Underwater games

[Chefkoch]

Hi folks!

We're a group of freedivers in munich, germany. 2 guys (both with 6years of serious freediving experience), and our 2 gals (novices).

Most of our training is in a pool 20m x 20m x 5m. So lots of space to train and improve.
Lately i thought of taking our training into new directions, finding new approaches.

Up to now, everyone was doing whatever he/she wanted: mainly dynamic, i.e. diving, diving, diving, dynamic dives combined with static (at the beginning/middle/end of the dive), dynamic tables and so on. None of us does pure static stuff, though i love combining static with dynamic, hanging out for more than a min @30m, enjoying the gooooooood vibes down there. The best fun dive i had is a 1min static @45m while doing variable, that was an awesome experience!
One more curiosity: we never EVER swim a lane, we always dive.

So all in all the training is characterized by 2 things:

1. LONEWULFING, meaning there is not much interaction between us while diving. Of course we watch each other, but we don't actually do things TOGETHER down there.

2. PHYSICAL, focused on distances, and performance. Not stressing the mental factor too much.

This is fine for the more experienced of us, but our gals don't get much benefit from having us around. And viceversa we don't get any benefit from having fresh freediving souls with us, along with their curiousity and fascination.
And this translates into our "performance" when being out in the sea and freediving: while the gals are not bad in terms of "making meters" (32 and 20m CW), they're unable to hang out at any depth for longer periouds. They simply go down, and return almost immediately. There i see a lack on the mental part: while their bodies are already well adapted, and their finning style is good, they haven't adapted their minds, to just realizing they can STAY down there for a while, and ENJOY it.

So, my point is i want us folks to do some stuff together: playing games underwater (not rugby or something, just simple stuff where you come together and do something in a relaxed, joyful freediver-manner). This is very good for the mental part: it'll help all of us to take away the mental strain and boredom (after doing tables for weeks and weeks you get slightly bored). Novices will not even feel how time flies while they try tying a knot around each other's ankle or other stuff. Then having us "old dudes" doing stuff with them will motivate and inspire them, showing the way to go.

So folks, what games/fun stuff do you play underwater?

Here's some stuff i did waay back:

1. Tying knots: one has a plastic tube in his hand, the other a string. while diving a lane, they stop at some point, and the string guy ties a knot around the plastic tube held by the other (or around his wrist/ankle).

2. Fastening screws: one holds the bolt, while the other is turning the nut downwards. Can be varied: everyone can do it solo, or screwing 2 or more nuts.

3. Pushing/pulling each other underwater (along the lane).

4. Keeping a snorkel at the bottom of the pool: done by 2 or 3 folks: one is down, holding the snorkel, the other(s) at the surface, breathing. When the diving guy gives a sign, buddy goes down and takes over, while the other goes for air.......this can be done for some time, keeping folks busy and watching each other. Very nice play in our 5m-pool!

5. Diving lanes belly to belly: one dives on his/her back, the other in normal position, above the 1st diver. so they face each other. Of course if one guy starts making funny faces, the other will prolly start smiling/laughing, filling his mask, lol, works every time!

6. Diving a lane slowly in a group, side by side, while passing an object from one to the others and back.

7. Diving between legs (huh huh, cool, huh huh): one or more folks stand on the bottom, feet wide apart, while the others are diving in between their legs, then standing themselfes on the bottom while the first standing guy starts diving. Can be done for a lane, is pretty tough with long blades.

OK now let us see you suggestions!

[spaghetti]

Dynamic chess: it's a game I used to play when I was younger, fitter and with crazy friends.
Place a chess board on the side of the pool, make your move then go in water and dive 50 meters dynamic. While you're diving, the opponent may think his move: when you're back he moves and goes diving. Again and again till check mate...
Most of times it ended with an agreement for a draw after a few moves: this game kills you!

[yugyug]

My favourite game to play underwater is zapping my spearfishing buddies with my shark shield. Then trying to avoid theirs.

[sickbugs]

note to self, dont go freediving with yugyug when he is bored

[naiad]

What is a shark shield? Some sort of laser beam or electric shock?

[trux]

Sharkshield.com:

[colt.45]

Smear the quear under water with a 6k shot put.

the girls may not like that though.

[Observer]

Just thinking off the top of my head here. How about an apnea game of cards?
Number yourselves as players 1-4. Get a deck of cards (held together by a rubber band, and remove the jokers) and a large stopwatch. Everyone dive to the pool bottom, sit/kneel in a circle, and draw 2 cards without showing them to each other. In their heads, each player multiplies the value of the two cards together, then adds them together, and that tells each player the length of time (in seconds) they must stay under in this round. The stopwatch starts running when the last player draws their cards. (aces = 10 seconds, jacks = 110, queens = 120, kings 130) So, the easiest possible time would be a pair of aces (20 seconds), and the worst a pair of kings (260 seconds, or 4:20)
Then... in the 1st round, player 1 looks at his or her cards and decides if they like the time they've drawn or not. If they do, they signal OK. If they don't, they can pick one of the other players to trade a card with in the hopes of getting an easier card. They point at the card they want, and then that other player points at one of the two cards player 1 has, and they swap and now both hold for their new times. This leaves two players who haven't traded yet, and player 1 picks one of these players to be the new "picker," and that player then chooses if they want to initiate a trade with the remaining player or not.
As each player's time is reached, they show both their cards and then surface. Any player who can't last the whole time they've drawn or have traded for is out of the game. Or... you could use a mulligan, where each player is allowed one or more bailouts, but when they return in the next round, they must do it without one bit of equipment (goggles or nose clip or whatever).
Between rounds, recovery lasts until all four players are ready for another try. The next round has player 2 taking the lead. Round 3 is player 3, etc.
The winner is the last player remaining.
If it looks like the game could go on forever, change the multiplier to make it tougher.

