One of the great parts of being a swimmer in 2016 is the access you have to what is happening in the whole wide swimming world. We recently received a video submission from an eager swimmer who trains at Dynamo Swim Club in Georgia. Her name is Madison Graham and she had seen a video of a Stanford swimmer (Maya Dirado) doing a backstroke start drill using a water polo ball. That original video you can see here:
Thanks @TylerClary for this awesome backstroke start drill for @MayaDiRado. Took 3 attempts, but the crowd went wild pic.twitter.com/27b23KLF7E
— Greg Meehan (@Stanford_W_Swim) March 29, 2016
Graham, along with her coach Jason Turcotte, decided to give the drill a try. She then sent us the following video to demonstrate how she was using it to improve her start:
Many swimmers, when starting to learn a backstroke start, struggle with the entry. It can be hard to enter the water clean, with momentum to initiate the underwater phase. Turcotte explained to us that this was his primary goal with the drill:
“This drill puts Madison in a much better position to take advantage of her underwaters, which have really developed this past year.” He added that he saw the drill as taking emphasis away from the upper body and putting it into the lower body for the start. Graham has a personal best of 55.91 in the 100 backstroke which she recorded at the Georgia High School State 1-5A Championship in February.
