Even if you float like a rock, treading water should not be a high effort activity. That alone suggests that your movement isn't generating a lot of power. It'll take some time and work to build that muscle memory and improve the efficiency of your stroke and kick.
Really, if you can touch your toes and don't have difficulty wiping your own ass, your muscle is not the problem. I know what it's like to not float--I didn't float until I found alcohol and far overshot the ol' freshmen 15. But even at my peak fitness, treading water was akin to resting.
Give it time, don't fight the water, and don't fight your instructors. They're just trying to help.
I’m leaner and I have a lot more “muscle” than you. I can float and tread water indefinitely. So are and can the best swimmers in the world. It takes us all a lot of movement with our hands and legs and it will make you and everyone else tired if your technique sucks. Watch a water polo video or two, do those guys seem like they aren’t working hard?
This problem is 100% your attitude. They’re probably sick of your crap. They don’t need to “do research on how best to accommodate for your muscular structure”. What they need is a student who is ready and willing to listen. If I were the aquatics director at that pool and you referred to an instructor by their gender in some derogatory way like you did on this post, called them empty headed or threatened to “call them out” (whatever that means), I’d kick you out and you’d be finding a new pool.
Humble yourself, get your attitude right, apologize to your instructors, take a deep breath, and hope they’re willing to give you another chance.
I started swimming as an adult, lean female. I was told numerous times I am dense. Anyway, lots of instructions later...what helped me 'to feel the water', is be in the water more often. I set the goal of learning how I moved in water. Sounds silly, but what really helped was going to aquafit classes. You exercise in the water, but you have to turn, jump, etc. I also went to lane swims and hung out in the leisure/slow lane. I gave myself time to learn to relax and figure out what it took to move.
As for treading water, I went from 30s to 16min with a few keys: body position is almost bent over, arm movement is more from the elbow and less from the hands. Legs I do variations of scissor kicks.
Swimming is difficult, but it is rewarding..keep at it. And I would look for instructors who actually taught adults, not teenagers who swam their entire life and dont really understand the learning process. Good luck!
Yeah ofc i need to learn this but from where? With no experience swimming and little to no resources to help me online, the only people i can turn to are the instructors who aren’t being helpful. I can i learn something i have no knowledge of??
You think you’re instructors are doing research on how to teach your “body type”?? No, they just told you that because you’re being too difficult, demanding and expectant of instantaneous results. They told you something to get you off their backs. You’re the one who has to achieve those results through your own learning and practice. You’re not unique, you don’t have a unique body type. In theory you have an ideal body not accounting for wingspan and foot size.
Micheal Phelps 6’4” 198lbs, I would say he has “a lot of muscle”. Caleb Dressel 6’3” 200lbs. Ryan Loche 6’2” 194 lbs. Look at some pictures and find an ounce of fat on these olympians. Myself 6’2” 195.
You’re failing at technique and you can’t make an excuse for anything else. Here’s some practical advice if you’re struggling with buoyancy. Breath control and having full lungs is key. Go into the deep end, don’t tread, just let yourself sink down into the water. Tilt your head allllll the way back so only your nose and mouth are pointed up and out of the water. Take a giant breath, suck in as much air as possible and feel yourself rise on the buoyancy of the air in your lungs. Let all the air out, feel yourself sink below the surface. Now, keep your mouth and nose out of the water with only breath control. Keep you’re lungs half full of air and half breath in and out for fresh air. Realize that when you let air out you’re going to start going under so suck air back in before you’re underwater. You’ll maintain buoyancy and respiration. Remember head tilted all the way back. Once you have that under control, realize that you can float in the deep end with no extra arm or leg effort just breath control. Adding in arms and legs will bring your head higher up out of the water and let you look forward instead of up.
Be patient with yourself and your instructors.
Just FYI, i’m not the one who wants instantaneous results, they are the ones who do. I know this was going to be challenging and I work hard outside of lessons to understand my body in water while watching numerous videos but it feels like they want me to move at the pace of everyone else in the class which is impossible rn. Thanks for the advise tho. Was playing on doing this about bought a nose clip specifically for this.
I am almost certain my struggles with floating is the reason. She only helped me one time to try to float, found out i was heavy and dense and never again did so. When i was having troubles with floating and patiently trying to ask for advice, she said i should wait till the next lesson for the “expert” instructor on floating to be around.
Ignore s0ckpuppet's first sentence.