[trux]

Originally Posted by Chefkoch

We're a group of freedivers in munich, germany. 2 guys (both with 6years of serious freediving experience), and our 2 gals (novices).

Well, in this constellation you could pretty well train underwater Kamasutra

When you do not like that, and neither you do the already proposed UW rugby, and not even the underwater beer drinking promoted in another thread, then you can get some inspiration in some of the available training freediving videos. I recently made a big collection of freediving videos and saw a lot of interesting material. Check out for example the Japanese clips, or the fun videos from freediving.sk (Slovakia).

There are also other exercises we use to do in our club:

• Pushing each other (in pairs) - you are on the surface with faces under water. Who is pushed over certain limit distance, or pulls the head out, loses. Easier done with float boards between both adversaries
• Dynamic apnea relay - for example in pairs: swim during 20 minutes so that always one is swimming UW, and the other rests/watches and goes UW immediately when the first surfaces, and so on. Never both head above the surface.
• Dynamic apnea in pairs - one diver is front, inactive (static apnea), just trying to find the ideal hydrodynamic position, the other is the "motor" (dynamic apnea) and pushes the front-man by feet. At the end of the pool they swap.
• Same as above, but they stop in the middle of the pool, exchange the position underwater and continue
• Each takes a float board, sinks it to the bottom of the pool and keeps on paddling with fins, head down trying to keep the board sticked to the bottom as long as possible.
• Making pool lengths with different methods and speeds - for example make 20 pool lengths in minimal possible time; or trying to make the pool in classical style as slow as possible
• You can try training one full session only turns - trying different technics and finding what fits you best - again, in the video collection you will find a big variety of turns - from Tom Sieatas stopping and turning before he actually reaches the pool end, through the classical swimmer turn (full speed till the pool end, fast turn, strong push by feet), turn up-side-down (like Gonnie Roekevisch), or gentle turn by hands, avoding to push by legs to reduce the suction effect (like Peter Pedersen).

[Apnea_Addict]

Hi Chefkoch,

do you speak German ?

If so, you could check out:

www.vdstapnoe.de

See the "Download"-Section.

best wishes
Holger

[Chefkoch]

@observer: this would be good for a bunch of competitive veterans, but too tough for our girls. they don't want to push huge statics, just get the mental part straightened out. as i see it that is most important, when you really are in the flow times/performances are not in your mind, everything flows naturally, and every dive - no matter 1 or 5mins - is fun.

@trux: nice tips there, we'll try some

@apnea_addict: danke für den tipp, browse gerade die download-site mit den pdfs.....coole sachen!

[Boomstick]

My favorite (being of my own making ) is "weight belt walking"

Basically, you hold a weight belt in each hand and walk along the bottom of the pool as far as you can in apnea.

This can be achieved a number of ways, sitting on the side, breathing up, and jump in weight belt in hand or breathing up on the side and diving down to retreive the belt from the bottom of the pool before you start your walk or as you jump in get handed the weights by your buddy (who will be watching you at all times during your walk)

The weighting has to heavy enough to hold you down whilst you take a step other wise you just fly up to the surface and the pool has to be deep enough for you to remain submerged, but where our normal training pool is only around chest height at the shallow-end so the the "weight belt walking" has turned into "weight belt crawling"
weight belts are held in the hands or slung over the shoulder so they can ditched quickly and easily and I have been known to wear a stack of ankle weights on my head as a crown to give me a bit of extra ballast.

We even have "weight belt walking" races up and down the pool and due the large drop off/slope leading to the deep end of the pool it can be very funny watch people trying to get back up the slope and can result in your opponent laughing so hard underwater that they forfit

[wes]

Underwater tag - I have only played this we friends, not in a club though it was really fun. How it works is one person breathes up and is "it" and takes a big breath and attempts to "tag" or touch the others in the pool. The person who is it must not surface untill they tag one person, then they can surface and take one breath only and must dive again to try and get another pserson. Each person that is tagged must leave the pool. You could try with or without fins and with or without breaths for the person who is it when they "tag" or touch someone. Then of course a new person is it and tries again.

Cheers Wes

[samdive]

we have played some great games of underwater hockey using snorkels as sticks and half kilo weight as a puck - it can get quite vicious though!

underwater egg and spoon using a big spoon (upside down) and a ping pong ball - very very hard with a monofin, easy with bi fins

Proper octopush using monofins is also fun - but lethal - to be avoided probably!

[samdive]

also once with the Dutch guys, we played underwater scrabble - they had a load of tiles painted with letters - you get a few each and try and make words - or swim to a buddy and get theirs to try and make a longer word - quite fun but absolutely hopeless for me as they were playing in Dutch ; )