DIR- GUE Fundamentals: Swim Test Experience Report (August 2019)

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dewdropsonrosa

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The swim test.

The dreaded swim test.

Historically speaking, the swim test is a source of anxiety for many divers new to GUE. And it makes sense: most people have swim-for-leisure experience, not swim-for-exercise experience; recreational agencies typically have low-rigor requirements; finally, it's a gatekeeping prerequisite for the class. Nobody wants to lose their time and cash investment in the course because of weak watermanship.

While I prepped for the swim test, I poked around the various threads on the topic here. I'm pleased to report that by combining the best of the tips on ScubaBoard and a medium investment of work, I handily passed both portions of the test. My goal with this post is to share my experience in a way that might be useful for other people planning for the test.

Physical Stats
I'm 5'4" and currently weigh 175 lbs (163cm and 80kg for metric friends). Visual reference/proof of silliness. I have a fairly high percentage of body fat, even at lower weights. I'm just adipose in composition.

Lifestyle: mostly sedentary, I work a desk job. I don't get a lot of vigorous cardio exercise, but typically walk 4-6 miles in a single day and get other light forms of cardio in daily life. My innate athletic abilities are 95% endurance and 5% speed.

Recent Swimming Experience
I started hobby-swimming for winter water therapy after a bad breakup in 2017. Within a few months, I was able to complete the Ironman swim distance (2.4 mi/3.9 km) using breaststroke in 1:57:00. I toned it down after accomplishing that and typically do much shorter workouts now.

I did not have any meaningful freediving/breath-hold swim experience before preparing for Fundies.

Distance Swim
Course Requirement: Swim 300 yards (275m) in 14:00.

The swim distance is 300 yards, which is 6 full laps in a standard American gym pool. The distance is manageable for most people if your arm/leg technique keeps you stable and you're not inclined to inhale water. I previously did 425 yards in 10:00 for an indoor sprint triathlon, so I was not concerned about my ability to make the distance.

About a month before the class, I practiced the swim 3x to ensure that I had adequate cardio reserves to handle it. (If not, I would have continued doing the practice swim several times a week to build realistic experience.)

Performance
On the day of our planned swim test, the host pool closed unexpectedly. After conferring as a group, we decided to conduct the swim in open water at the dive site, Haigh Quarry. If you are not familiar with the site, it is a flooded gravel quarry with a zero-depth entry that used to be a dump truck ramp. (Their website header gives a very clear view).


We used a buoy to mark a start point in about 3' (1m) of water. This gave us a good push-off point for laps. The other "end of the pool" was marked with an SMB weighted to stand vertically out of the water. A high-visibility line placed between the two allowed us to ensure that we were on-course. There was a very light breeze and very light surface movement. The water temperature at the surface was 75°F (24-25°C). Using breaststroke, I completed the swim in 7:40 (slightly slower than my triathlon pace).

Because this is a mixed speed/endurance test, throwing continued effort at it will generally lead to improvement.


Breath-hold Swim
Course Requirement: Swim 50 feet (15m) underwater on a breath-hold while submerged.

I sucked at this when I started. In fact, I believe that my first attempt at the swim was a whopping 12' (3.5m).

My first batch of attempts was unsuccessful for one main reason: I was trying to brute-force my way into the distance. A couple of the mistakes that I was making:

  • I did not take full advantage of the glide phase to cover distance and started swimming too soon;
  • My hand positioning wasn't sweeping as much water as possible to generate momentum;
  • I did not take venting breaths to adjust my buoyancy or reduce hypercapnia.

None of this worked for more than 20 feet at a time. Then, I found this video in a comment:

(H/T to @tbone1004, I think.)

I watched the video a few times on the pool deck. I focused on mimicking the technique long starting glide, long glides for each stroke, flat hand position to move water, and synchronizing my kicks. I got back in, and made it to 38' (11.5m) on my first attempt with revised techniques. My next several tries were in the 45' (13m) range - almost there!

Through trial and error, I figured out that I was venting a little too much, too early. I decided to try four smaller vents instead of three medium vents, and that helped. I scored my first 50'!

