DiveRef
Registered
What are some good buoyancy drills you can practice in a confined pool environment?
Thanks!
Thanks!
OTher than getting in the pool and not touching the bottom.....
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ScubaDoo83
Contributor
Here's what I did:
- Pretend the bottom of the pool is the top of the reef
- Make sure your body is flat with your feet and head even (if anything head should be down)
- Keep moving, I saw others in my OW class attempting to learn buoyancy while sitting in one spot then struggled once trying to apply it to a real dive
- Your breathing is crucial to finding that "sweet spot" so get that down first
- Slight little "puffs" into the BC are all that is needed, don't do it often and stop to breath normally after any inflation to really feel it's effect
Once you get these down just practice slowly skimming the top of the pool floor (reef) and you'll soon realize it is much easier than previously thought. It's all about getting in tough with your breathing and equipment.
- Pretend the bottom of the pool is the top of the reef
- Make sure your body is flat with your feet and head even (if anything head should be down)
- Keep moving, I saw others in my OW class attempting to learn buoyancy while sitting in one spot then struggled once trying to apply it to a real dive
- Your breathing is crucial to finding that "sweet spot" so get that down first
- Slight little "puffs" into the BC are all that is needed, don't do it often and stop to breath normally after any inflation to really feel it's effect
Once you get these down just practice slowly skimming the top of the pool floor (reef) and you'll soon realize it is much easier than previously thought. It's all about getting in tough with your breathing and equipment.
Actually... try to practice buoyancy skills WITHOUT moving. It's much easier to APPEAR to have good buoyancy control while you're moving.
Moving allows you to use forward propulsion and other movements (finning/sculling) to maintain a certain depth... even absent good buoyancy control. You may be horribly over/underweighted... but can easily over compensate for that by moving in a way that keeps you from sinking/rising.
Consider this: A plane and a blimp can each maintain an altitude of 5,000ft... but what happens to the plane if it stops moving forward?
On the other end of the spectrum, your buoyancy control might be PERFECT, but if you are swimming with a feet down orientation you will be "swimming up" as you move forward. This will cause many people to believe they are underweighted. Similarly if you're head down... you'll "swim down"... thinking you're overweighted.
Your position in the water column is a function of the holy trinity of diving:
You can't really look at one without considering the other two. Although, from a triage standpoint most students will do well to get buoyancy/weighting nailed down, then work on trim and propulsion.
In the pic above I was hanging motionless in mid-water as my buddy captured the image a school of fish swimming right "through" me as if I wasn't even there.
Moving allows you to use forward propulsion and other movements (finning/sculling) to maintain a certain depth... even absent good buoyancy control. You may be horribly over/underweighted... but can easily over compensate for that by moving in a way that keeps you from sinking/rising.
Consider this: A plane and a blimp can each maintain an altitude of 5,000ft... but what happens to the plane if it stops moving forward?
On the other end of the spectrum, your buoyancy control might be PERFECT, but if you are swimming with a feet down orientation you will be "swimming up" as you move forward. This will cause many people to believe they are underweighted. Similarly if you're head down... you'll "swim down"... thinking you're overweighted.
Your position in the water column is a function of the holy trinity of diving:
- Buoyancy
- Trim
- Propulsion
You can't really look at one without considering the other two. Although, from a triage standpoint most students will do well to get buoyancy/weighting nailed down, then work on trim and propulsion.
In the pic above I was hanging motionless in mid-water as my buddy captured the image a school of fish swimming right "through" me as if I wasn't even there.
ScubaDoo83
Contributor
Yea that makes sense. Maybe it was just my experience but those in my class that sat in one spot seemed to struggle once in the open water while I found it very natural to "feel out" neutral buoyancy. By "moving" I am also referring to small frog kicks that require very little movement (considering the confined space of the pool).
If you can do it perfectly still - especially without "happy feet" finning and hand sculling - you can do it anywhere. The opposite is not true.
KevinNM
Contributor
For me it's a easier to hold a depth while swimming. Essentially you use your body as a wing. So hanging motionless seems harder to me.
Go to the deep end and then ascend to 5-6 feet and hold that depth for a minute. Work at this until you can stop right at your target depth and hold it while both swimming around or hanging.
For a really hard drill, stop two feet over a drain or other mark on the bottom of the deep end. Without moving more then 18 inches in any direction (up/down, left/right or forward/backward) deploy and launch an SMB.
Go to the deep end and then ascend to 5-6 feet and hold that depth for a minute. Work at this until you can stop right at your target depth and hold it while both swimming around or hanging.
For a really hard drill, stop two feet over a drain or other mark on the bottom of the deep end. Without moving more then 18 inches in any direction (up/down, left/right or forward/backward) deploy and launch an SMB.
ScubaDoo83
Contributor
I think what RJP is trying to say is to practice buoyancy while stationary. I mean, he could have just come out and said it sheesh 
OP
DiveRef
Registered
I am pretty comfortable, What I have been doing is sitting crossed legged holding my fins so I cannot use hands or feet to Correct. pick a spot on the wall and rise up to it and remain for 3-5 mins, and repeat, when I try to do skills (SMB) that is where it goes south literally (touching the bottom) Thank you for the advice I will try that this weekend!
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so many very scary suggestions here, other than what RJP has said, ignore the rest of it. No offense to any of the others in this post, but none of what you have said is a meaningful way to achieve neutral buoyancy.
