Does anyone here swim?

G

goch121

New member
Feb 24, 2008
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Hey guys,
Just a curious question.

I'm in my university phys. ed. class, and yesterday we had a treading water competition. I couldn't last for more than eight minutes. Then my muscles gave in and I was out of breath. It was pathetic.
Is there a way for me to learn to tread water more efficiently?

I think my endurance is pretty good. I comfortably jog ten kilometres every day from my house to my school and again back.

But treading water is a nightmare for me. Everyone else makes it look so easy. This includes all the fat couch potatoes that I can run circles around outside of the pool...

Is there some key point I'm missing? I'm doing the scissor kick while making circley motions with my hands. The instructor said I'm not doing anything wrong....but there must be, cause I'm sinking. lol.

Thanks for the tips
 
I just relax, gentle movement is all it takes.

I'd say try relaxing more, and make sure you're breathing properly.


Can you float on your back easily or do you sink?
 
heh, i do need to relax. I dunno it's hard, though...when the water starts to cover my nose I start panicking.

I'm trying to breathe by only half exhaling. So that my lungs are always at least half-full with air.

"Can you float on your back easily or do you sink?"
Do you mean that excercise that you see women often do? (lay there without moving their arms)

No, I haven't gotten the grasp of this yet either. I sink like a rock. But I consider this more advanced than treading water and I'm trying to get the basics first.
 
What Vic said. A lot of people try to over-emphasise the movements and really go all out on their treading, thinking that if they don't they'll sink. This simply isn't true. Slow and small movements is the way to go.

Em
 
I'd personally go for breast stroke legs rather than scissoring, which sounds like front crawl and therefore VERY energy intensive. When I used to play water polo for my school, they explained that about 50% of the power for breast stroke comes from the legs, while it's only 10% in front or back crawl. Because you have to use primarily your legs when treading water, it would make sense to use the legs which give you the most power. If you find yourself sinking between kicks, try alternating your legs but keeping the breast stroke technique, that works remarkably well for keeping you afloat without bobbing too much.
 
Ah okay. I'll try that this time then. I was always taught the opposite though. To breathe "shallowly".

I'm still in the process of learning the breast stroke. Right now, the scissor kick gives me the most effect per stroke so I'm using that. Once i get the breast stroke kick working, i'll substitute it in.
 
Slow and easy all the way when you come to treading water. Small wasy cicles below the water with your arms and gentle breatstoke kicks with your legs. It is actually easier though to lie on your back and float. But that takes confidence, and water up the nose doesn't help that. Again just gentle movements in a sculling kind of motion is enough to keep you on your back floating merrily. Good luck!
 
...is that joke? or are you being serious?

how would i go about learning how to float???
 
Seems to work that way for me.

One thing I do sometimes, to start out, is rest my head and arms on the side of the pool, and practice letting my body and legs float.

As you get more confidence, get away from the edge (but in water you can still stand up in) and try it that way for a while.
 
keep breathing, try to keep your body sort of rigid-do not jack knife your body-keep it
straight, as long as you are breathing ,with air in your lungs ,you will not sink.
Hope this helps - try and get someone to help you-floating is one of the easiest things
to do-You'll see.
 
Only half exhaling is going to give you some real problems. The whole point of exhaling is to exhale the carbon dioxide in your lungs and take in new oxygen. If you aren't getting new oxygen in their your muscles can function properly and will fatigue far faster.

I like swimming but it's not necessarily intuitive for me. Even when treading water I keep thinking I could be doing it more efficiently. I spent most of my life surfing and swimming in the ocean where in some ways it's even easier.

Maybe this year I will actually break down and take proper swimming lessons so that I can really get to grips with several different stroke techniques. I always figured it was pretty hard to consider yourself a true athlete unless you were a competent swimmer.
 
LoL YEAH because they know all about swimming. Their swimming technique is deadly. They are like . . . pirahnas, but you can't see them at all untill they are biting at your bits!



No seriously, this is the first thing they teach 5 year olds in swim lessons. Lie on your back, breathe normally (which you should do at all times when swimming) and relax and you'll float on top of the water, the more you arch your back, the higher up you'll float.

Additionally, when you tread water, do what dude above said, and don't move your hands in an up and down motion, but in a side to side motion with your hands cupped at like 45 degree angles. Move your arms in opposite direction so you don't spin in circles. If you can get that part, it will make the hand part way easier.
 
CuppoJava said:
...is that joke? or are you being serious?

how would i go about learning how to float???
Click to expand...


Take it from a guy that started swimming competitively at the age of 6 and went on to become a Certified Water Safety instructor, if you can't float then learn. Usually that starts in shallow water doing something called a jellyfish float. Take a deep breath, hold it, lean forward in chest deep water and try to touch your toes! TA DA! You're floating.

As for treading water, doing slow scissor kicks is fine. The best most efficient way to tread water is with alternating kicks in a sort of one-legged whip kick. First one leg, then the other going just hard enough to keep your head out of the water. Your hands and arms should be relaxed. Hands should "scull" just under the surface of the water. Act like you smearing the water and pressing down towards the bottom of the pool/lake whatever your swimming in.
 
Only way to get better at something is to keep on doing it. Remember, you can FLOAT in water, so dont waste your energy manically trying to stay above the water, thats how you actually make yourself sink.
 
Try that before floating on your back. And seriously, relax or you'll get nowhere (well maybe the bottom of the pool )

And when floating on your back, make sure you keep your head/neck back. At least for me, if you lift your head your feet go down. Stay flat
 
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