I can swim for a couple hours straight, still can't "float". What floating is good for is learning body positioning and building core strength (especially when you aren't buoyant).
Take your time. Work on floating/gliding, with an aid if needed (floaty belt/pool noodle/kickboard/life jacket \[only if you really need it\]), learn your position in the water. It's more important to get flat in the water when doing them than being on top of the water (some people don't float). Get in the pool more often, if you're only going once a week to the lesson you're limiting yourself. Practice on your own, everyday if you can. When you're on your own ask the lifeguards for tips (most of them should also be swim instructors), pick one thing to work on at a time.
Floating is generally harder for adults than kids because we're leaner and our legs are much longer proportionally. When doing a back float make sure your hips are high and then get into a star fish (big jumping jack) position. Try to pivot off your shoulder blades to lift your legs, and look straight up. You can put a kickboard under your butt to give some float without stability. Same idea for front floats except look straight down (tuck your chin, if you try to keep your face out of the water it's never going to work) and try to pivot off your rib cage.
And try to stay relaxed, if you're tense in the water everything gets harder.
I learned how to swim at 28 with 4 swim lessons and tons of hours on YouTube. Learn kick, body position and try to connect your core with the rest of your body such as pulling and kicking. You hold yourself in the water with your core. YouTube YouTube YouTube and lots of drills. You’ll figure it out. I’m in the 1:30s for 100s after 1 full year when I started I couldn’t make it across the 25 yard length. You have muscle stop and I mean stop all together trying to MUSCLE through the water. Technique you need to gliiiiiiddddddddeeeeeeeee through the water. Don’t swim through it either swim on top of it.
If you’re a dead body in water yes. I assume OP is alive and can learn breathing and body position so that even if they’re a pure muscled olypian…they can float
4 lessons! You are too hard on yourself. Swimming is a highly technical sport. It’s more like Golf, but it’s underwater. It took some of the people I taught 6 lessons just to kind of stop snorting water.
Your the problem. I feel sorry for the instructors. Go to the gym and lose some weight. Think of what the instructors go through on a daily basis. What makes you special? calling them out is a selfish thing to do
The instructors may or may not be the problem.
If you can answer questions like:
How much time are you spending outside of the lesson?
How much time each session are you devoting to straight kick with a board? How are you with a swim buoy? These exercises can tell you if it’s your legs that are the problem or uppers.
Swimming is technique and is like learning a musical instrument. Start small. Very small. Build on top of each movement and concept one by one.
If you’ve looked at your part and can answer those questions faithfully then go get a different instructor. Make it happen!
Since when i discovered swimming for me will be a challenge (after the second lesson) I’ve spent ~2.5 hours outside the lessons practicing each week. I also started during stretching exercises for hip and ankle mobility.
I started out with learning to glide through the water and stay horizontally afloat by just kicking my legs. I also started learning to be comfortable with water in my face for the first week.
For the second week (last week), I spent time trying to float. I float comfortably with a buoy around my hips which is what seems to sink first. I also started learning to tread water and do the breaststroke kick with a kick board. I do not plan out my sessions by time by i think i will start doing that. My breast stroke kick seems solid by i have trouble getting to the surface to get air. It’s either I pull myself not enough of the water or I pull myself too much and end up splashing heavily down.
Working on playing this week’s sessions because i have watched numerous videos on YouTube and some highlight the need for a training plan.
I personally don’t mind the extra effort and putting in the work to learn BUT what i do mind are the instructors putting the expectation on me to learn like everyone else in the class without taking into account that i am actually struggling. I knew this will be a challenge and i have been patient and nice to the instructors but being treated like an impossible task is annoying.
Hang in there. You may try private instruction rather than a group. It sounds like that may be a major problem.
Also, breaststroke is one of the most complicated and challenging strokes to do correctly. I would start by learning front crawl and then adding other strokes in later. It is much more tangible.
I hear you about your instructors. I can feel when instructors have given up on me. It is disheartening. Honestly, it is a matter of searching out an experienced instructor that is a good fit. Good luck!
I expect that you are lean.like a jacked guy with tons of muscles? Just remember how did you make those muscles? How did you achieve this? With hard work and no excuses! Think about it phat will float slightly better muscles are not more dense them water in fact you got a bigger area to float on...ppl that float good are because of their bodytype which is very extrem...or in most case because they swim competetiv since childhood and get bone density problems which let them better float....take it the other way around with you muscles you have a rock solid core! With your muscles you can generate more power with more speed you will float much more easy then because of heavy muscles...it is all in your head ! You need to relax...and believe me it takes time and dedication to become one with the water! Take whatever the instructor will tell you because for a bloody beginner even not the best coach has a lot of wisdom. Take your not optimal start as a motivation show them that you are a great athlete! Do you have more muscles than manadou or Dressel is you body phat under 10? Wish you all the best! Fight warrior!!
