Pulling lanes

The child swims 25 meters of backstroke. In most indoor and outdoor pools, there are lane ropes that separate the lanes. In this exercise, the child is allowed to pull on the lane rope—an exception to the usual rule. The child swims close to the rope. Instead of doing regular arm strokes, they grab the rope at the point where their hand would normally enter the water. Then, just like in backstroke, there is a pull phase and a push phase. The rope is first pulled over the head, and as soon as the shoulder passes the hand, the child pushes against it. Interestingly, swimmers who usually try to "cheat" by pulling themselves along the lane ropes often turn out to be the best backstrokers—because the advanced backstroke arm movement closely resembles the motion used when pulling on the rope.