TREADING WATER It is generally imagined that treading water is a very easy method of progression, possibly because the action by which it is accomplished ap pears to be almost the same as that of walk ing. There are some preposterous stories as to the ability of the soldiers of Frederick the Great to cross rivers in this fashion with their arms and ammunition carried above the head, to pre vent damage by water ; and these legends are actually credited by many persons whose knowledge of swim ming is limited. In order to tread water properly, swimming must first of all be learnt, and to do it with ease the arms must be used as well as the legs ; otherwise the legs have to be moved so rapidly that exhaustion soon follows, for it is by no means a pleasure or a rest to keep the head on the surface by the action of the feet only when the body is in a perpendicular position.
There are three well-known methods of treading water, and since water-polo has come so much into vogue they have been far more practised, perhaps involuntarily, than was previously the case.
In the first method the hands are placed on the hips, the head is leant well back, the chest inflated, and the body brought to a perpendicular position. The legs are then moved alter
nately, the water being struck by the sole of the foot, and the legs kicked outwards from the knees to the front and then drawn backwards. This action causes the body to move forward.
The head is kept in its normal position in the second method, but the arms are folded across the chest. The legs are drawn alternately backwards, and the water struck by the front of the foot. When quick strokes are taken the body glides backwards.
. The third method is perhaps the most common. The arms are extended at right angles to the body, with the palms downwards, and the head remains in a normal position, with the chin just above the water. As regards the leg action, some swimmers use the downward or closing kick of the ordinary breast-stroke, while others adopt one of the other two methods just described ; but when both legs are used simultaneously the body remains almost in the same spot, although it rises con siderably out of the water at each kick.