Backstroke - Basics with Steve Haufler

**Additional Drills for Teaching Bent-Arm Pull
Strapless Paddles**

Strapless paddles are a key tool for learning and improving a bent-arm pull.

Have your swimmers stand on the bottom and practice sculling with strapless paddles. 

Have them press out and in with an even, continuous motion. 

She is learning what it means to “hold on to the water.”

The paddles will stay on if the swimmer maintains pressure on the paddles…which is the same feeling the hands should have on the water when swimming backstroke.

Have the swimmer do single-arm backstroke. As the arm comes out of the water for the recovery, she needs to hold on to the edges of the paddle so it doesn’t fall off.

After the hand enters the water and the wrist is positioned for the catch, the swimmer can let go of the paddle IF the paddle is square to the wall they are swimming away from.

direct water pressure on it…and will stay on.

Most swimmers, if they can keep the paddle in this “square-to-the-back-wall” and high-thumb position, will naturally evolve to a bent-arm pull.


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Strapless Paddles