Water treading in swimming

Treading water is a basic survival swimming skill, as well as a useful method of

staying afloat in the water. It's something you can learn even before you learn to
swim. Treading water is also used frequently in aquatic sports like in water polo.
Even if you're not the greatest swimmer, you can build your stamina and learn how
to tread water for extended periods of time and increase strength throughout your
body.

Method 1

Step 1

Use both your arms and legs. Make use of all four of your limbs with your body
upright (vertical). If you turn your body horizontal and start kicking with your legs
and paddling with your feet, you'll start swimming, not treading water.

Step 2

Keep your head up and your breathing normal. Keep your head above water
and try to slowly regulate your breathing. Slowing down your breath will help you
calm down, conserve energy, and tread water longer.
Step 3

ove your arms horizontally. If you move them up and down, you'll move up, and
then move down again because you have to pull them back up. Move your arms
forward and back with your hands closed facing the way they are moving. This will
keep your upper body up.

Step 4

Move your legs circularly or kick your legs back and forth. If you are moving
your legs in a circular fashion, don't point your feet and keep them stiff. If you are
kicking back and forth, point your feet downward and kick them constantly.

Step 5

If you need to, lay down on your back and gently paddle your arms and
your feet. Give your body a temporary break from paddling by laying down on your
back. You'll still have to paddle with both arms and legs, but not nearly as much as
you would have to with your body vertical.

Step 6

Hold onto any flotation device if you're having trouble staying above
water. A log. A paddle. A rubber boat. Whatever it is, use any type of floating
material that you can to hold onto and help keep you above water. The less time
you spend using energy to stay above water, the longer you'll last
Method 2

Step 1

Do the dog paddle. The dog paddle is where you move your arms out in front of you while
kicking your legs up and down.

The advantage: it doesn't take a lot of "proper technique" in order to do.

The disadvantage: it saps you of energy, meaning you won't be able to do this technique
for very long.

Step 2

Try the flutter kick. The flutter kick is where you tread water with your legs while keeping your
arms outstretched for balance. To flutter kick, point your toes downward and kick one leg
forward as you kick another leg back. Maintain a consistent back and forth.

The advantage: you can keep your arms free by doing the flutter kick, giving you an
opportunity to do something else with them.

The disadvantage: because you're using just your legs to keep you up, this technique can
be taxing.
Step 3

Do the frog kick. The frog kick is where you bring your feet out to the side, and then back in.
The frog kick is also called the whip kick. Starting off with your legs together, move your feet
out to the side and then quickly back in.

The advantage: this kick is less tiring than the flutter kick or the dog paddle.

The disadvantage: using this kick causes you to bob up and down in the water instead of
staying relatively motionless.

Step 4

T ry sculling. Sculling allows you to tread water with your hands. To scull, keep your hands
outstretched to the side and completely submerged. With your palms facing toward one another,
move your hands towards one another until they are almost touching. When you've reached this
point, turn your palms facing outward and move your hands back out to their original position.
Try to keep your hands doing one fluid movement back and forth.

The advantage: you can keep your legs free by sculling, allowing you to combine this
with another foot treading technique such as the flutter kick.

The disadvantage: you have to keep pretty much your whole body (minus your head)
underwater.
Step 5

Try the rotary kick. Also called the eggbeater, this is where you move one foot clockwise while
moving the other foot counterclockwise. This technique is hard to master, but it saves a lot of
energy.

The advantage: you save a lot of energy doing this technique if you can perfect it.

The disadvantage: this is a hard technique to perfect, and many people need to practice
extensively in order to learn it.

Step 6

Try the little helicopter. Lay back in the water in the same manner as floating. Immediately
move your hands in a circular motion. Move your feet up and down together.

The advantage: it's very simple to explain to children.

The disadvantage: circling hands can become tired.

Floating in swimming

Learning to float can be a daunting tasks for many novice swimmers. If you are just starting out
or tried it out before and got discouraged because you couldn't get passed the floating stage,
perhaps the following piece of advice will help you to get over the initial learning curve.

Keeping your arms at the surface or out of the water causes

your butt and legs to sink

Whatever the reason may be, whether you are afraid of falling due to the weightlessness feeling
in the water or you are afraid of hitting your head on the bottom of the pool or just the thought of
tipping over to your back scares you, without learning to float you cannot continue and enjoy
swimming. Learning to float is an absolute necessity in a good learn to swim program, so do not
try to skip this step. The more time you spend on learning to float and the better you will get at
this will determine your next progress.

From my previous head and body position posts, you already know that your eyes need to be
pointing towards the bottom of the pool and you need to stretch your body into a nice straight
line at the surface of the water. However, as simple as this sounds, it is still very difficult for
many to get to the relaxed long position. So let me give you a few tips which will ease your
transition from standing up to floating, thus setting you up for success.

1) Eliminate any unnecessary movement

How you start your exercise determines in many cases how well you can do the exercise, so let's
focus on what to do with your body before you actually get into the floating position. The main
point here is that you need to be flush with the water and ease yourself into the float instead of
starting your float from high up and falling into it. Imagine the following, take a tennis ball and
drop it into the swimming pool while standing on a chair on the side of the pool. Chances are the
tennis ball, driven by gravity, will hit the water and get submerged and then pop back up to
surface and then again gets submerged a little less and pop back up to surface. The tennis ball
will do this few times until it reaches a calm floating state. Now, instead of dropping the ball
from the standing on a chair position, bend down to the pool's edge and nicely place the tennis
ball onto the water. Because you were gentle, there is no bopping in and out of the water, the
tennis ball just nicely floats without any distractions. Similar concept applies to anything you do
in swimming, especially when you are just starting out to learn to float. If you start too high, you
will more than likely be sinking and coming back to surface and sinking again, so it is important
to eliminate this extra movements from the start. So, next time you are practicing your floats,
assuming you are in a shallower water where you can stand up, squat down (bend your knees), so
your shoulders are flush with the water. I don't mean, bending forward, just get yourself lower
into the water, so your distance from the surface of the water is smaller (like with the tennis ball).
The only thing that is sticking out of the water is your head. Your body is still vertical, just lower
in the water due to your knee bend.