Once I had fixed venting breaths, hand position, and optimizing my glide, the last thing left was pacing. I counted out a couple of different timings and eventually found one that worked with semi-frequent strokes to counteract my positive buoyancy while getting in more glide time (uses less oxygen than swimming constantly).

I did about ten more practice runs over a half-hour to refine my technique. The first successful attempt took me 12 strokes; the last attempt only took 8.

I came back to the pool 3-4 more times to continue refining my technique and to combat skill decay before the test. My best distance was 62'. I plan to work my way up to the 75' for more advanced classes.

Test Day
On the day of the test, I achieved a 55' breath-hold distance. I needed 13 strokes to do it - because of the flat start, I didn't get a good push off. I also needed to slow my pace slightly to keep my alignment with the lane line between the buoys.

This exercise is all about technique. The intelligent application of effort will achieve much better results than a try,-try-again approach.

Summary
For swimmers who are not highly conditioned/practiced, mastering the swim tests does take effort - but it's definitely not impossible. Set incremental goals for improvement, keep trying over time, and be sure to try different techniques when something doesn't work for you.

I encourage other people with recent swim tests to share a breakdown of your experience training and testing. Let's build a collection. :)
 
Good summary!
I did my fundies now in August as well and the swim test/breath hold was the thing I was most worried about.
I'm 1.80m and about 83kg, slight beer belly and not well trained, I'm the guy who wants to lay down and die after he sprints 100m.

The swim test started off fine, but after doing two lengths (25m pool) of breaststroke my arms started to cry a little bit.
Kept swimming with the end goal in mind and while it wasn't super easy (and my arms were burning by the end) both me and the other course participant finished the swim in about 8 minutes.
Breath hold swim went fine, we both somehow managed our 15m on the first try.

The swim test (and the rest of the course) gave me a new perspective on the importance of fitness while diving, and I've since completing it started going for runs 2-3 times a week as a start.
My lower back and ass still hurts a bit from the course from spending most of the dives back kicking to avoid my buddy swimming into my face all the time.
 
I did it a few years ago. I too was nervous about it because I was sick and had not done ANY exercise at all for a year prior. I just winged it. It's hard to fail it. My teammate and I smashed it in 6-7 mins.

Breath hold is more of a mental thing along with proper technique. Being muscular so you're not that buoyant helps.
I maxed out the pool length at 25m.

What the instructors have to do is not easy. I think its 550m in less than 14 mins. Any instructors care to elaborate their strategy for this?
 
Interesting that you chose to do the swim in open water vs a confined pool. I have done both for triatholons and open water comes with the disadvantage of having to modify your stroke so that you can spot your target and stay on course, whereas with a pool the water is clear enough that you can stay straight in the lane by looking at the lines on the floor of the pool. Open water swimming is usually a little slower and a little more taxing, although 300m is not that much, I’m a slow swimmer and I average about 2min per 100m, little faster in the beginning, a little slower after the first 800-1000m
 
Interesting that you chose to do the swim in open water vs a confined pool.
Depending on where your class is, sometimes it's the most convenient/only option given the time constraints. Yes, open water is slightly slower because you can't kick off walls but it's almost always done in shallow, pool like conditions.

For my C1 swim, we did it in Gilchrist Blue Spring and the setup was unlike anything I've done before. Our instructors ran a tape in the sand we were to follow. We started off standing in waist deep water and just kinda "dove" in for the breath hold - no kick off or anything. For the distance swim, we used the tape again and you just kinda stop swimming when you reach the end, dig your feet in the sand to turn and swim back.

I think its 550m in less than 14 mins. Any instructors care to elaborate their strategy for this?
Not an instructor but this distance/time still isn't something you need special training or strategy for. You do need to be generally fit and have practiced swimming this distance a little bit. I mean, overall fitness is the intention behind these tests, right? GUE isn't really testing to see we're good swimmers.
I'm only a swimmer in the sense that I know how to swim but am OK fitness-wise and I could easily do the instructor distance when I was practicing for C1 and that was with a breast stroke. No swimming lessons other than a couple of tips my girlfriend gave me. Front crawl would be even quicker. She's a swimmer and laughed when I told her the GUE requirements - according to her, that pace barely indicates any swimming ability other than "yes, you can swim and not have a heart attack right after".
 
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