May 30th, 2010 | 
Author: Daughter’s first outdoors swim meet is coming up. Backstroke is her primary and she is looking to make some good time but she is concerned… the flags will be there of course to let her know when the pool wall is coming but she also follows a beam or line in the ceiling to keep herself from drifting in the lane. How does one do this when swimming outdoors?
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I’m a backstroke swimmer! Take her to a regular olympic pool, and have her close her eyes while she’s doing backstroke in a lane. by having the ropes next to her, she should learn to get a feel of when she’s swimming straight. And to make sure she doesn’t hit the wall, have her count her strokes from one wall to the other. This method helped me a lot to learn to swim straight because I always hit the ropes and ended us injuring myself. Of course, she’d have to practice outdoors too, and the method might have to be altered or tweaked because of choppy water. But otherwise this method should work!
both my children practice in an indoor pool and compete in outdoor pools.
Their trick is to hug the lane line so they know where it is, and try to swim straight. Don’t try to follow a cloud because they move.
Their best back stroke times have always been in an indoor meet because they can follow a beam. In the outdoor meets they sometimes seem to zig zag throughout the race.
It just takes a lot of practice and good body placement. (head straight, good pulls)
wish your daughter good luck!
when you’re swimming backstroke, make sure to know where the lane lines are at all times. stay about half way between each of them, and you’ll be fine. if you start to see one coming closer to you, position yourself in the middle of the lane again. and every once in a while, you can arch your back and put your head under water to see exactly where you are with the black line on the bottom of the pool.
If your stroke is perfected, you won’t swim off course; so over time, that’s the best answer. Stop worrying about the beams on the ceilings as well. However, in the meantime, you need to look occasionally at the lane markers and adjust your pull to straighten yourself out. As your stroke improves, you will need to pay less and less attention to those markers. Do not try to hug the markers, try to stay in the middle of your lane. If you stray a just a little bit, your arm might cross into the neighboring lane and you will likely be disqualified.
She shouldn’t follow the ceiling beams because then it accustoms you to do this and can’t swim without it. Try getting her to close her eyes while she swims it so that she gets used to swimming without the beams, if she can’t, just get her to follow the lane lines, it’ll slow her down, but she’ll know she’s going straight.