Life Saving Skills: Treading water
Treading water is a swimming safety skill that is very important when swimming. You are probably wondering why do I need to do to treading water.
What if you were in the deep end and someone swam in front of you what will you do if you can only swim forward? If you fell into some water and needed to be rescued in the sea you would need to tread water and stay in one place.
Is important to stay in one place till help arrives.So as you can see it is an important skill to learn and is quite easy even if you are beginner to swimming as long as you make yourself safe and don’t put yourself into a situation where you can get yourself into difficulty. Remember to expel no more effort than required so not to get tired and sink.
Body position
This is a simple position, you are in a vertical position in the water. Water should be be up to your neck. Try not to go any lower. Trunk straight whilst your legs will be kicking and constantly changing position along with your arms.
Arms
Your arm action should offer you support along with your legs. Your arms move in circular motion level with your chest and bent, With palms facing down push down towards the bottom of the pool towards your hips. Then bring back your arms by altering the angle of your hands so that your thumb is coming up first. This enables you to cut through the water without causing any drag. This is now repeated over and over again. The initial push down towards the bottom of the pool pushes you in the opposite direction in this case up. This keeps you on the surface of the water.
Treading water/Legs
This a simple leg kicking action, you can choose from four different leg kicks:
The breast stroke type leg action done in a vertically body position;
Cycling type action, this is what it implies. You simply pretend you are riding a bike. Legs up and down one at a time.
Flutter kick, this is simply a front craw/backstroke leg action kicking your legs up and down as if you are swimming the mentioned strokes.
Egg beater kick, this is simply kicking breast stroke legs but one at a time. Mostly associated with Water Polo.
Treading water/Practices
There are a number of practices you can try in the pool:
-Stand in the shallow end of the pool and practice your arm action
-Try the leg action whilst holding the side of the pool
- Next try the leg action whilst resting on two floats in depth
-The leg action whist holding the side with one hand and the sculling circular action with the other
-Try now doing the leg action holding only one float in one hand and sculling with the other
-Now try the whole skill in shoulder depth water when in out of depth.
Once you've taught your students the basics of treading water, you’re ready to teach them fundamental keys for treading water for a long time with minimal effort.
Slow Movements: When they’re first learning to tread water, your kids will get tired easily. They’ll move his arms and legs quickly. It’s counterintuitive, but moving their arms and legs slowly will support them better than moving them quickly. Have them experiment with speed.
Egg Beater Legs: As they become more comfortable, have them experiment with moving their legs like old-fashioned eggbeaters. With both of their legs bent at the hip and the knee, as if they were sitting on a chair, have them move first one leg and then the other, with the motion coming from the knee. Ask them to draw a big circle in the water with one toe and then the other, moving the toe forward and then toward the center of their body before bringing it back, away from the center, and forward again.
Alternating movements: Have them work toward moving both legs at the same time. The rhythmic, alternating movement of the legs means that when one foot is forward, the other foot is back. This method of moving the legs is so efficient that it allows you to tread water without using the arms at all.
Figure eight hands: Have them practice making figure 8’s with their hands, making their hands into cups to maximize water resistance.
Minimal effort: Have your students practice treading water with as little effort as possible. If they are breathing hard, ask them to slow down. Take as many breaks as necessary, and work toward the point where your students can tread water for five minutes without taking a break, touching the bottom, or holding onto the side of the pool.
