Freediving as training for diving?

[Polpessa]

I recently got my OW. I joined a dive club that, for training, meets once a week, where we swim in a pool underwater with mask and fins, then breathe from a reg/air tank on the bottom of the pool, then continue underwater, swimming through hula hoops, picking up weights from the bottom, and other underwater exercises. 3 questions:

1)Is this type of exercise beneficial as training for making you a better diver, even though we're not using the full gear?

2)Is this type of training common in scuba clubs that are relatively far from the sea?

3)The amount of time I can stay underwater varies wildly from day to day; why? I know it's influenced by how deep down you are, and how much you're exerting yourself, but even when I reproduce the same pool location, same depth, same pre-dive breathing and same amount of exertion, my ability to hold my breath fluctuates. Why is this? It's frustrating when one day I can stay down long, and the next not.

 

[sevenx]

The first rule of SCUBA diving is NEVER hold your breath! It sounds from your description that you're doing a hybrid of SCUBA and FREE diving. I can see how it would be beneficial for you to do these execises as a free diver breathing only on the surface of the pool OR as a scuba diver constantly breathing in and out with your scuba regulator. To breathe from a regulator on the bottom of the pool and then hold your breath is a very dangerous thing to practice! :boom:

Dive safely,

SEVENX

 

[Polpessa]

that you never hold your breath WHILE ASCENDING. We only hold our breath if we are using surface air, or while on the bottom of the pool if we have breathed from the regulator, and then breathe out while ascending.

 

[sevenx]

I'm sorry but I think that you are missing my point. You will not embolize unless you are ascending, this is true. You still should not be breathing from a regulator and then holding your breath while you swim around. It's a VERY bad thing to get used to doing. There's a thread in the Ask Dr. Deco section that you should read. http://www.scubaboard.com/t12151/s.html
In it you'll read that your lungs can be severely damaged if you hold your breath at depth and ascend only 3-6ft. 3-6 FEET! It would be very easy to inadvertantly rise 3ft if your boyancy was just a bit positive. Free diving is free diving and SCUBA is SCUBA. You don't want to get into the habit of mixing the two.

SEVENX

 

[art.chick]

I don't think that taking a breath from a tank on the bottom & exhaling after inhaling form the tank & while ascending is dangerous. Yes, you must pay attention to what you are doing, but freediving practice in the pool can help your manueverability & agility. It is great to practice surface dives & perfect them. You will save lots of air on the descent in the ocean if you can surface dive. I think what you are doing should be quite beneficial if you remember to exhale all the time.

 

[Polpessa]

You've definitely convinced me to breathe out all the time after breathing underwater from the reg. But what about my other questions? And Art.Chick, could you explain a bit more about how what I'm doing will help me to save air while I'm descending on a regular dive?

 

[chiara]

Let me guess: are you in a CMAS club?

I started with the Belgian equivalent and up to now this is the only scuba certification agency I've heard who does this kind of exercises.

I went through this kind of nonsense for six months, got certified and fled.

When I finally ended up in a PADI club, I had very bad buoyancy, so all these exercises were for nothing or almost nothing.

 

[Polpessa]

It's not a CMAS club. It's a club that operates out of a PADI-teaching diveshop. Why would this kind of practice be bad for my buoyancy? Art.chick said she did this kind of training and it was beneficial. Is it better if I just do the free-diving part of the practice and not breathe from the regulator on the bottom of the pool? I thought all this just helps me become more at ease in the water, which is good for your diving. Help! What do others out there think?

 

[chiara]

This kind of exercise did nothing at all for my buoyancy and it didn't prevent me to panick on my very first certification dive.

I must say I'm pretty surprised to learn PADI works with such things.

They can be beneficial for others, but I can't say they were for me.

 

[DuckDive]

Hi Polpessa.

1) Breath-hold, dynamic (physical) training, if done correctly, over time, will increase your body's ability to store and utilize oxygen. This should contribute to improved air consumption on SCUBA, although there are a number of other factors that also affect air consumption. Freediving training and the physiology involved is complicated though, and doing any old thing, while holding your breath will not necessarily be effective.

As for making you a better diver: a "good" diver has many traits; good air consumption is probably down around number 9 on the list. Being very comfortable in the water, which will be improved by doing any kind of in-water training, is higher on the list.

2) Sorry, don't know, although if you mean breathing from SCUBA and then holding your breath while doing stuff underwater, I suspect that the answer is NO.

3) There will be many external factors (external to the training) that govern your day-to-day performance. Unless all these factors are kept equal - impossible, unless your are a pro and your day is structured from start to finish around your training - your results will vary, sometimes wildly. The more serious you get, the more you need to regulate external factors, the more consistent your results will be.

Now a word of caution: What you guys are doing sounds dangerous to me.

Switching between SCUBA diving and freediving takes a bit of concentration. I have to be very careful the first 10 minutes freediving, not to 'forget' that I have a snorkel in my mouth instead of a reg! When things become second-nature to you, it's easy to 'forget' which one you're doing. I have sucked water through my snorkel at depth before! Likewise, when I change to a reg, in the beginning, I have to constantly remind myself not to hold my breath.

What I am talking about here is merely switching in the same day. You guys are switching constantly! In my opinion, it is only a matter of time before somebody's concentration lapses and they get hurt. And the main thing is why? I don't think you are gaining anything by doing this. Come up for air! Please!

It's great that you are prepared to put extra time and effort into training for diving - keep it up! However, I would suggest that you split the training into two parts - do the same exercises you have been doing, but one day freediving and the next on SCUBA.

Mark.