This is a guide to doing the eggbeater kick. This is useful for treading water without using too much energy, playing water polo, and is essential if you want to do lifeguard training.
Make sure that you are keeping your body straight up and down. If you start to lean back or forward, your egg beater will propel you away from your starting position.
If you want to use the egg beater to move quickly without jerking your body (Lifeguard Tow) simply incline your body with your legs further towards the surface. You should be able to get a strong, constant movement going backwards.
If you find yourself getting sucked under the water instead of being pushed out of the water when doing the kick, you are probably moving your legs in the wrong direction, inverse your left and right legs from clockwise to counter clockwise, and so on.
After prolonged egg beater kicking, your shins will undoubtedly start hurting. This is normal, simply take a break and try again later or the next day. With practice and endurance, you will be able to egg beater much longer without the shin pain or discomfort.
Step1
The easiest way to start learning the egg beater is to sit on a chair. Put both of your right leg out and start to move it in a counter clockwise direction. Once you can do this pretty easily, stop with that leg and try your left leg going clockwise.
Step2
Once you can do step 1, continue sitting in the chair and start with your right leg going counter clockwise, when you have that going, add in your left leg going clockwise. If you can get the two motions moving together without smacking your legs against one another, you are successfully doing the proper motion for egg beater. There is a video of these two basic steps above.
Step3
Now that you have figured out the basic motions, it is about time you hop in the water. Just give it a try. It will be difficult. If you keep practicing, you should hopefully eventually be able to keep yourself a float.
Step4
To get endurance, keep practicing for one, but also try doing it without using your hands for help. Then try doing it with your hands out of the water. Next try with your arms out of the water. Then your shoulders, and so on.
Step5
To get power in your egg beater, you have to keep your legs apart and sit in a squatting position. Make the leg strokes moving towards the center of your body very strong and pronounced, this will help add a bit of power.
Step6
If you have any questions about trouble shooting your egg beater, just leave a comment and I can message you back a possible solution.
on 7/25/2008
egg beater is meant to provide you a stable way to move a victim out of the water, especially when your victim is suspected of a head/spinal injury. scissor kick is way to "jerky" to move a spinal victim, if you cannot do eggbeater you might want to consider guarding the shallow end of your pool or even the baby pool ;P but seriously if I was doing the hiring and you can't do excellent egg beater for a prolong time you won't get the job, so practice your egg beater at a lap swim (hands out), you can even use a 10/20 weight to help develop a very strong egg beater.
on 6/8/2008
Well the idea with the feet being horizontal or not depends on whether you want to have power, or longevity. Your feet are acting like paddles so if they are pointed too much, you will not be pushing any water, and will thus not be keeping yourself out of the water. When you are practicing, try and move your feet around to find the positions that provide the most force. When you get more experienced, you will find your ankles rotating depending on what part of the stroke you are on, so it is one of those "comes with experience things".
As to a training routine, once you get the whole motion down, you should immediately get away from the side of the pool. Go in the shallow end and life off the ground and start doing the eggbeater. How long you should do it depends on what your training for. If you just want to be proficient, simply do it until you are pretty tired (but you should
on 6/6/2008
I have just started to learn the eggbeater style. I noticed in your video that your feet are horizontal. When I've practiced I've had my toes pointed down. Should I keep my feet horizontal?
I am also curious if you could recommend a training routine. At the moment I've been holding on to the side of the pool to get used to the motion. I do about 5 minutes twice a week. Is this enough?
Thank you
Enthusiast 
Comments
alexn said
on 7/25/2008 egg beater is meant to provide you a stable way to move a victim out of the water, especially when your victim is suspected of a head/spinal injury. scissor kick is way to "jerky" to move a spinal victim, if you cannot do eggbeater you might want to consider guarding the shallow end of your pool or even the baby pool ;P but seriously if I was doing the hiring and you can't do excellent egg beater for a prolong time you won't get the job, so practice your egg beater at a lap swim (hands out), you can even use a 10/20 weight to help develop a very strong egg beater.
scuub said
on 7/1/2008 Is this style more important to a lifeguard or is the scissor kick style better?
scuub said
on 7/1/2008 Is the scissor kick way of staying afloat more important than the eggbeater style? For someone who's taking lifesaving course I mean.
CMorin said
on 6/8/2008 Well the idea with the feet being horizontal or not depends on whether you want to have power, or longevity. Your feet are acting like paddles so if they are pointed too much, you will not be pushing any water, and will thus not be keeping yourself out of the water. When you are practicing, try and move your feet around to find the positions that provide the most force. When you get more experienced, you will find your ankles rotating depending on what part of the stroke you are on, so it is one of those "comes with experience things".
As to a training routine, once you get the whole motion down, you should immediately get away from the side of the pool. Go in the shallow end and life off the ground and start doing the eggbeater. How long you should do it depends on what your training for. If you just want to be proficient, simply do it until you are pretty tired (but you should
Kepo said
on 6/6/2008 I have just started to learn the eggbeater style. I noticed in your video that your feet are horizontal. When I've practiced I've had my toes pointed down. Should I keep my feet horizontal?
I am also curious if you could recommend a training routine. At the moment I've been holding on to the side of the pool to get used to the motion. I do about 5 minutes twice a week. Is this enough?
Thank you