I can swim, but can't tread water - tips or advice?

[Spoisal]

Can someone explain to me how to tread water? I can swim a bit, but I would like to know how to stay in 1 place comfortably treading water. What is the trick to this?

 

[stinkerbelle]

move your legs like egg beaters.
make circles with your legs (with knees slightly bent if that helps) overlapping circles and move your hands side to side under the waters surface.

kind of hard to explain actually.

 

[Charade]

Fingers together and hands slightly cupped. Then do a "princess" wave. with your arms slightly bent at the elbows. Keep some air in your lungs. Hold your breath a little between breaths. Remain calm. Don't let all the air out. While at the same time, keeping your legs fairly straight and kick them slightly.

This works for the vertical float. (body upright)

For a horizontal float, keep your head back (look at the sky), back arched slightly and do the "princess" wave again. Keep some air in your lungs. Hold your breath a little between breaths. Remain calm. Don't let all the air out. You probably won't have to move your legs at all (or much).

If you're muscular, it's more difficult to float because you're less buoyant.

 

[debster812]

MOST IMPORTANT: REEELAX!

I saw this all the time while teaching, and see it now with DS (age 8). Most people float a little (there are some with negative bouyancy, but most will float).

Stinkerbelle has it exactly right, let me see if I can expand on it a bit:

Arms out in front, slightly bent at the elbow, about 6 inches apart, with the palms facing out. Gently sweep your hands out to about shoulder width, turn your hands, so the palms face in, and gently sweep them back in front of your chest, again, about 6 inches apart.

The eggbeater is one method for your legs, but it's a bit tricky. You can also bicycle kick (basically pretend you're riding a bike).

If you ever happen to see any water polo on TV (late night ESPN mostly) check out the underwater shots, these guys can eggbeater kick for HOURS, and until you see it in action, it's hard to visualize.

Last piece of advice, if you have someone willing to help, and access to a pool, grab some goggles, and duck under water, and watch what their legs are doing.

Good Luck!!!!

 

[SherryNC]

Fingers together and hands slightly cupped. Then do a "princess" wave. with your arms slightly bent at the elbows. Keep some air in your lungs. Hold your breath a little between breaths. Remain calm. Don't let all the air out. While at the same time, keeping your legs fairly straight and kick them slightly.

This works for the vertical float. (body upright)

For a horizontal float, keep your head back (look at the sky), back arched slightly and do the "princess" wave again. Keep some air in your lungs. Hold your breath a little between breaths. Remain calm. Don't let all the air out. You probably won't have to move your legs at all (or much).

If you're muscular, it's more difficult to float because you're less buoyant.

There is a certain part of this that is really cracking me up.

 

[Charade]

There is a certain part of this that is really cracking me up.

Do tell...

 

[pearlieq]

We were taught to pretend we were pedaling a bicycle underwater while using our arms to sweep water away from us. You start with your arms shoulder height and bent at the elbows. Turn your wrists inside so that the backs of your hands are touching each other in front of your chest. Extend your arms out straight in front of you and push them away from your body.

Repeat the arm motion while pedaling your feet and you should stay afloat. Good luck!

 

[vettechick99]

I'd explain how I do it, but I'm sure it'd sound either

1. naughty

or

2. like a stringbean having seizures

Do you know all the strokes (or at least some)? You might want to take some swimming lessons! Great exercise and good to know.

 

[OK!]

If you find the eggbeater kick too difficult, you can substitute the breaststroke kick ("frog" kick), also. I was a competitive swimmer for 20+ years, and I never did like the eggbeater kick for treading water and always did breaststroke kick instead. It will lead to a bit more bobbing up and down as opposed to simply remaining (relatively) stationary with your head always the same height above the water, but you shouldn't ever dip down low enough that your head goes under.

 

[Sparx]

I can't tread water either. I sink. I can swim and float, but I just can't tread water.

 

[Spoisal]

I can't tread water either. I sink. I can swim and float, but I just can't tread water.

It's good to know I am not the only one!

 

[Sparx]

It's good to know I am not the only one!

yeah, I have tried to learn before, just can't do it. I had a friend try to teach me recently, but I ended up just swimming like I had been doing. lol.

 

[Christine]

We were taught to pretend we were pedaling a bicycle underwater while using our arms to sweep water away from us. You start with your arms shoulder height and bent at the elbows. Turn your wrists inside so that the backs of your hands are touching each other in front of your chest. Extend your arms out straight in front of you and push them away from your body.

Repeat the arm motion while pedaling your feet and you should stay afloat. Good luck!

This is how I was taught too. Bicycle pedaling!! I can't even imagine how to move my legs like egg beaters. I don't think they move that way!

 

[laurajetter]

Another thing is that you don't have to do it super fast. I've noticed some people who aren't accustomed to treading water become nervous and do it very, very fast, tiring out their muscles. There really isn't a need to tread water as fast as you possibly can. Just remain calm and tread at a slow to moderate rate.

I've even slowed it down purposely to see how slow I could do it before starting to sink. Amazingly I was able to go a lot slower than I thought would be possible!

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

Just trying to read between the lines here, but are you mostly interested in learning to tread water or in making sure that you feel safe in the water without moving forward? It's great to be able to tread water, but staying upright is always going to take more energy than just lying on your back floating.

Some people get scared in the water because they don't realize that the water will support them with very little effort on their part - they think they must use all kinds of special swimming skills to stay afloat. So if this is an issue for you, by all means learn to tread water. But you might also want to just practice lying on your back in the water. Just relax as if you were on a bed, and then gently kick and/or move your arms when your limbs begin to drift down. Once you've deeply absorbed that you will always be safe in the water because it will hold you up, learning the particular strokes, etc becomes much less stressful.

 

[Anup Sinha]

hi
I am taking lesson's but still not able to tread water or stay in a same place without drowning.can swim little bit not able to inhale while swimming.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

As a former water polo player, I vote for the egg beater. It will be the kick that keeps you the most steady in the water and not bobbing up and down. It's also more efficient (so you'll get less tired) than some of the other methods.

You basically position yourself so it's like you're sitting in a chair with your legs a little bit more than shoulder width apart and your knees at a right angle.

Then you alternate legs moving the left in a clockwise circle and the right in a counter clockwise circle.

I agree with other PPs that it might benefit you to learn to float both face up and face down as part of being comfortable in the water.

 

[MickeySP]

This is why God invented YouTube

 

[sonnyjane]

More than 10 years later, I hope OP figured it out by now.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

More than 10 years later, I hope OP figured it out by now.

Or at least bought a life jacket