5 problems with the Backwards Kick

The backwards kick is arguably the greatest underwater “trick” kick to dazzle your dive buddies. Like riding a “wheelie” on a bike or a “kickflip” on a skateboard, the backwards kick can be a fancy showoff display of scuba talent.
 
Most scuba instructors today still don’t teach any specific propulsion techniques in their classes, particularly in the beginner Open Water course. If the student can wiggle their feet and get to the other side of the pool, that tends to be enough. Moreover, if that is difficult then it is usually followed up with a discussion to buy a better or more expensive fin to make swimming easier. 
 
So, with that premise it makes sense that most instruction in the 20-30 skills they teach in an Open Water program has none of them dedicated to the techniques of proper propulsion. 
 
Once a skill that was reserved for those divers who were hearty enough to pursue education like the Fundamentals and Essentials of DIR, the backwards kick has over the last 20 years permeated its way into many specialty and “into to tech” style classes. But it is still highly misunderstood by most of the scuba population. Misunderstood or mis-performed, the backwards kick is an essential tool that all well-trained divers should have ready to use.
 
Here are 5 problems the scuba community has wrong with the backwards kick. 
 
1. Divers think it is used for swimming backwards. The name of this kick has done a disservice to its early acceptance.  Although it can be used to swim backwards, that is not it’s primary use. It is primarily a “stop swimming forward kick” more than a “backwards kick.” Of course, as an instructor, you will often use it in front of your students to watch them approach and follow you. It’s an excellent way to keep your eyes on a trailing herd of new divers swimming from sight to sight. It is also a way to stay in front of your students as they perpetually crawl their way forward while trying to do skills neutrally buoyant early in their training. The well-practiced instructor or divemaster can swim backwards just as fast as a new diver tries to move forward if this kick is perfected. But again, it’s really a kick that is used to stop forward motion. To stay in one place to take a picture without having to touch or grab or kneel. The kicks biggest value is to negate the perpetual forward motion that plagues most divers. 
 
2. Divers do this kick far too dramatically. The videos you may have watched are generally done way too big and over-exaggerated. Most of the divers who demonstrate it on YouTube don’t really show the proper use and value of the kick. It is a finesse kick that will allow you to back up slowly in a cave or shipwreck. If you find yourself in the engine room of a shipwreck and hit a dead end and try to back up with the explosive full body power that you see on YouTube, you will have just blown out the entire room. Good luck seeing anything on the way out and let’s hope anyone else who was going in there did so before you entered. The exaggerated movements you see divers posting on Facebook sites and as instructional aids out in open water or the pool don’t really reflect the actual use of the kick in restricted areas. Of course, it looks cool on Instagram to see the diver powerfully swimming backwards with big full kicks moving at a steady speed out in open water, but the subtle and careful backwards kick that doesn’t disrupt the environment is the one that really needs to be practiced. 

3. Divers think it is ridiculous. Too many mossback instructors and shop owners laugh at the notion of swimming backwards. Perpetuating a cognitive dissonance that drowns out the logical voice of underwater mastery and knowledge. Why would one scoff at a diver who wants to increase their talent and ability? Why would one ridicule an advancement in underwater propulsion and control? Why would some veterans laugh it off as unnecessary and not accept its value?  New advancements in understanding and ability that will make all divers better underwater ambassadors and more ocean friendly should be celebrated. This new kick is essential for control in the water, being able to stay still in mid-water, to back away without pushing off the bottom or wildly flailing hand-swimming.
 
4. Divers get frustrated. Learning the backwards kick correctly takes training, practice and guidance by an instructor. You can get the idea by watching a video on YouTube but learning the mechanics properly and cleaning it up to precision takes work. Often divers get frustrated trying it on their own and give up. They call it dumb. They come to terms with using a crutch like a poke-stick to hold their place on the reef, using finger push-offs to back away, or ineptly standing or kneeling on the bottom to stay in one place. When they see the kick in action, they laugh it away for fear of failing at it again. Some veteran divers are willing to dismiss its value before they would admit that a diver in their expertise could possibly need to learn something “silly” like swimming backwards. The backwards kick requires dedication, determination and time to develop.
 
5. Divers make a big deal about it. Practice is important but you can’t ever forget the underlying reason we are diving, which is to have fun. Stressing about the kick, wasting away every dive struggling and missing the reason why you are there is no way to set yourself up for a lifetime of enjoyment underwater. True, once you perfect this kick your diving will exponentially increase as will your ability to take pictures, video, navigate tighter spaces on wrecks or reefs or caves. Get the training, keep practicing but remember to have fun too.
 
Don’t give up. The backwards kick is an amazing tool to have in your toolbox of propulsion techniques. For decades divers have only been taught to swim forwards, to stop and kneel, take a picture, swim forward to something else, stop and kneel and circle back to the beginning. Improving your underwater propulsion has always been answered with buying new fins. Splits, hinges, rubber bands or whatever new design comes next.
 
But you the diver can do this without a new gadget. Having multiple choices of kicking techniques to use in various environments is critical to becoming an accomplished and advanced diver. The backwards kick will be only one of the choices you have to choose from. Being able to pull it out and use it on key moments of your dive like taking pictures, posing for pictures, maintaining position on ascents and not needing to hand hold up the mooring line after every dive will make you a much more confident diver who is in control from descent to ascent.