Tread water - Swim Workout

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Treading might be a mobility issue - READ - https://www.stewsmithfitness.com/blog...

Learning How to Tread as a Non-Swimming Athlete (Start with Mobility)
A big coaching moment for me this year was realizing that a group of land athletes were unable to tread because of the lack of mobility in their hips, knees, and ankles. Once we started practicing treading with mobility / flexibility drills on the pool deck (as a treading rest period) the group started being able to tread. Here is how we taught the egg-beater kick to non-swimming / land athletes:

Egg-beater Kick Misnomer - Personally the term "egg-beater" is an inaccurate name for the kick you are trying to do. It is more of an alternating breaststroke kick vs thinking you have to spin your legs in a horizontal circle like an egg-beater. Think of if as more of a vertical plane / ellipse pushing water downward with the inside of your feet. Imagine kicking a soccer ball with the inside of your foot to the bottom of the pool with each kick:

Here is a busy swim workout that we do often:

Repeat 5 times:
Swim 5 minutes - max distance
tread water 5 minutes (or do other drownproofing skills - float, bottom bounce, tread no hands, etc...)

Practice different styles of treading using scissor kick, flutterkicks, breast stroke kick, and egg beater kick (similar to an alternating breast stroke kick)

If you really want to learn how to tread - find a water polo player. There are many egg beater videos on youtube that show specific skills of that kick.

Thanks again - StewSmith

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