Treading water is a skill that allows a swimmer to stay vertical with head above the water without necessarily moving forward or backwards.
One of the most difficult skills that beginners will encounter as they start learning to swim is treading water. It is possible to find people who can swim 20 lengths (or even laps) of a 25m pool continuously and fast, but cannot stand still for 3 minutes in the middle of a deep pool and tread water effortlessly.
Note the word "effortlessly".
If you can't have a decent conversation with someone else while you're treading water; you haven't learnt it. If you can't tread water without your hands (or without your legs while sculling) then I'd like to say you're still not there yet.
There are different methods for treading water like the flutter kick and the web kick. However, statistics shows clearly that the most effective and less energy-consuming method of treading water is the eggbeater kick. While the others are good, eggbeater kick is exceptionally good as it is less stressful. It is, however, a bit more difficult to master.
Treading water effectively without your hands using the eggbeater kick for instance, demonstrates how relaxed you are in water and also shows you have a good feel for water.
Click here for more information about the eggbeater kick.