Keep those hands under water.

2) Start below the water

When you are nicely submerged up to your neck in the water, you are basically in a good
position to get started. When you first learn to float, you should have your arms extended
forward (no elbows bending here please :)), so you add more weight to the front of your body
which in turn will make it easier for your legs to float. However, this is where many novices run
into trouble as they try to stretch very tensely with their arms forward like they'd be reaching for
apples. This causes their body to be rigid and more importantly their arms stick out of the water
when they float. So, extend your arms forward and relax them. You can pretend there is a ledge
1/2 foot (~15cm) below the water and you want to rest your palms on that ledge. Let the water
support the arms and relax your neck and shoulders. At no point in time should your fingers or
hands break the surface of the water, otherwise, you will start slowly sinking.

3) Get into the position before you start

Let's recap, you are close to the surface with your shoulders below the water, your arms are
extended forward, yet relaxed and they are below the surface of the water. The only thing that
remains is to take a breath, put your face in the water, so your eyes are looking at the bottom of
the pool and your entire head is below the water. At this stage you are ready to give yourself a
little gentle push from the bottom of the pool or from the side of the pool and you can float.
Note: if you want to blow bubbles, feel free to do so, but I'd suggest to try both variations, with
blowing bubbles and without as some folks do not float very well and when they start blowing
bubbles, they are getting rid off their floating ability even more :). However, don't be afraid, most
of you will float very well as your lungs will keep you at the surface.

Applying downward pressure on the arms and upper body.

As mentioned above, the major issue here is that your arms should never ever break the surface
of the water as it is with majority of novices which try to float. Another way to think about it is
that your arms and your body do not actually form a true straight line, you are pushing your arms
a bit down when you float. This is very bad analogy in terms of our history, but it could work in
this sense. Do you remember Hitler's straight arm greeting which was used by Nazis during
WWII? If so, then just move the arm from that position another foot (~30cm) up towards the sky
and you will have the right position for your arms. Maybe a bit less gloomy analogy is to pretend
you are laying on your stomach on a bench (as if you are floating). The bench is about a 1/2 foot
(~15cm) high off the ground. Your chin is right at the edge of the bench, eyes looking down and
your arms are extended forward and your fingers/palms are touching the ground somewhere in
front of the bench as opposed to being a straight line extensions of the bench itself.
How to Float for Swimming

Everyone canand shouldlearn how to float in water. Knowing how to float can save your
life, and its the first step in learning how to swim freestyle. It may seem daunting -- or
downright impossible -- but the first thing you have to
do is believe that you can float. Then get an instructor,
and try the three tips below.

Your Bodys Floatation Features

Lets start with a basic principle of physics: anything

with a higher density than water will sink in water. The
human body is, by weight, roughly two-thirds water. This means your density is similar to that of
water. Thus, you shouldnt have to do much, if any, work to float on top of the water.

That said, your body composition can affect your natural ability to float. Very generally
speaking, men tend to have greater muscle density than women. People with greater muscle
density, or very lean muscle (a very low ratio of fat to muscle fiber), will have a greater tendency
to sink. So, if you are young, a man, or a very athletic woman, good mechanics and technique
will help you a lot. Nevertheless, your body still wants to float more than it wants to sink.

Your lung capacity can also make a difference in how easy it is for you to stay on top of the
water. People with a higher lung capacity will float somewhat more easily, for two reasons. First,
they have a larger pocket of air in their chest. And second, they tend to have more oxygen
circulating throughout their bodies. Oxygen is less dense than water, so the more oxygen you
have in your body, the more buoyant you will be.

Now that you know why your body might be more or less inclined to float, here are three ways
you can improve the way you float in water.

1) Relax

The key to floating is, ironically, a major challenge for beginners: You have to relax. As soon as
you master this, you will be able to swim.

If youre afraid of the water, find an instructor you like and trust to help you overcome your fear.
Practice in shallow water until you have confidence in your natural ability to float.

If you can float, but youre still tense, notice your breathing pattern. Deep breathing is not only
scientifically proven to help your body relax, but it will also bring more oxygen into your body,
which should make you more buoyant.

Look at the sky (or the ceiling tiles, if your pool is indoors), and breathe in deeply. Fill your
lungs with oxygen on each breath feel the air travel all the way down to the lower end of your
lungs (near the bottom of your rib cage). Hold your breath for a short moment and feel yourself
essentially weightless atop the water. Exhale and repeat.

2) Improve Your Float Mechanics

Gently press your weight onto your shoulder blades and let your head relax into the water as if
you are resting your head on a pillow. Or, if you are in streamline position facing the sky, press
the top of your hands into the water.

If your legs always sink, reach your hands above your head. By reaching your arms above your
head, you are creating a longer support above your waist, which gives you more leverage for
lifting your legs up to the surface. At the very least, it will bring your legs higher in water.

3) Strengthen Your Technique

Engage your abdominal muscles. Use your core strength to lift your lower body toward the
surface. You might think about a string attached to your bellybutton that is pulling your torso to
the top of the water. The link between your mind and your body is powerful. If you can simply
imagine the string pulling your belly and your feet to the surface of the water, your muscles will
probably organize themselves and make it happen!

Kick very, very, very gently. Okay, so perhaps this is cheating a bit. Dont kick so hard that you
have forward momentum. But very light and gentle, alternating leg movements will help force
them to the surface. Of course, as you do this, stay relaxed.
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