How To Tread Water Using The Eggbeater Kick

Stretching is very important for the breaststroke and eggbeater kicks. Your kick will be more efficient and more powerful with a greater range of motion. Stretching is also important for injury prevention and to prevent cramping.

There's two calf stretches in this lecture. The first one against the wall is a more passive stretch and the inverted "V" or downward dog is a more active stretch, meaning that you are stretching and strengthening at the same time. Both of these stretches will increase your calf flexibility which will help during step two of our breaststroke kick when we flex our feet and turn out.

This is a simple quadriceps stretch which will help during step one of our breaststroke kick, bringing our heels to our bottom.

These two stretches will loosen up your hips and stretch your hamstrings. If the pigeon stretch is too hard on your knees then you should only do the Figure 4 stretch. At no time should there be any knee or joint pain during the stretches.

These stretches are great for the inner thigh and groin area. The squat stretch will also stretch out your calf and I have a nice wrist stretch you can add on if you'd like.

The lunge is another active stretch, meaning it strengthens while it stretches. The lunge stretch will work a bunch of different areas including hamstring and inner thigh.

This is a relaxing and passive stretch that is great for the hamstrings and calves. You can also widen out your legs along the wall to work your inner thighs. This one's great to do at night while winding down.

Sculling will make treading easier for you and is a great skill to have.  As I mentioned in my introduction, you can choose to use sculling or not while doing eggbeater. Using your arms will take pressure off of your legs and allow you to tread for longer periods of time using less energy.

We start by sculling in front of our body and in the shallow end. Stand up in the shallow end and take both of your hands in front of you.  You want to have your hands flat, like a paddle, with your fingers together. You fingers need to be relaxed, but there should be no space between them. Start with your thumbs almost touching each other, tilt them slightly down and push your hands out to your shoulders. Once your hands are out to your shoulders you will tilt your pinky slightly down and push back in to the center. Then repeat. Push out and push in taking care that you never see palm of your hand. It's a slight tilt down.

Now we're going to take that same sculling motion to the sides of our body.  This will be the sculling that you use when you are treading. The sculling is identical except your starting and ending points are different. Now you will start with your hands wide out to the sides of your body. Tilt your pinky down and push forward about a foot and half, then tilt your thumbs down and push back to the side.

I've coached many students who think they do breaststroke correctly, but they don't. Consequently, they can't eggbeater. It's important your eggbeater be done correctly in order for you to be able to eggbeater so even if you think you have a perfect breaststroke kick, just make sure by going through these steps.

The Chair Exercise is a great way to learn breaststroke kick out of the water. Using a chair you can simulate the first two steps of the breaststroke kick, heels to butt, and then the turn out. Doing the chair exercise will ensure that you turn out from the hip when you do breaststroke kick, and that will help you with the eggbeater kick. Make sure you do the Chair Exercise at least 10 times, the more the better.

Similar to the Chair Exercise, doing breaststroke kick on your stomach on land will help you master the first two steps of the breaststroke kick (heels to butt and flexing and turning out the feet) and help you avoid bad habits. You will lay down on your stomach, bring your heels towards your bottom, and then flex your feet and turn them out.

Now we will work our breaststroke kick on our bottoms. First we will work on just the feet. Flexing the feet, turning them, and then pointing and closing. Then we will add the leg into the mix. Step One: Bring Your Heels to Your Bottom. Step Two: Flex Your Feet and Turn Out. Step Three: Kick Out to the Side. Step Four: Point and Close.

Now we take the work we did with the prior two exercises (the Chair Exercise and Breaststroke on your bottom on land) and we take it to the water. With a noodle to start, you will do breaststroke kick backwards in the water. You can imagine yourself in the chair, bringing your heels back to your butt, and then hooking your feet around the imaginary chair legs. Once your feet are flexed and turned out finish off your backwards breaststroke by kicking out to the side and pointing and closing your feet.

Now we take the work we did in Lecture 10, practicing breaststroke kick on our stomach, and we put it in the water. With a noodle to start, we are on our stomach kicking breaststroke across the pool. Heels to butt, flex and turn out, kick out to the side, point and close.

Everything we've been working on has lead us to this final breaststroke exercise. We've done breaststroke backwards in the water as well as on our stomach, but now we will drop our legs directly underneath us and do breaststroke vertically. Same kick, but instead of in front or behind us, it's now below us. You should bob up and down. Start with one kick at a time and slowly build so that you can do many vertical breaststroke kicks in a row without stopping.

In order to transition from breaststroke kick to eggbeater kick we need to be able to do single leg breaststroke kicks. Up until now our breaststroke kick involved both legs at the same time, but now we will work on doing breaststroke kick one leg at a time.

This drill takes the Standing Single Leg Drill in the prior lecture and puts it in the water. Using a noodle to start, you will be moving backwards in the water. You will do two right leg breaststroke kicks, two left leg breaststroke kicks, and then two normal breaststroke kicks, then repeat. We are working on using the legs independently. Focus on the steps when you do a single leg kick. Heel to butt, flex the foot and turn out, kick out to the side, point and close. Once you feel comfortable with the drill using a noodle, you will do the same drill without the noodle using your sculling to keep yourself up.

Building off of the 2-2-2 Drill, we will now do an eggbeater kick with a pause in the middle. You will start in the step 2 position with your right leg. Remember the 2nd step is after you've brought your heel to your butt, then you turn and flex the foot to the outside. That's your starting point for the drill with your right leg while your left leg is long out in front of you. While you execute your Step 3  and 4 (kick out to the side, point and close) with your right leg, you will do Step 1 and 2 (heel to butt, flex the foot to the outside) with the left leg. You will kick and pause at Step 2 with each leg.

This is now the first time we are actually doing the eggbeater kick. Doing it backwards in the water with a noodle will allow you to do it slowly and focus on your steps. Take the pause out of the kick that we did in the Alternating Pause Drill and do the kick in one motion, albeit slowly. Be patient with yourself, this may take some time for your body to adjust and acclimate to this motion without stopping. Once you get comfortable doing it with the noodle, take the noodle off and use your sculling hands.

Now you are ready to try your eggbeater kick vertically and in the deep end. You've put in the hard work and now you get to see the fruits of your labor! Start with a noodle to take the pressure off and allow yourself to go slowly to start. Once you feel strong enough, take the noodle away and add your sculling hands. Then, once you feel strong enough with your sculling hands, challenge yourself by lifting your hands and maybe your arms out of the water.

3 Common Mistakes to Avoid. 1: Not flexing your foot after you bring your heel to your butt, this causes your foot to flop over when you kick out. 2: Turning the knee out to the side instead of turning out from the hip, this causes your eggbeater kick to go back and forth in a straight line. 3: Syncopation. You must kick evenly, as one leg is kicking down the other is coming up, syncopation will lead to bobbing up and down.