November 01, 0 Comments. October 28, 0 Comments. October 22, 0 Comments. What is the most important thing to keep yourself from drowning? Getting out of the water — but treading water is a close second! Body Position When treading water, your body stays upright, head above the surface. Arms Move your arms horizontally in the water, back and forth.
Legs There are lots of different ways to kick your legs when treading water. Scott Walker. Everyone is capable of feeling healthy and full of life- no matter your age! But, that isn't going to happen by chance, it requires action. That's why we put together 4 quick and easy tips for you on how to improve your life right now! One simple change that makes all the difference. Its effects are instantaneous, and they never stop working. Navy makes no mention of conserving energy by treading water in its Swimming and Water Survival manual.
Instead, it states that keeping your head out of water takes significant effort. The U. Navy recommends treading water to check for floating objects, survivors, and rescue crafts, and while activating flotation equipment or signaling for rescue.
Lifeguards and water polo players also find value in treading water. Both often use the eggbeater kick to tread water so that their hands are free. When it comes to conserving energy, however, treading water is not the best choice. Floating requires less energy. Treading water can be very effective in the situations described above. In sudden accidents, soldiers are able to tread water to assess their surroundings, look for other survivors, activate flotation devices, and call for rescue.
Lifeguards can free the use of their hands to help swimmers. Athletes participating in water polo and synchronized swimming similarly tread water to remain upright and have independent use of their arms. How effective is treading water for young swimmers? The American Red Cross does include treading water for one minute as part of their water competency skills.
Being able to tread water for one minute may provide time to signal for help, but as we previously discussed, it takes quite a lot of energy to tread water for any length of time. Effectiveness can also depend on the circumstances.
This frequency analysis was done by visual inspection using the video-recorded data and the average time of nine movement cycles. Three movement cycles were taken just after 30 s, three cycles just after 60 s, and three cycles just after 90 s. For the WF condition, the changing current predominantly determined limb movement frequency; hence, the frequency analysis was not performed in this condition.
The TW patterns were initially categorized based on the preferred pattern adopted in the BA condition i. The total number of pattern changes in each condition were also counted i. The pattern distribution used in the two categories was compared graphically with violin plots and also with Kruskal-Wallis tests. We were also interested in exploring whether a hysteresis effect exists for aquatic locomotion.
In the WF condition, the currents at which transitions between treading water and swimming occurred were recorded and compared. A paired sample t -test was run to contrast the current at which the transition from TW to swimming increasing occurred in relation to the transition from swimming to TW decreasing.
All dependent variables were checked for the assumptions of parametric tests and only weight did not meet these assumptions. Further analysis identified a single outlier for weight which was not removed from further analyses since the buoyancy variable was normally distributed.
However, there were no significant sex differences in terms of the patterns adopted over conditions, and the frequency of arms and legs in the BA condition.
It was therefore assumed that sex did not have a significant influence upon the coordination patterns adopted and was not included in the remaining analysis. The distribution N of participants who performed each coordination pattern in the baseline BA condition is depicted in the leftmost column of Table 3. N c depicts the number of participants that showed within-condition pattern changes. The seven changers tended to use less efficient TW patterns i. The green boxes denote the median and the red crosses denote the mean average.
The wider the shape, the more frequently the TW patterns were expressed. The longer the shape, the larger the interquartile distribution. Interestingly, there were fewer overall pattern changes in the CL condition as compared to the BA condition 18 vs.
There were only eight changes within the DT condition, compared to 28 within the BA condition. In the WF condition, all 18 participants who completed this condition started using one of the four patterns listed in Table 3.
No clear order of swimming techniques breaststroke and freestyle was used at the higher currents, since some participants started with breaststroke and then freestyle, while others only used breaststroke or freestyle. In Figure 3 , the overall course of movement pattern transitions is shown. As expected, all participants changed their movement from TW to swimming when the current increased and back to TW when the current decreased.
Overall, there were 58 transitions between patterns in this condition with each participant making between two and four changes.
Participants who changed from either pattern 2 or pattern 3 to swimming transitioned at the same or higher current than from swimming back to TW. However, for individuals performing pattern 4, this group effect was not the same since they were already treading water at 0. This exploratory study considered how TW patterns were adapted to altered task and environmental constraints. In general, the results suggest that people use robust TW movement patterns that do not easily change to other patterns when constraints change.
Overall four TW patterns were identified Table 3 , in line with past studies Schnitzler et al. The radical embodied cognition approach to behavior emphasizes how humans learn to move adaptively as constraints change e. In the current research, we explored the effects of a continuous cognitive demand on TW performance by using a dual task. Previous research on land-based locomotion had indicated that the performance of the primary task i.
One interpretation of this discrepancy is that primary task activities that are visually guided like walking are more vulnerable to dual-task disruption than those that do not rely heavily on continuous visual regulation like TW. Another possible explanation is that participants were able to freely switch attention between the dual tasks without significantly disrupting performance of the coordination pattern used in the primary task see Verhaeghen and Basak, The BA condition of this research might have been too monotonous, which invited individuals to explore see Newell, and try out other ways to tread water and therefore more shifts in the BA condition than in DT resulted.
Furthermore, in real-life drowning situations, typical dual task scenarios would likely be much more demanding i. It was notable that changes in coordination do occur when the current of the water alters.
Rather than transitioning from TW to swimming due to spatial restrictions of the flume, we believe that participants change because it becomes a more streamline efficient position to comfortably adopt in the moving water.