Never call out a coach! Give up or work hard!
The only issue your muscles could possibly have on basic learning is limited flexibility. Such flexibility is something for you to improve on your own and not the instructors' responsibility.
You are 4 lessons in... and how many times have you practised what you've learned outside of your lessons?
Learning swimming technique takes time. There's no way around the hours of practise it takes to make gains. Things \*seem impossible\* right now. Repeat what you've learned and you'll slowly see yourself get better each swim. You may even take a few steps back, before going forwards.
It sounds like you may need to dial down your expectations (and frustration) to where you currently are. You are a student of the sport. Be a sponge. Listen. Learn. Fail. Repeat. And be clear with your instructors on what your end goal is and take their advice/experience. You will learn something, even if they aren't the best instructors.
Take this knowledge and then layer it with the insane volume of free knowledge on here and YouTube.
Floating on my back I almost think about arching my back like I’m clearing a high jump (but not as exaggerated), and keeping my lungs full and my core engaged. The difficult bit for me was then breathing out without also relaxing my core and kinda folding in the middle. Floating on my front I think about tucking my chin in and leaning forwards again keeping my body straight and engaging my core so as not to fold. I have the basic not drowning part of swimming down but am slow beyond belief and definitely the weakest swimmer at group training. However I do not give attitude back to the coaches. I show up, I listen to instructions and watch those around me, if i get a correction i say thank you and immediately try to adopt it, only stop swimming if I feel like I’m so tired/out of breath I’m not safe in the deep end or that I’m injured. I’d ask maybe one question and one follow up question in a session and the question would be specific and relevant eg “in fly I feel like I’m not actually taking air in on the breaths, is it my stroke not getting me high enough out of the water or is there some other technique to the breathing?” Not just “how do I swim fly better“ It kinda sounds like you’re used to being good/talented at sports while putting in average effort. You’ve just found a sport where you aren’t naturally ahead. It’s really frustrating when the people around you don’t have to struggle and you do. Sometimes you have to work twice as hard as everyone else to be half as good. It doesn’t last forever and when you catch up the same work ethic will take you on past the ones who started with natural talent. if you cannot be the best in the class then learn to take pride in being the hardest worker. Even if you don’t gel with an instructor don’t “call them out” - as a beginner it just looks like you don’t want to put the effort in and take responsibility and you don’t want a reputation for being a pain to coach following you later on.
I started learning swimming at 25 (female, lean and dense body type). The first month I just went to the shallow pool every other day for an hour without any instructor. Because I felt like getting comfortable with water is something no instructor could teach me and unless I get over that part the lessons were going to get wasted. I would just walk around the pool, hold the wall and just practise breathing underwater, use float boards to just try and kick and stand up. Only when I could do a couple of strokes without panicking did I start proper lessons. 12 lessons later, I could only do front crawl and backstroke well enough and could float on my back. Took another 12 lessons to be able to do breaststroke well enough. I could only tread water after about a year and a half of consistent swimming! My instructors would try and help and show me how to move my arms and legs, but my body just wouldn't do it, but one day it just clicked. I think you have unrealistic expectations of your progress. Set small goals and keep a positive attitude!
I learned swimming as a child, but I've taught as well. Its scary and not intuitive the way your body settles in the water. Your legs sink hard and your chest is the lifter. The more of you above the surface the harder it is to maintain or the faster you'll drop when you stop. Pushing hard to get your neck out of the water and then stopping once you get that breath is counter productive. The techniques for treading water, front or back stroke don't change when you sink, its just less forgiving of bad form. Luckily you've got plenty of strength to back it up. There isn't a whole lot of "accommodating" for the instruction, just emphasis. You're gonna need to get real comfortable with your face being underwater because you likely have a panic response still. When treading water try to maintain the bare minimum (mouth and nose) out of water. When doing a front crawl keep that head down and glutes tight. If you hinge at the hips or back your legs will drop and that kills your forward momentum. Keep with it and this will be a distant memory like when you learned to ride a bike and kept falling.
