Water safety - honestly, it's no yoke!
So what is eggbeater? Well it has everything to do with water safety and efficiency and nothing to do with eggs!
To explain it in words, eggbeater is a form of treading water, a continuous alternating breaststroke kick movement where the legs rotate in circles inwards to stabilise the body and keep the head above water.
Why do you need to know this? Once mastered, eggbeater is far more energy efficient than treading water as it provides continuous support due to there being no break in the kick. It is taught as a stand alone skill that can easily be worked into your swimming lessons as a contrasting activity.
To demonstrate to you first hand how certain artistic swimming skills are taught, we have created a series of 'Live From The Pool' episodes. One of these key skills is eggbeater, and in this episode we demonstrate to you as swimming teachers, how to break the technique down so it is easier to understand and show it isn't as complicated to teach as it first looks.
We are on a mission to spread the word about how eggbeater is the most energy efficient way of treading water, therefore making it an essential lifesaving skill to master how to teach.
In this episode, we also show you some fun drills for your participants to practice whilst they progress with the technique of eggbeater.
Eggbeater is a skill that both artistic swimmers and water polo players use to keep their body upright in the water, move around the pool, freeing their hands and arms as well as maintaining a presentable height.
Eggbeater position teaching points
With the body upright and vertical, the legs are bent up to a right angle in front of the body, as if sitting on a chair
The knees should be apart, slightly wider than shoulder width
With the feet flexed and rotating from the knees, draw circles inwards with your heels using alternating legs
The right heel draws a circle counter clockwise and the left heel clockwise
Please note: This skill should only be attempted once your participants are fully warmed up and have done some breaststroke kick.
Once achieved, eggbeater provides participants with the most effective way of keeping their head above the water enabling them to have even more fun in the water in the safest way possible.