In the above video taken by SwimSwam photog Rafael Domeyko, SwimMAC Carolina pro teammates Katie Meili and Ryan Lochte are working on a two-swimmer backstroke drill that happens to be one of my personal favorites.
In this drill, swimmer A puts their feet on the head of swimmer B and gets in a streamline position. Swimmer B then swims backstroke down the pool, pushing swimmer A.
There’s an unbelievable number of important backstroke technique points that this drill works on. It forces swimmer A to keep a good body position because any drop of the hips will be the end of the drill, it forces swimmer B to keep a steady head position, it forces swimmer B to maintain a wide hand entry, it forces swimmer B to swim with some amount of power to maintain their body position, but it has to be a consistent power.
This drill is full of “win,” and seeing two of the best swimmers in the country demonstrate it with near-perfection reinforces that.
Do you believe in back of the hand entry too? There are not many of us who do.
I don’t know, it looks to me as if he is still entering pinky first.
I hope Rio is Lochte time. I think he’s earned it at this point.
Agree with you on that one. I don’t know why he isn’t in the running for the perseverance award after getting run over by that girl and hurting his knee.
Looks like coach Marsh has changed Ryan’s hand entry a little… he is entering with the back of the hand…