If, and only if, you can hover in the shallow section of a swimming pool *3-4ft*, while perfectly motionless, you are not good at being neutral. Good divers can hover in the position noted above by RJP, with the only movement being their feet moving sideways very slowly to counter any slight trim variations but their position is unchanging. If you can do it in the shallow section of a pool, you can do it anywhere because the shallow depth is the most volatile. We require our students to remove and replace a weight belt in the shallow section of a pool while hovering without touching the bottom or the surface. Skill is as follows. Approach the weight belt which is sitting on the T of one end of the lap lane, adjust buoyancy orally *no power inflator*, until you and the weight belt are neutral. Put the weight belt on. Turn 360* with weight belt on pivoting around the center of the T, so a flat helicopter turn. Remove the weight belt, and achieve neutral buoyancy just as the diver, flat turn 180* and go back to the other side of the pool. You can do this with as little as 4lbs on the weight belt or as many as reasonable. The more weight the harder it is to control, with 4lbs on the belt you should be able to do it just with your breath, get good with 4, then make it 6, 8, 10 etc.
If you are capable of doing that skill, then you are set. The other one is if you have a dive well, you can put the belt at the bottom, approach the belt and don the belt at the bottom then hover for the count of 10, ascent to 4 ft or so, use computer or depth gauge if the pool doesn't have markers, many have a black tile on the walls indicating 4 feet or so. Count to 10 then descent, doff weight belt, and back up to starting position. Again this skill is easiest with small weights, and becomes much more difficult with heavier belts. If you can master these 2 skills while in the body position that RJP noted above, you will have better buoyancy control than 90%+ of scuba instructors out there.
Don't ever go cross legged, it is completely idiotic, you both look like an idiot, and it provides no meaningful real world use because you will train your body to go vertical, you are much more stable while in the position RJP posted above. Stop moving, if you are moving you can feign neutral buoyancy, so while the ones mentioned above struggling with neutral buoyancy while not moving may have been less successful visually than those moving around, they were getting more useful experience trying to become neutral. Use oral inflation to learn, your lungs can compensate 4-6lbs quite easily, and if you start at the surface, vent slowly until you just start descending, then use your breath to control the descent speed and exhale into the wing instead of using the power inflator so you are less apt to overshoot. Oral inflation is infinitely more precise and valuable as a learning tool when trying to master neutral buoyancy, to the point that our students don't connect their power inflators while they are learning, and any time I'm in a pool, I don't bother connecting mine either.
don't ever use your hands, we have literally used bungee cord to tie students hands to the harness to keep them from sculling with their hands, you look like a colossal idiot if you use your hands to move around with fins on. Left hand should always have the inflator in it unless it is manipulating the rear dump valve or the SPG during normal use, and during a working portion it will be otherwise occupied. Right hand is either clasped with the left in the position RJP showed above, or it is doing something, and what that is depends on your dive. If I'm diving backmount I usually have my arms crossed with right hand holding the inflator and my thumbs hooked into the opposing shoulder D-ring, but either way you shouldn't ever use your hands.
If, and only if, you can hover in the shallow section of a swimming pool *3-4ft*, while perfectly motionless, you are not good at being neutral. Good divers can hover in the position noted above by RJP, with the only movement being their feet moving sideways very slowly to counter any slight trim variations but their position is unchanging. If you can do it in the shallow section of a pool, you can do it anywhere because the shallow depth is the most volatile. We require our students to remove and replace a weight belt in the shallow section of a pool while hovering without touching the bottom or the surface. Skill is as follows. Approach the weight belt which is sitting on the T of one end of the lap lane, adjust buoyancy orally *no power inflator*, until you and the weight belt are neutral. Put the weight belt on. Turn 360* with weight belt on pivoting around the center of the T, so a flat helicopter turn. Remove the weight belt, and achieve neutral buoyancy just as the diver, flat turn 180* and go back to the other side of the pool. You can do this with as little as 4lbs on the weight belt or as many as reasonable. The more weight the harder it is to control, with 4lbs on the belt you should be able to do it just with your breath, get good with 4, then make it 6, 8, 10 etc.
If you are capable of doing that skill, then you are set. The other one is if you have a dive well, you can put the belt at the bottom, approach the belt and don the belt at the bottom then hover for the count of 10, ascent to 4 ft or so, use computer or depth gauge if the pool doesn't have markers, many have a black tile on the walls indicating 4 feet or so. Count to 10 then descent, doff weight belt, and back up to starting position. Again this skill is easiest with small weights, and becomes much more difficult with heavier belts. If you can master these 2 skills while in the body position that RJP noted above, you will have better buoyancy control than 90%+ of scuba instructors out there.
Don't ever go cross legged, it is completely idiotic, you both look like an idiot, and it provides no meaningful real world use because you will train your body to go vertical, you are much more stable while in the position RJP posted above. Stop moving, if you are moving you can feign neutral buoyancy, so while the ones mentioned above struggling with neutral buoyancy while not moving may have been less successful visually than those moving around, they were getting more useful experience trying to become neutral. Use oral inflation to learn, your lungs can compensate 4-6lbs quite easily, and if you start at the surface, vent slowly until you just start descending, then use your breath to control the descent speed and exhale into the wing instead of using the power inflator so you are less apt to overshoot. Oral inflation is infinitely more precise and valuable as a learning tool when trying to master neutral buoyancy, to the point that our students don't connect their power inflators while they are learning, and any time I'm in a pool, I don't bother connecting mine either.
don't ever use your hands, we have literally used bungee cord to tie students hands to the harness to keep them from sculling with their hands, you look like a colossal idiot if you use your hands to move around with fins on. Left hand should always have the inflator in it unless it is manipulating the rear dump valve or the SPG during normal use, and during a working portion it will be otherwise occupied. Right hand is either clasped with the left in the position RJP showed above, or it is doing something, and what that is depends on your dive. If I'm diving backmount I usually have my arms crossed with right hand holding the inflator and my thumbs hooked into the opposing shoulder D-ring, but either way you shouldn't ever use your hands.
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