How to Swim Backstroke like an Olympian | 3 Best Drills & Tips with Olympian Bryce Mefford

Learn how to swim backstroke from an Olympian! Team USA Swimmer Bryce Mefford breaks down his best backstroke drills and tips to learn how to swim like an Olympian. Bryce Mefford swam the 200 Backstroke at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and placed 4th in the final, so he is an expert at Backstroke, to say the least!
Cal Men's Swimming Backstroke has a legendary group with Olympic Gold Medalists like Ryan Murphy to NCAA Champions like Daniel Carr. Cal Men's swimming knows backstroke and Bryce will break it down for you in this video! Make sure to stick all the way until the end to see some funny Bryce moments!
Go Bears!
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[@joshp7059]

Great work, Kyle and Bryce! I’m a masters triathlete but I have become hooked on backstroke during the triathlon off-season over here in Sweden. It is such a fun stroke and there’s always something to improve. Thanks for these great tips and all the best to both of you. Go Bears!

[@KyleMillis]

It’s the best stroke in my opinion haha! Thanks for the support and Go Bears

[@carlosabad5077]

Incredible! I am from Spain and that's a huge help. Keep doing this please!

[@KyleMillis]

Glad you enjoyed it!! More in the future!

[@chefhamzah]

Please do a video on the recruiting process and what it takes to go to a school like Berkeley. Great video!🔥🔥

[@KyleMillis]

In the works!!

[@matthewjensen9043]

Backstroke is my worst stroke so this is helpful

[@KyleMillis]

But you’re the king of freestyle so it works out!! That IM will come together in no time!

[@einooko3142]

Your vids just keep getting better and better, good job on this one

[@KyleMillis]

Thanks so much!! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@tomeksiwiec9980]

Great content Kyle - not only serious coaching tips from you and Bryce but also fun to hear his impressions from the Olympics. Can't wait to jump into the pool and work on my backstroke! Please cover flip turns and stramline next time!!!

[@KyleMillis]

His perspective is very awesome to hear! Glad you can work on your backstroke now! More on flip turns and streamline in the future

[@antonnyoliveira6269]

Great video. Go Bears!!!

[@KyleMillis]

Go Bears!!

[@2miguelmalpica]

Thanks for sharing, Bryce seems really cool, keep the videos up!

[@KyleMillis]

He’s a great training partner and friend, very cool!

[@jayprakashcreation2843]

Very nice useful vedio for back stroke swimming

[@KyleMillis]

Very useful, glad you learned something new!

[@joshbailey7555]

Thanks for the tips, I'm Maddux a 10 years old and just competed in the central CA Junior Olympics this past weekend for the 50 and the 100 backstroke and I made the finals for both of the races.

[@KyleMillis]

Congrats on your success, keep it up!! Go Bears

[@Zhhzhxbabanskns]

Fire concept

[@KyleMillis]

Thanks! Maybe more will follow

[@Rajvardhan_Naik]

Really nice....keep updating ......love from India

[@KyleMillis]

Will do, glad you enjoy the content

[@user-ev1rq6mj5e]

my name is Mark.I coach from Turkmenistan.Thank you for video !

[@KyleMillis]

Of course! Glad you liked it

[@TITI-sb3pq]

How’ve you been! I’m waiting for this kind of video! To be honest, i wanna see you swimming! Take care of yourself dude

[@KyleMillis]

Well why see me swimming when you can see Olympian Bryce!!

[@nashe1462]

Fantastic! Please do more of these!

[@KyleMillis]

More on the way with some very famous people, don't worry!

[@donnymo3481]

NOICE!

[@KyleMillis]

Noice!! Go Bears!

[@danielguo6153]

Awesome vid

[@KyleMillis]

Thanks so much!!

[@simonedwards6657]

Really interesting drill and technique tips .. Thank you

[@KyleMillis]

Glad you like it!

[@fiftyfreestylin]

HUGE help. Thanks for that!

[@KyleMillis]

Glad you liked it!! I can do more of these with my other teammates

[@fiftyfreestylin]

@@KyleMillis Really liked the pointers regarding the catch( wider entry), touching the shoulder to chin on warm up ( rotation) and 2,2,2.

