Learn to tread water: breaststroke-style legs and sculling keep your head up in deep water. Step by step, with an emergency alternative and honest limits.
Treading water means holding yourself upright in deep water with your head above the surface, without making headway. The honest answer to "Which technique is best?": for most people, upright breaststroke legs. In a study with 21 water polo players, 15 intermediate and 16 inexperienced swimmers, the eggbeater (the water polo players' rotary kick) gave low load for the experts – but the upright breaststroke pattern had the most favourable cognitive economy for all groups, and the authors call it an adequate alternative in survival situations [1].
Why it matters: being able to tread water well can improve the likelihood of survival after accidental immersion [1]. And it is part of what the DLRG (German Life Saving Society) calls "safe swimming" – being able to swim 15 minutes without support in deep water, orient yourself underwater, and at least master the tuck jump and the head-first jump [3].
Be realistic: to stay calmly afloat for 3 minutes you usually need several sessions of regular practice (rule of thumb, not a study value). The eggbeater takes much longer – and you don't need it.
Hold the pool edge with your upper body upright. Try the breaststroke kick hanging at the edge: bend the knees, turn the feet outward, kick in a circle backward and downward. Then the hands alone: small figure-eights in front of your body, just below the surface [7]. Milestone: both movements run evenly on their own.
Now let go of the edge. The upright breaststroke kick is symmetrical – both legs work together – and therefore the most favourable cognitively for all groups [1]. Your hands support you with sculling at the surface. Keep breathing normally and calmly through the mouth. Milestone (practice benchmark): 30 seconds with your chin above water.
Beginners found flutter kick (alternating legs) and breaststroke kick the least strenuous; in heart rate and oxygen uptake the techniques did not differ in this group [1]. Try both and stay with the one that lets you breathe more calmly.
Increase the time in small steps. Three minutes was the measurement duration in the study [1] – a good test for you. Rest at the edge in between. Milestone: 3 minutes in which you keep your face dry and can speak.
Treading water is not a long-term solution. If you tire, turn onto your back and float with small paddling movements – exactly what the DLRG requires in its Juniorretter badge (self-rescue exercise): 4 minutes of floating on the back with paddling movements [3]. Milestone: you switch between treading and back floating without rushing.
The eggbeater is the rotary kick of water polo players and artistic swimmers. Good execution: knees high and wide apart, kick sideways rather than downward, move the feet like the hands in sculling [5]. It works best when you manage high hip flexion and fast knee extension [6]. For beginners it is hard to coordinate [1] – practise it only after the breaststroke kick.
If you want to tread water safely, also practise treading water with no kick at all [7]: only the hands scull, the legs hang loose. Someone who keeps their head up this way has a reserve in case of cramp or exhaustion, because the legs are allowed to rest.
Treading water does not appear as an examination item in the DLRG examination regulations (2025 edition), so there is no fixed standard time [3]. As a target for yourself: 3 minutes staying calmly afloat – the participants in the study treaded for that long too [1]. For emergencies, the DLRG additionally trains 4 minutes of back floating [3].
For beginners, flutter kick and breaststroke kick were the least strenuous; among the experts, breaststroke and eggbeater patterns gave lower load [1]. The upright breaststroke kick is the best all-round choice.
No. It is hard to coordinate and not necessary for many people; the study's authors call the upright breaststroke technique an adequate alternative in survival situations [1].
No. When you tire, float on your back with small paddling movements – the DLRG trains this in the self-rescue exercise of its Juniorretter badge [3].
Head-First Jump from the Pool Edge: Learn Safely, Check the Depth