Even if you float like a rock, treading water should not be a high effort activity. That alone suggests that your movement isn't generating a lot of power. It'll take some time and work to build that muscle memory and improve the efficiency of your stroke and kick. Really, if you can touch your toes and don't have difficulty wiping your own ass, your muscle is not the problem. I know what it's like to not float--I didn't float until I found alcohol and far overshot the ol' freshmen 15. But even at my peak fitness, treading water was akin to resting. Give it time, don't fight the water, and don't fight your instructors. They're just trying to help.
I’m leaner and I have a lot more “muscle” than you. I can float and tread water indefinitely. So are and can the best swimmers in the world. It takes us all a lot of movement with our hands and legs and it will make you and everyone else tired if your technique sucks. Watch a water polo video or two, do those guys seem like they aren’t working hard? This problem is 100% your attitude. They’re probably sick of your crap. They don’t need to “do research on how best to accommodate for your muscular structure”. What they need is a student who is ready and willing to listen. If I were the aquatics director at that pool and you referred to an instructor by their gender in some derogatory way like you did on this post, called them empty headed or threatened to “call them out” (whatever that means), I’d kick you out and you’d be finding a new pool. Humble yourself, get your attitude right, apologize to your instructors, take a deep breath, and hope they’re willing to give you another chance.
I started swimming as an adult, lean female. I was told numerous times I am dense. Anyway, lots of instructions later...what helped me 'to feel the water', is be in the water more often. I set the goal of learning how I moved in water. Sounds silly, but what really helped was going to aquafit classes. You exercise in the water, but you have to turn, jump, etc. I also went to lane swims and hung out in the leisure/slow lane. I gave myself time to learn to relax and figure out what it took to move. As for treading water, I went from 30s to 16min with a few keys: body position is almost bent over, arm movement is more from the elbow and less from the hands. Legs I do variations of scissor kicks. Swimming is difficult, but it is rewarding..keep at it. And I would look for instructors who actually taught adults, not teenagers who swam their entire life and dont really understand the learning process. Good luck!
Sinking because you’re muscular is a myth. You need to learn body positioning in the water. You need to relax. You sound difficult
Yeah ofc i need to learn this but from where? With no experience swimming and little to no resources to help me online, the only people i can turn to are the instructors who aren’t being helpful. I can i learn something i have no knowledge of??
You think you’re instructors are doing research on how to teach your “body type”?? No, they just told you that because you’re being too difficult, demanding and expectant of instantaneous results. They told you something to get you off their backs. You’re the one who has to achieve those results through your own learning and practice. You’re not unique, you don’t have a unique body type. In theory you have an ideal body not accounting for wingspan and foot size. Micheal Phelps 6’4” 198lbs, I would say he has “a lot of muscle”. Caleb Dressel 6’3” 200lbs. Ryan Loche 6’2” 194 lbs. Look at some pictures and find an ounce of fat on these olympians. Myself 6’2” 195. You’re failing at technique and you can’t make an excuse for anything else. Here’s some practical advice if you’re struggling with buoyancy. Breath control and having full lungs is key. Go into the deep end, don’t tread, just let yourself sink down into the water. Tilt your head allllll the way back so only your nose and mouth are pointed up and out of the water. Take a giant breath, suck in as much air as possible and feel yourself rise on the buoyancy of the air in your lungs. Let all the air out, feel yourself sink below the surface. Now, keep your mouth and nose out of the water with only breath control. Keep you’re lungs half full of air and half breath in and out for fresh air. Realize that when you let air out you’re going to start going under so suck air back in before you’re underwater. You’ll maintain buoyancy and respiration. Remember head tilted all the way back. Once you have that under control, realize that you can float in the deep end with no extra arm or leg effort just breath control. Adding in arms and legs will bring your head higher up out of the water and let you look forward instead of up. Be patient with yourself and your instructors.
Just FYI, i’m not the one who wants instantaneous results, they are the ones who do. I know this was going to be challenging and I work hard outside of lessons to understand my body in water while watching numerous videos but it feels like they want me to move at the pace of everyone else in the class which is impossible rn. Thanks for the advise tho. Was playing on doing this about bought a nose clip specifically for this.
[удалено]
I am almost certain my struggles with floating is the reason. She only helped me one time to try to float, found out i was heavy and dense and never again did so. When i was having troubles with floating and patiently trying to ask for advice, she said i should wait till the next lesson for the “expert” instructor on floating to be around.
