Watch a great backstroke start and one detail repeats itself. The swimmer breaks out, yet the head stays under for a beat before it rises. Indeed, the best backstrokers in the world are now adopting this exact move. So why does backstroke head position matter so much here? Because keeping the head submerged attacks drag in three specific ways. First, it dodges the waves you make at the surface. Next, it stops the hips from sinking. Finally, it protects the speed you built underwater.
Start With Where Drag Comes From
Drag in the water comes from three sources. First, skin friction pulls along every surface of the body. Second, form drag builds as water piles up in front of your shape. Third, wave drag appears when you travel at the surface and shove water into waves. Because water is roughly 800 times denser than air, all three bite hard. Meanwhile drag grows with the square of your speed, so it bites hardest exactly when you are fast.
At the surface, that third source dominates more than most swimmers expect. In fact, wave drag accounts for roughly half of a swimmer’s total drag at the surface. However, a body that stays submerged makes far less of it. Therefore the surface itself acts like a tax, and the breakout is where you first start paying it.
Therefore shape and speed are punished hard in water.
In fact, about half of a surface swimmer’s drag is self-made waves.
So it swings the whole body line like a lever.
Likewise, biceps over the ears adds measurable drag.
Benefit One: It Dodges the Surface Wave
In backstroke the head is the first thing to break the surface on the way up. As it pierces through, it throws a bow wave and spray, and that is wave drag in action. However, keep the head submerged for the first two strokes, and that wave never forms. As a result, you delay the single largest surface drag source until the arms are already driving.
The deeper principle is straightforward. Specifically, a surface piercing body makes more wave drag than a fully submerged one at the same speed. Drop well under, and that drag nearly disappears. Granted, at the breakout you still sit close to the surface, so the gain is partial, not total. Still, holding the head under keeps your highest, most disruptive point out of the wave making zone when it counts most.
Benefit Two: It Keeps the Hips Up
The head weighs ten to twelve pounds, so it works like a lever on the body line. Lift it to find the air, and the body pivots around its center of mass, which drops the hips. Consequently the shape you show the water grows taller and blunter, and form drag climbs with it. Instead, hold the head in line, and the hips ride high behind a long, flat shape.
The penalty is measurable, not a feeling. Notably, posture changes alone can swing drag by around ten percent. Likewise, our own testing finds biceps over the ears adds nine to eleven percent against the elbows tucked behind the head. So small errors in head position cost real speed.
Benefit Three: It Protects Your Breakout Speed
You are rarely faster than the moment you leave the underwater. Because the push and the dolphin kick stack together, your breakout carries peak speed. However, peak speed also means peak drag, so any error there is expensive. Therefore keeping the head under protects the fastest part of your lap.
Kliment Kolesnikov, the men’s 50 backstroke world record holder, leaves the breakout with the head low and the line unbroken. Sara Curtis takes it to the extreme, holding the head submerged for nearly the whole lap on her way to the women’s world record. In both cases, the swim looks like a seamless extension of the underwater.
Master Neutral Head Position First
Before you chase the submerged breakout, master plain head position first. In backstroke, the head should stay still and neutral, with the eyes up and the water line steady around the goggles. Because a wandering head wrecks the body line, this control has to come first. Only then does holding the head under become an upgrade rather than a gamble. So drill the neutral head position until it is automatic, then add the submerged breakout on top.
Put It to the Test
You can measure this for yourself. First, swim a 25 fully underwater for time. Then swim a 25 on the surface for time. Next, compare them, because the gap shows how much speed your underwater really holds. Often the underwater number wins, which is the whole case for staying down.
After that, build the habit in training. Specifically, hold the head under for two strokes off every wall, and add more once the line feels stable. Remember, the rules still ask the head to break the surface each cycle, so keep it as low as the rules allow rather than fully buried. For the errors that undo all of this, review the common backstroke mistakes first.
Time a 25 Under
First, swim one 25 fully underwater and record the time.
Time a 25 Swim
Then swim a surface 25 and compare the two numbers.
Hold Two Off Each Wall
Next, keep the head under for two strokes on every breakout.
Everything here is taught, tested, and perfected at camp.
Four days in San Diego with the Race Club coaches, full stroke analysis, sensor testing, and your head position rebuilt stroke by stroke. Moreover, most swimmers leave with best times by day four.
Private Lessons
Likewise, one on one coaching targets your strokes, your turns, and your goals.
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Furthermore, our remote coaching gives you personal feedback on the video you send in.
Video Library
In addition, the full library breaks down every stroke, start, and turn on demand.