Movement patterns of low stability levels are more vulnerable to transitions as has been shown for example in human hand movements e. Individuals performing the eggbeater pattern pattern 4 were able to maintain treading water in faster flowing conditions compared to individuals performing the other TW patterns Figure 3.
However, note that these pattern transitions due to water flow were mainly changes between treading water and swimming, not often between the four different TW patterns.
Not only did individuals using pattern 4 maintain it at higher speeds in the WF condition, they also made no changes within the BA condition and were more often categorized in the non-changers group.
We interpret these findings as indicative of greater relative stability in pattern 4 compared to the three other patterns. Nevertheless, the movement frequency of the legs was higher compared to the other patterns Table 3 , so pattern 4 might be more physically demanding.
As the asynchronous sculling of legs putatively generates smaller lift forces albeit continuously in contrast to the synchronous pattern 3, a quicker cycling action i.
Consequently, if in a survival situation an individual needed to tread water for extended periods of time, the more stable pattern may not necessarily be the most efficient pattern to adopt. It is also likely that the stability of this pattern might be related to specific experience, since pattern 4 is often used by water polo players and synchronized swimmers Sanders, ; Homma and Homma, It will be important for future research to compare the relative benefit to be gained from using the different TW patterns particularly in terms of energy efficiency and past experience.
Additionally, an important future consideration will be the extent to which vertical and horizontal transfer exists between skills such as treading water and associated activities like swimming. Our results also show for the first time that a hysteresis effect may exist between TW and swimming, which is mediated by TW expertise. In more detail, the transition from TW to swimming tended to occur at a higher current than when switching back to TW in patterns 2 and 3 see Figure 3 , whereas the transition from TW to swimming in pattern 4 occurred at a lower current than when switching back to TW.
One interpretation of this indicative finding is that pattern 4 possesses more inherent stability than the other three patterns and is more resistant to the external perturbation of water flow. Further research is needed to formally model and confirm the indicative hysteresis effect more thoroughly than we have been able to in this exploratory study. Importantly, participants were not told how to tread water but simply to maintain a stable position in the water. Had we instructed participants to resist transitions between patterns as long as possible, then different behaviors might have resulted, but that was not the main focus of the study.
This analysis of emergent behavior is typical of previous dynamic systems research and extends land-based treadmill studies to aquatic locomotion e. Still the question remains: do we need to change patterns to be able to cope with the different aquatic circumstances regarding dynamic, open water environments? Therefore if in open water, these participants mentioned they would just go with the flow and keep themselves afloat. Resisting a current might not be the most effective strategy to survive e.
In this study, we tried to recreate typical constraints that might affect the capacity for people to tread water in open water situations. However, closely simulating all features of open water situations in a flume was not possible.
In open water, there is no need to stay at the same place in the current most of the time, but due to material conditions of the testing environment the participants had to avoid moving toward the end and sides of the flume.
While the spatial restrictions imposed may have admittedly influenced behavior as they undoubtedly do in treadmill locomotion , the control procedures employed were necessary for logistic and safety reasons.
It is also possible that fatigue may have influenced whether participants made transitions between patterns particularly among less skilled participants. As fatigue was not a focus of this investigation albeit an important topic worthy of future consideration , the procedure was designed to limit the amount of time exercising in each condition to no more than 5 min and with ample opportunity to rest between conditions.
Furthermore, anxiety undoubtedly plays an influential role in most survival situations, but for ethical reasons fear could not be induced within these controlled laboratory-based settings. Lastly, buoyancy forces will vary among the population for example due to different weather conditions and clothing worn Barwood et al.
For comparison between participants, a standard set of clothing was imposed, but that limits generalization to all immersion situations in which clothing is varied.
Despite such limitations due to the testing conditions, it is important to know the potential disruptions typical constraints can have on TW. This knowledge will help in further research about the prevention of drowning. This study suggests that different TW patterns may be expected from the general population and that such movement patterns are fairly robust to different circumstances.
Some patterns are more effective at generating lift force and resisting the influence of altered constraints. The leg kick lateral sculling movements and asynchronous coordination thereof may mean that this pattern requires considerable practice and instruction to perform effectively. When designing a representative training environment, water safety instructors should try to enrich practice with different sets of constraints, i. As cognitive function does not seem to be hampered by treading pattern, it seems advisable to create scenarios that promote problem solving and decision-making while practicing TW.
Finally, it is important to note that a stable movement pattern could be life-preserving in a threatening situation. The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Human Ethics Committee, University of Otago.
The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. LB conducted the data collection and data analysis and lead wrote the first draft of the article. CS provided advice on qualitative analysis and data interpretation, as well as editing the final draft. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The authors wish to thank Brandon Rasman for his assistance in creating Figure 2. Exemplary video of treading water pattern 1 according to the classification scheme of Schnitzler et al. Exemplary video of treading water pattern 2 according to the classification scheme of Schnitzler et al. Exemplary video of treading water pattern 3 according to the classification scheme of Schnitzler et al.
Exemplary video of treading water pattern 4 according to the classification scheme of Schnitzler et al. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U.
Journal List Front Psychol v. Front Psychol. Published online Dec 5. Harjo J. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer.
Reviewed by: Cynthia Y. This article was submitted to Movement Science and Sport Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Received May 31; Accepted Oct The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author s and the copyright owner s are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice.
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