Underwater Swimming Advice Please :-)

[annasea]

In preparation for my OW swimming prerequisites, I'm in the process of learning underwater swimming (as well as improving my overall water comfort).

I had my third private swimming lesson today and attempted to actually swim u/w for the first time. I started off just doing a glide u/w, then a flutter kick and then a whip kick. My problem is I'm not able to actually stay under the surface for very long. After about 2M, I start to rise.

I stayed behind to practice on my own after the lesson and tried to incorporate a scull-like, breast stroke-like movement with my arms, in addition to *my* version of the whip kick, and I think it helped a bit but not much. I still rise to the surface after a few metres. The furthest I was able to go with breath-holding and then exhaling was about 8M only. (I need to be able to do 15M.) But it's a start at least!

My instructor isn't sure what's happening with the rising, so I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas or suggestions to share.

Thank you!

 

[El Orans]

You may want to have a look here: Freediving / Snorkeling

 

[mcclete22]

It might just be physiological. If you fill your lungs with air, you will float. As you are swimming are you holding your breath? If you are not weighted down, which in diving you are weighted down to stay under, you will float.
Are you nervous, or anxious in the water? That might have something to do with it. Try to relax before getting in the water, that might help.

 

[cyklon_300]

It might just be physiological. If you fill your lungs with air, you will float. As you are swimming are you holding your breath? If you are not weighted down, which in diving you are weighted down to stay under, you will float.
Are you nervous, or anxious in the water? That might have something to do with it. Try to relax before getting in the water, that might help.

swimming would pretty much require one to be holding their breath, doncha think? Also, simming underwater in a pool with no exposure suit shouldn't require the use of a weightbelt.

When you submerge, simply exhale about half of your air supply and start swimming. You obviously won't be able to go very far, but reducing the volume of air in your lungs should allow you to be sufficiently negative to stay fully submerged.

As you get more comfortable doing this, you will probably be able to increase the amount of breath you hold as you swim.

Another thing to try is practice swimming underwater using fins...they will help propel you forward and negate the tendency to rise. When using fins, extend your arms in front of you and point your fingertips straight ahead...if you start to rise, simply aim your fingertips slightly downward and you will descend...with very minor adjustments in where your fingers point, you can go anywhere in the water column that you desire.

 

[*Floater*]

Check out the videos on these pages. You'll see the correct technique for underwater diving i.e. use some form of breaststroke and try to maximize your glides underwater between each stroke and kick. It's also mportant to control your breathing before the underwater swim. You can start out by doing a few very slow, deep breaths. To be more streamlined look straight down at the bottom of the pool, not forward, during your underwater swim.

http://www.flurl.com/uploaded/166m_underwater_6901.html
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg888r...FTechnique.wmv

 

[craborn]

They are right but also you will have to swim downward while you are swimming forward....Tilt your head down just a little bit they may help..... Good Luck,,, Clay

 

[spectrum]

First how deep are you diving?

If you can get down to 8-12 feet your lungs will begin to compress and you will become a little less buoyant, that helps a lot. I can almost hang still at 10 feet in my trunks. You will need to practice clearing your ears as well as relieving mask squeeze when you do this, just exhale a tiny bit of air from your nose when your mask gets tight. I assume you have covered ear clearing. If you have a dry snorkel you may want to give that a llittle air to as it may colapse in an uncomfortable way.

If you are angled head down just a bit the forward movement will drive you downward as the water runs up your back. With a little practice you can follow the bottom contour of the pool. Kick in a relaxed manner and try to kick, glide, kick, glide. you want to conserve your resources. With some practice and confidence you can do the length of the pool, 75' where I go.

I want to give you a big big big round of applause for taking the skindiving part of your training seriously. As you can see it employs some of the critical scuba skills and lets you master them in advance.

I hope you will keep skin-diving as part of your water enjoyment. It's something you can chose to do when a dive buddy is not around. You can scout potential scuba destinations. Sometimes we will open a 2 tank scuba outing with a skin-dive while the tide is coming up. With the right exposure protection and some weights a skin-dive can cover several hours! Because you are not at depth your wetsuit remains very effective and since you are more active your body is generating more heat.

The sustained slow deep oral breathing past the dead air space of the snorkle will do wonders for your scuba air consumption too.

Have fun and watch out for the hair balls at the bottom of the pool!

Pete

 

[Vayu]

What everyone else said is good. I would also like to say welcome to the water.

Just don't worry about it too much. If that was your very first time doing a submerged swim then that is good. Several people I know can't get underwater because they have a fear of water being in their nose. Since this doesn't seem to be bothering you, the hardest part of the battle is done.

The breast stroke is the best stroke underwater like floater pointed out. If you get this down, doing a 'frog' kick with your fins on will come much easier as well.

Once you get used to it, you will probably find that by swimming you will stay under. I had to do 25M for my openwater test and several students could not do it the first try. I've been underwater most of my life so it came a little easier... but even the students that could not do it got it down with a little practice.

Good luck,

-V

 

[freediver]

It could be your body composition (females tend to have a bit higher percentage of body fat than males, however because of this they tend to be better swimmers). I believe it has been pointed out already but try and scull slightly downward as well as forward and also keep in mind that as a general rule, your body will have a tendency to go where the top of your head is pointing. With this in mind, try and keep the top of your head pointing toward your destination......................BUT WATCH OUT FOR THE SIDE OF THE POOL!!

 

[XyseR]

i didn't read what everyone has said before me, but no duh you'll float! if you *really* want to stay emerged underwater w/o yourself doing any work buy weights. i'd say 2-10lbs or so. don't need to use 'em but yeah. ever heard of the dalphin kick? yeah, it's pretty tight, and quick... erm.. you're intrested in swimming underwater correct? freediving maybe? dynamic swimming? whenever i swim underwater i never come to the top, but acutally i'm swimminglike 1-2cm from the floor.. it just happens. 2M is bad.(sorry for the bluntness) you can do better, i know. if you wanna know more, then PM me or msg me on my AIM(icy water43) or MSN(xyser2005@yahoo.com) or emai(mattfuen@gmail.com)

if you pratice byself, please have someone watch you and remeber life guards don't count! they do, but not when you're swimming underwater.. they may thing you're "resting" beacuse you're not swimming, but really you just had a SWB(shallow water black out.) when i train by myself, i only push myself 60-70%

there is too much for me to say personally, but www.deeperblue.net is a forum dedicated to freediving/underwater swimming.

hope this helps..

ps: i can swim 25M with out flippers and 50m with flippers.
the world recored with out flipers is 125m or so.