Some advice and ideas please is it simply that she can't ring slow backstrokes? — Phil Gay
The inability to ring backstrokes at the required speed is something I see a lot, both hunting up and hunting down. To a degree it is masked by extra effort at handstroke but it is there. I hunting on 5, which is where many people start, the fact that the backstroke in 5ths isn't followed by such an extra effort to get into 6ths the following handstroke is why it shows up so badly. In effect the upward effort ended in 4ths place.
I believe there are two causes, one mental and one physical.
Mentally people tend to think about 'when to pull' more at handstroke, whereas the backstroke 'just happens'.
Physically to change the default speed at backstroke (ie the speed the body/bell will ring with no conscious effort) you have to move hands up or down the rope, and learners tend to cling on (to mthe same spot) for fear of letting go, whereas at handstroke each stroke is a fresh grip on the rope, and where the hand lands is influenced by the urgency or otherwise of thet arms' upward movement, which automatically varies between trying to ring faster or slower.