[@KyleMillis]

@@fiftyfreestylin for sure, that’s really important

[@banksfamily4474]

Thanks for this video! Great tips. I am a breaststroker and would love to hear some advice from Cal swimmers! Thank you so much!

[@KyleMillis]

Maybe I can do a breaststroke one in the future!!

[@jasonli3134]

@@KyleMillis that would be awesome!

[@robertstrickland8464]

Kyle, thank you for this video. I coach a lot of jv level high school swimmers so these are very helpful to me. I am semi-connected with the Cal Bears. Connor Hoppe is from my local area and have watched Bryce and his brothers since his high school days in Sacramento. I look forward to other videos. One problem area for me is teaching butterflyers to get that dolphin motion when they swim. Would love to see some tips on that.👍

[@KyleMillis]

Definitely could do something like this in the future!!

[@zs613]

🐐

[@KyleMillis]

You da man!!

[@i_see1997]

Quite useful, thank you~~~

[@allysonadlington6664]

How did you get into Berkeley? What steps did you take in order to get accepted ? What exactly do they look for ?

[@KyleMillis]

I can do a whole other video on this especially relating the the recruiting process but I had good grades and an ACT in high school so when my swim coach reached out to me, he wasn’t concerned as the athletic department gives assistance

[@bryceburet9548]

Could you do one on free and fly?

[@KyleMillis]

More in the future for sure! I have tons of skilled teammates

[@paytonwilliamson3316]

What’s your best advice for those underwaters at the end of the race that just kill. How do you guys push through that feeling when you push off the wall and start kicking and you’re like ope not working right.

[@KyleMillis]

I might be making a video on that later but the only way to improve underwaters is to practice it until you are uncomfortable

[@Antevanten1]

Next up Björn!

[@KyleMillis]

That would be a good idea!!

[@tarunkurkal326]

As a 200 breaststroker I'm garbage at backstroke.

[@KyleMillis]

Well, I hope that these tips help improve that!

[@ChefMeff]

Ayooo I have exclusive rights to Bryce for content you gonna have to take this down for copyright purposes!

[@KyleMillis]

Well I’ll be looking forward to your Bryce video

[@robohippy]

Well, I do swim some of this. One thing that seems to differ from one swimmer to the next is that some pull, using bent elbow, in more of a straight line through, and you seem to arc up a bit and then finish with a down push. Any comments?

[@KyleMillis]

I don’t know exactly what you mean by arc up a bit but I can say that a bend elbow is critical but it’s all about the angle of the elbow that it is bent at. Making sure that you are still holding water is key

[@robohippy]

@@KyleMillis Oh, got distracted by life...... Anyway, maybe it is like freestyle, some advocate a straight path pull, and some say the S shaped pull works better. For most backstroke videos I have watched, most pull in more of a straight path. In this video, the swimmer starts with what I consider a good depth and about 45 degree shoulder roll, then his hand and arm trace a vertical S shape. Start at proper depth, then arcs up close to the water surface, than drops down again for the finish of the arm pull. I did see one video where the coach actually taught it that way. I have always been curious as to why almost all backstrokers finish with that little wrist flip by rotating their hand over so that all the energy from that last wrist action goes straight down to the bottom of the pool, rather than keeping the hand more vertical and finishing that push against the leg. With freestyle, you want the fingers/hand pointed to the bottom of the pool for the entire arm pull, but with back stroke, they don't seem to do the same thing.

[@faizanafzali3839]

Can you help me please? When I do backstroke I get tired really fast idk why?

[@KyleMillis]

Try working on your aerobic training as well as underwaters

[@elwadhani5594]

I'm 16 backstroker and my height is 177cm (5'10ft) am i too short to make the Olympics do i have a big disadvantage ?

[@KyleMillis]

Never count yourself out because of your height or any sort of disadvantage you might think you have! My teammates aren’t all giants, you are taller than some of them and they are world class athletes

[@elwadhani5594]

@@KyleMillis really needed to hear this and it gave me more hope thanks i really appreciate it 👍🏽

[@sisterbrothers1677]

Pebs should have worried more about his backstroke than his pronouns. He can't even crack the top 3 backstrokers at Cal any more.