unsustainable progress with your swimmers and parents. There are many elements to Sustainable Vs Unsustainable Progress. The topic alone will likely be featured in future content. For now we will focus solely on the role of tempo in sustainable progress.
Improving a time simply by trying harder yields unsustainable progress. Yes, maybe Johnny or Jane will move their arms faster now, achieve the time standards they are seeking, and have a wonderful car ride home on that day. However, you can’t simply continue to move your arms faster and experience the same positive results.
Establishing correct technique, increasing kick speed, holding desired stroke rate, and becoming more efficient within that stroke rate yields sustainable progress.
If you want more info on becoming more efficient at a given stroke rate, check out Andrew Sheaff’s article, “How to Use Stroke Rate to Build Stroke Length”
TAKEAWAYS
Tempo isn’t just about moving your arms faster—it’s about building the engine to sustain speed. If you desire to put your backstrokers on a path that can lead to the top, consider an approach that makes tempo both a critical part of their technique and a tool through which you can manipulate aggression patterns into outcomes.
Prioritize kick speed, clean mechanics, and stroke integrity - make sure your swimmer is committed to a process that will yield sustainable progress.
Avoid unsustainable progress at all costs.
UP NEXT: VOLUME 2
In Volume 2 I will cover Taking Tempos, Incorporating Tempo in Practice, and 200 Backstroke Race Strategy
Really good stuff!!!
I’m definitely going to be using the “inside out” recovery orbit from now on. Thanks for the read!