The phrase "a leap backward" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a regression or a return to a previous, less advanced state or condition.
Example: "The new policy is seen by many as a leap backward in our efforts to promote equality in the workplace."
Alternatives: "a step back" or "a regression".
"One should not view the new civilization as a leap backward," he wrote.
Page B13 SHOW OF UNITY IN N.B.A. Eight days before N.B.A. owners could lock them out, 52 players gathered for a show of strength at a Manhattan hotel, united in their determination to reach a deal that is not a leap backward.
With "Looper" and the fantastic recent release "Predestination" using the same plot device to explore existentialism, the potboiler "Project Almanac" feels like a leap backward.
In the midst of its worst fire crisis in living memory, the Indonesian government is taking a leap backward on forest protection.
Each granting of such a visa is a giant leap backward.
His retreat to Atlanta and a menial job that will at last allow him to write poetry feels oddly elegiac — a great leap backward into a New World that he was too busy growing into, and growing fond of, to notice becoming ancient.
No community knows better than they do that HB 56 represents a serious leap backward to a dark time in Alabama's past.
It tells me you're taking a Great Leap Backward when you have a chance to own the future with a new Cultural Revolution.
His 6-4, 6-7, 6-7 (3), 6-2 defeat to 30th-ranked Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic represented a small step forward for him but a huge leap backward for his country, which has produced as many men's Open singles champions since 1997 as the United States.
"What has happened is a great reverse for peace, because we had hoped the Palestinian Authority [PA] president Abbas would embrace the Jewish state, the idea of two nation states, Palestinian one and a Jewish one," Netanyahu told NBC. "But instead, he took a giant leap backward".