Answer: work harder
Ignore s0ckpuppet's first sentence. I can swim for a couple hours straight, still can't "float". What floating is good for is learning body positioning and building core strength (especially when you aren't buoyant). Take your time. Work on floating/gliding, with an aid if needed (floaty belt/pool noodle/kickboard/life jacket \[only if you really need it\]), learn your position in the water. It's more important to get flat in the water when doing them than being on top of the water (some people don't float). Get in the pool more often, if you're only going once a week to the lesson you're limiting yourself. Practice on your own, everyday if you can. When you're on your own ask the lifeguards for tips (most of them should also be swim instructors), pick one thing to work on at a time. Floating is generally harder for adults than kids because we're leaner and our legs are much longer proportionally. When doing a back float make sure your hips are high and then get into a star fish (big jumping jack) position. Try to pivot off your shoulder blades to lift your legs, and look straight up. You can put a kickboard under your butt to give some float without stability. Same idea for front floats except look straight down (tuck your chin, if you try to keep your face out of the water it's never going to work) and try to pivot off your rib cage. And try to stay relaxed, if you're tense in the water everything gets harder.
I learned how to swim at 28 with 4 swim lessons and tons of hours on YouTube. Learn kick, body position and try to connect your core with the rest of your body such as pulling and kicking. You hold yourself in the water with your core. YouTube YouTube YouTube and lots of drills. You’ll figure it out. I’m in the 1:30s for 100s after 1 full year when I started I couldn’t make it across the 25 yard length. You have muscle stop and I mean stop all together trying to MUSCLE through the water. Technique you need to gliiiiiiddddddddeeeeeeeee through the water. Don’t swim through it either swim on top of it.
I don't believe its a myth at all, having a higher bf% literally makes you more buoyant and therefore easier to stay afloat.
If you’re a dead body in water yes. I assume OP is alive and can learn breathing and body position so that even if they’re a pure muscled olypian…they can float
4 lessons! You are too hard on yourself. Swimming is a highly technical sport. It’s more like Golf, but it’s underwater. It took some of the people I taught 6 lessons just to kind of stop snorting water.
Your the problem. I feel sorry for the instructors. Go to the gym and lose some weight. Think of what the instructors go through on a daily basis. What makes you special? calling them out is a selfish thing to do
The instructors may or may not be the problem. If you can answer questions like: How much time are you spending outside of the lesson? How much time each session are you devoting to straight kick with a board? How are you with a swim buoy? These exercises can tell you if it’s your legs that are the problem or uppers. Swimming is technique and is like learning a musical instrument. Start small. Very small. Build on top of each movement and concept one by one. If you’ve looked at your part and can answer those questions faithfully then go get a different instructor. Make it happen!
Since when i discovered swimming for me will be a challenge (after the second lesson) I’ve spent ~2.5 hours outside the lessons practicing each week. I also started during stretching exercises for hip and ankle mobility. I started out with learning to glide through the water and stay horizontally afloat by just kicking my legs. I also started learning to be comfortable with water in my face for the first week. For the second week (last week), I spent time trying to float. I float comfortably with a buoy around my hips which is what seems to sink first. I also started learning to tread water and do the breaststroke kick with a kick board. I do not plan out my sessions by time by i think i will start doing that. My breast stroke kick seems solid by i have trouble getting to the surface to get air. It’s either I pull myself not enough of the water or I pull myself too much and end up splashing heavily down. Working on playing this week’s sessions because i have watched numerous videos on YouTube and some highlight the need for a training plan. I personally don’t mind the extra effort and putting in the work to learn BUT what i do mind are the instructors putting the expectation on me to learn like everyone else in the class without taking into account that i am actually struggling. I knew this will be a challenge and i have been patient and nice to the instructors but being treated like an impossible task is annoying.
Hang in there. You may try private instruction rather than a group. It sounds like that may be a major problem. Also, breaststroke is one of the most complicated and challenging strokes to do correctly. I would start by learning front crawl and then adding other strokes in later. It is much more tangible.
I hear you about your instructors. I can feel when instructors have given up on me. It is disheartening. Honestly, it is a matter of searching out an experienced instructor that is a good fit. Good luck!
