Under standard American checkers rules a man captures forward only. If you want backward captures you must first promote that man to a king.
Can you jump backwards in checkers?
Quick answer: In American checkers a plain man can only jump forward, and only a king can jump backward; some variants such as Russian and pool checkers allow men to capture backward too.
Whether a man can jump backward is one of the biggest rule differences between checkers variants, so it is worth knowing which set you are playing.
American rule
Variant differences
In Russian, pool and several other variants a man is allowed to capture backward even though it still moves forward only. This makes forced capture combinations far more dangerous.
Ready to put it into practice?
Try pool checkers