In 2017, a 50-year-old father from South Africa was on a surfing trip in the Indian Ocean. One night, after getting food poisoning, he got up to get some fresh air outside, got dizzy, and fell overboard. Since the boat was underway, and it was the middle of the night, no one noticed that he’d fallen off. After treading water, battling sharks, and taking jellyfish stings for nearly 30 hours, he was rescued.
For anyone that enjoys water activities, treading water is an essential skill to have. It’s all too easy to get caught in a rip current, fall off a moving boat, or get left behind. Especially when it comes to survival, the key for treading water is efficiency. Most people can tread water for a few minutes, but could you do it for an hour? Two hours?
The US Navy recommends a modified frog kick to make the best use of your energy for long-lasting treading. Learn how to perform this simple technique and practice your treading ability the next time you’re in a body of water. It could be the difference between life and death.
How to tread water efficiently
1: Orient your body vertically in the water.
2: Tilt your head back slightly.
3: Move your hands in small, downwards circles while keeping your palms down.
4: Lift your legs as if sitting in a low chair.
5: Kick both legs down and out, then bring them back up under the center of your body.
6: Experiment with the timing of your hand circles and kicks until the water is consistently at your chin level.
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Knowing how to tread water could save your child’s life.
Treading water is a life-saving skill. And next to floating, it’s the most important water skill you can teach a child who doesn’t yet know how to swim. Considering a diver from New Zealand once survived in the ocean for four days by treading water, it’s easy to understand why kids spending a summer at the pool or beach should know how to do it.
The goal of treading water is simple: stay in one place with your face above the water and your body fairly upright. There’s both an arm and a leg component, and it’s relatively easy to teach to kids who are just getting comfortable with the water. There’s also no one right way to tread water which means there’s more room for error ⏤ if a kid can comfortably stay above the surface without exhausting themselves, mission accomplished.
To help parents teach their kids to tread water, we broke it down into three easy-to-follow steps, as well provided a few tips and tricks, teaching aids, and games to keep things interesting.
Step I: Sculling Arms
There are two parts to learning how to tread water, and the first starts with moving the arms, or sculling. You should teach this motion in a shallow end of the pool where they can stand. Start by having them put their hands underwater by their sides. Now, with their wrists stiff and hands open (and slightly cupped), they should sweep their arms back and forth under the water. The hands should move towards their belly button but then turn away from each other before they collide. The motion should be like clapping, but their hands never get to quite come together. Let them practice this for a few minutes before moving into deeper water to work on stomping.
