Question Pool Practice Ideas

[Lorenzoid]

If you've got another person to play with in the water, try hovering facing each other, then A hands off a 2-pound weight to B, who holds it for for a few breaths, then hands it back. The goal is for neither A nor B to go down or up in the water column...all with breath control. When you get that nailed, move to 4 pounds.

This is exactly the kind of exercise my buddy and I did while also doing what I described in my post above-- mastering the skill of hovering in one spot--but I wanted to keep the post short.

In our first pool session (after Fundies, but not relevant), we just tried staying still--not complicating it by attempting anything else. In later pool sessions, we added the sorts of exercises you describe and made some into games. It was a dive shop's pool, and we found a toy "missile" or dart on the bottom that divers could toss back and forth. Staying in one's chosen orientation (that could be horizontal trim or not) while task-loaded is the ultimate goal.

 

[rx7diver]

I am a new diver... I basically have unlimited access to an indoor pool at my LDS ... what specifically would you do for an hour in the pool.

Thoughts?

My recommendation is to avoid the scuba gear. Work on (surface) swimming and drown-proofing, and skin-diving (using mask, fins, snorkel, and weight belt; maybe wetsuit, too).

Do you have access to a "real" swimming pool? You know, a 25yd pool or a 50m pool? Public, indoor pool? YMCA pool? If so, then swimming for conditioning (lap swimming, no gear except your for swimsuit and maybe your swim goggles) is an excellent (albeit boring) cardiovascular exercise. You'll need to kick with fins, though, to condition your scuba muscles. And if the "real" pool has a diving well, you can practice your surface entries and surface dives, too.

An hour session is long enough for a "satisfying" workout.

You can also learn to use your GoPro U/W while you're practicing your skin-diving skills.

rx7diver

 

[mcohen1021]

Throw rings into the pit to recover them

Try practicing donning doffing your rig on the surface

Practice gear removal at the bottom adjusting the tank, putting it back on

Practice a 9 ft emergency ascent?

Blow water rings?

 

[quietlife4me]

Blow water rings?

actually....during one of my private classes with a Dive Instructor....we spent 30min trying to do that. it was funny watching him get all pissed off cause he couldn't figure out how and of course I had no idea.

Thanks for the ideas!

 

[quietlife4me]

My recommendation is to avoid the scuba gear. Work on (surface) swimming and drown-proofing, and skin-diving (using mask, fins, snorkel, and weight belt; maybe wetsuit, too).

oh! I didn't think of those adjacency skill(s) that doesn't involve the scuba gear "risk" and something I could do in basically any pool. Thank you!

 

[mcohen1021]

What NOT to practice in the pool: ditching your weights

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Now that would be funny…hey…how is that guy doing frog kicks in his OW certification dive?

I don't understand this. Many divers are taught frog kicks in their open water courses. I know a number of shops and private instructors in my area that teach this as we have a lot of silt in the area which is easily stirred up.

One of the ways I teach frog kicks in the first pool session is to have students frog kick on their backs. You learn what it feels like to have your torso and upper legs straight. If your knees break the surface, then you know you are breaking at the waist. Some instructors teach frog kicks at the surface face down, but the problem with this is that students will be breaking at the waist and creating a bad habits.

you can also practice backfinning and helicopter kicks this way too, through I don't teach that in my open water courses, as time is limited. However, if you have so much time, why not?

Also, while underwater, one of the ways I teach my students to learn to fin slowly and smoothly is to fin while carrying a golf ball on a spoon. If you jerk around too much, you're going to drop the ball.

Practicing skills while hovering horizontally while doing mask removal skills, switching regs, deploying a DSMB are all great ways to hone your skills.

 

[MichaelMc]

oh! I didn't think of those adjacency skill(s) that doesn't involve the scuba gear "risk" and something I could do in basically any pool. Thank you!

Practice 3' DSMB deployment in skin gear. First get weighted so you can hover in skin gear. Then dives down and deploy on one breath. Not the same buoyancy issues as on SCUBA, but good for dealing with the line, inflation, etc.

A short line is best to limit any potential disaster case of becoming a human ball of twine. Maybe in standing height water the first few times.

 

[TMHeimer]

My recommendation is to avoid the scuba gear. Work on (surface) swimming and drown-proofing, and skin-diving (using mask, fins, snorkel, and weight belt; maybe wetsuit, too).

Do you have access to a "real" swimming pool? You know, a 25yd pool or a 50m pool? Public, indoor pool? YMCA pool? If so, then swimming for conditioning (lap swimming, no gear except your for swimsuit and maybe your swim goggles) is an excellent (albeit boring) cardiovascular exercise. You'll need to kick with fins, though, to condition your scuba muscles. And if the "real" pool has a diving well, you can practice your surface entries and surface dives, too.

An hour session is long enough for a "satisfying" workout.

You can also learn to use your GoPro U/W while you're practicing your skin-diving skills.

rx7diver

Nothing wrong with this advice, especially about the drown-proofing so you can easily do the 10 minute float that I figure is still required (though even I did that OK without drown-proofing and I sink like a rock).
I agree that if you are not an experienced "water" person any swimming, diving down, snorkeling, etc. is a good idea.
To be honest, you don't have to exercise at all to pass the OW course, assumimg you are in any kind of half decent physical shape. The 200M swim test is not timed and somewhat "slack", as I observed quite a few of these. You just need to gut out 200M/yards and not die. Doing a "proper" stroke is not required. Scuba usually is not hugely strenuous an activity (yes it can be if you choose such locations as big surf, currents, etc.). The only way you get your "scuba" muscles in shape is by scuba diving. The "toughest" part is usually putting the gear on & off and getting yourself to the water.

 

[mac66]

Just catching up reading this thread. My recommendation is to dive.

I did my confined stuff in a pool in November 2018 in Michigan then did my OW dives (through referrals) in Feb 2019 while on a cruise to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. Did two more cruises/dives that year (2019) Then covid hit and couldn't cruise until last spring. Been on 4 cruises this year, all makeups from the covid years. I now have about 20 dives in including my OW cert dives.

So you might want to consider doing you OW certs in warm Caribbean waters instead of waiting for spring. Just a thought.

Consider doing that while on a cruise. You can book a cruise relatively inexpensively and they are a nice vacation in themselves. Cheapest times to cruise is between Thanksgiving and Christmas and after New Years until early Feb. I have another 7 night cruise leaving Feb 4. Diving in Cozumel, Roatan and Mahahual Mexico on that one.

You can usually book a drive through the cruise ship or through the local dive shop. Cruise ships often have dive instructors that sometimes go on the excursions with their passengers to look out for them. Otherwise all dive shops have dive masters who keep an eye out for you particularly if you are a new diver and let them know. They deal with inexperienced divers a lot. The dives are usually group dives and are pretty easy.

I booked a shore dive through a shop in Bonaire on my last cruise and I was the only diver so I had the dive master to myself. Two really good dives. Just 4 divers on a private dive in Curacao (another shore dive) but 12 divers on a boat dive (booked through the ship) in Aruba but the group was divided in two, 6 to a dive master.