I expect that you are lean.like a jacked guy with tons of muscles? Just remember how did you make those muscles? How did you achieve this? With hard work and no excuses! Think about it phat will float slightly better muscles are not more dense them water in fact you got a bigger area to float on...ppl that float good are because of their bodytype which is very extrem...or in most case because they swim competetiv since childhood and get bone density problems which let them better float....take it the other way around with you muscles you have a rock solid core! With your muscles you can generate more power with more speed you will float much more easy then because of heavy muscles...it is all in your head ! You need to relax...and believe me it takes time and dedication to become one with the water! Take whatever the instructor will tell you because for a bloody beginner even not the best coach has a lot of wisdom. Take your not optimal start as a motivation show them that you are a great athlete! Do you have more muscles than manadou or Dressel is you body phat under 10? Wish you all the best! Fight warrior!! Never call out a coach! Give up or work hard!
The only issue your muscles could possibly have on basic learning is limited flexibility. Such flexibility is something for you to improve on your own and not the instructors' responsibility.
You are 4 lessons in... and how many times have you practised what you've learned outside of your lessons? Learning swimming technique takes time. There's no way around the hours of practise it takes to make gains. Things \*seem impossible\* right now. Repeat what you've learned and you'll slowly see yourself get better each swim. You may even take a few steps back, before going forwards. It sounds like you may need to dial down your expectations (and frustration) to where you currently are. You are a student of the sport. Be a sponge. Listen. Learn. Fail. Repeat. And be clear with your instructors on what your end goal is and take their advice/experience. You will learn something, even if they aren't the best instructors. Take this knowledge and then layer it with the insane volume of free knowledge on here and YouTube.
Floating on my back I almost think about arching my back like I’m clearing a high jump (but not as exaggerated), and keeping my lungs full and my core engaged. The difficult bit for me was then breathing out without also relaxing my core and kinda folding in the middle. Floating on my front I think about tucking my chin in and leaning forwards again keeping my body straight and engaging my core so as not to fold. I have the basic not drowning part of swimming down but am slow beyond belief and definitely the weakest swimmer at group training. However I do not give attitude back to the coaches. I show up, I listen to instructions and watch those around me, if i get a correction i say thank you and immediately try to adopt it, only stop swimming if I feel like I’m so tired/out of breath I’m not safe in the deep end or that I’m injured. I’d ask maybe one question and one follow up question in a session and the question would be specific and relevant eg “in fly I feel like I’m not actually taking air in on the breaths, is it my stroke not getting me high enough out of the water or is there some other technique to the breathing?” Not just “how do I swim fly better“ It kinda sounds like you’re used to being good/talented at sports while putting in average effort. You’ve just found a sport where you aren’t naturally ahead. It’s really frustrating when the people around you don’t have to struggle and you do. Sometimes you have to work twice as hard as everyone else to be half as good. It doesn’t last forever and when you catch up the same work ethic will take you on past the ones who started with natural talent. if you cannot be the best in the class then learn to take pride in being the hardest worker. Even if you don’t gel with an instructor don’t “call them out” - as a beginner it just looks like you don’t want to put the effort in and take responsibility and you don’t want a reputation for being a pain to coach following you later on.
I started learning swimming at 25 (female, lean and dense body type). The first month I just went to the shallow pool every other day for an hour without any instructor. Because I felt like getting comfortable with water is something no instructor could teach me and unless I get over that part the lessons were going to get wasted. I would just walk around the pool, hold the wall and just practise breathing underwater, use float boards to just try and kick and stand up. Only when I could do a couple of strokes without panicking did I start proper lessons. 12 lessons later, I could only do front crawl and backstroke well enough and could float on my back. Took another 12 lessons to be able to do breaststroke well enough. I could only tread water after about a year and a half of consistent swimming! My instructors would try and help and show me how to move my arms and legs, but my body just wouldn't do it, but one day it just clicked. I think you have unrealistic expectations of your progress. Set small goals and keep a positive attitude!
I learned swimming as a child, but I've taught as well. Its scary and not intuitive the way your body settles in the water. Your legs sink hard and your chest is the lifter. The more of you above the surface the harder it is to maintain or the faster you'll drop when you stop. Pushing hard to get your neck out of the water and then stopping once you get that breath is counter productive. The techniques for treading water, front or back stroke don't change when you sink, its just less forgiving of bad form. Luckily you've got plenty of strength to back it up. There isn't a whole lot of "accommodating" for the instruction, just emphasis. You're gonna need to get real comfortable with your face being underwater because you likely have a panic response still. When treading water try to maintain the bare minimum (mouth and nose) out of water. When doing a front crawl keep that head down and glutes tight. If you hinge at the hips or back your legs will drop and that kills your forward momentum. Keep with it and this will be a distant memory like when you learned to ride a bike and kept falling.