1. Float Away
To start backstroke you want to focus on floating in the water. You're whole body should float on the top of the water. You want to have a good streamline position in order to make your body as straight as possible. Your head should be aligned with your spine. Hold your arms out to the sides of your body on top of the water. Lift your legs to the top of the water by flexing your abdominal muscles. You don't want to lie at an angle in the water with your feet lower than your head. This will make the backstroke kick much harder.
2. Boiling Kick
The backstroke kick is a flutter kick with your knees slightly bent and your feet pointed. Keep your knees in the water. You may have to make your kick slightly smaller in order to accommodate this but it will make the kick easier. The goal is create a fast kick with smaller motions of your legs that is still powerful. When you're doing a backstroke kick the water just past your toes should look like it's boiling. This is an easy indicator that you're doing the kick properly.
3. Windmill Arms
Start with both your arms over your head in streamline position. Move one arm out away from your body and down deeper into the water. Push your arm out from over your head, bend your elbow and sweep your hand downward to pull. Pull your arm through the water until your arm is by your leg. Pull your arm straight up out of the water. Your thumb should be the first finger out of the water. Your arms should be completely straight as you move it from beside your body back to over your head. Rotate your hand as you move your arm through the air so that your pinkie is the first finger back into the water. As soon as you begin moving your arm through the air you should begin the pull with the other arm. In backstroke, your arms should always be at opposite positions from each other.
4. Body Roll
Although you want to glide on the top of the water as much as possible, there is no way for you to swim and be completely flat against the surface of the water. You're going to naturally roll slightly in the water. You want this roll from side to side through the water as you swim. As you do each pull, concentrate on your shoulders. The shoulder of the arm that is pulling should roll downwards as you pull with the rest of your body following. This will give you a deeper pull.
5. Drills, Sir, Yes Sir!
The best way to learn each aspect of the backstroke and the entire stroke altogether is to do specific drills to emphasize each one. Focus on your kick by itself, do multiple pulls with one arm before switching to the other, do a kick only and practice rolling your body back and forth, use a buoy to float your legs and focus solely on your pull. All these drills will help you learn how to each part of the stroke alone so the entire stroke is easy and familiar.
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