If you do Nordic Walking properly, you will always have the poles behind you. Just drag them along. The hand strap will bring the poles along. Don’t look down at them – keep your head up, chest open and shoulders back. After you get the left/right arm swing down, you will notice that you always have one pole in contact with the ground.
This gives you a bit of back support. The action of the poles helps keep you in an upright position so you are not hunching over as you might when “just walking.” Walking without poles for some time will tire out your back and you may find yourself drooping your shoulders. I have had students comment that yes, they do feel the support. And that the poles keep their heads up and looking down at the horizon.
The problem I see with many people is not their fault. They buy poles with good intentions, but the manufacturer does not provide much in the way of instruction. A simple hag tag is often all that accompanies the poles. Not much room to tell you how to use them. One company used include a brief 3-minute DVD that gave a lot of information on how to begin your program.
Costs of production stopped that. The DVD is no longer distributed. YouTube videos are very impersonal and while they might show technique there is no human feedback. I like to show the video at the beginning of my classes, so people can view how the activity should be done.
I love to tout the benefits of Nordic Walking and one is the improvement in your posture.