Swimming ability of freedivers

[Bill McIntyre]

Maybe I should clarify. I don't think anyone should be out there diving without being totally comfortable and confident in the water. I just don't think you need to be a good freestyle swimmer.

[knoodelhed]

Originally Posted by Bill McIntyre

Maybe I should clarify. I don't think anyone should be out there diving without being totally comfortable and confident in the water. I just don't think you need to be a good freestyle swimmer.

Yeah, what he said. I'm a "round" person who doesn't swim as nicely or as quickly as a "flat" one, but I swim well enough to pass any common general safety standard (e.g., the swimming merit badge). And even better in salt water or a wetsuit.

[naiad]

Originally Posted by Oldsarge

My parents were desperate for me to learn to swim and I finally sort of did, though there were enough bad moments in swimming class to make me phobic around water for years afterwards.

Ah, swimming lessons... The memories...

When I was about 6 I had a few swimming lessons. Many methods were tried without success. I held onto kickboards, but my face just wouldn't stay out of the water. Then there was the fishing rod thing....

Then I discovered that if I fill my lungs with water, I lose any buoyancy that I might have had, so this isn't a good idea, no matter how desperate the situation. (This took me a while to work out, at the time I was quite ready to repeat the experience.)

More about my swimming lesson saga...
http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthr...165#post590165

[JPPLAY]

I think all freedivers and spearos should be competent swimmers. That means being able to swim freestyle not just breastroke and have some endurance. You will gain more confidence in yourself when in the water. Anything can happen when you are diving so you should prepare yourself the best you can. You could be on your dive line clipped to it and a boat catches it and drags you for several kms. You could be diving a new area when the current pulls you out to sea. Get caught in a rip current and lose your fins. Having to breastroke in a fast rip current when you could freestyle and get out sooner or not at all doesn't make sense to me.
You don't need to be a competitive swimmer to freedive or spearfish but you should be a good swimmer never average or below average. Remember you are investing in your own safety.

[Cliff Etzel]

Originally Posted by Bill McIntyre

Maybe I should clarify. I don't think anyone should be out there diving without being totally comfortable and confident in the water. I just don't think you need to be a good freestyle swimmer.

I agree completely on that Bill - I believe one should be able to either side stroke and/or breast stroke with confidence. Those two strokes offer the best efficiency in my opinion.

Unfortunately, my right shoulder cuff has been giving me problems lately and I cant do a crawl stroke without a fair amount of pain - but the breast and side strokes allow me to be efficient in the water and still maintain my cardio fitness. A crawl stroke in my opinion is for competitive swimming - it isn't efficient in terms of energy over a longer period of time. It also does not allow you to see where you are going unless you stop. An efficient breast or side stroke can give a swimmer needed momentary rest intervals while continuing forward as needed. I am more efficient with a breast stroke than crawl - but then again, I have a fairly stocky physique - one that isn't conducive to the crawl stroke...

[Jon]

For all those people who have commented on how 'boring" swimming laps is, I have a suggestion- an underwater MP3 player!

I, try, to get in an hour a day, 5 days a week, of swimming in the local pool. I used to run and then swim a quick 30 minutes, but since I bought one of these things I can easily get through a 90 minute workout without boredom. I have recently switched to a 60 minute workout so I still have time to get my kids in swimming with me for the last 30.

If you look online you can find close-out pricing on them. I bought my housing for $50 and it has been worth every penny.

I used to swim without fins, but the YMCA lets me use whatever fins I want, including my monofins, so I end up swimming all of my workouts in some type of fin or another. I can swim without them, but with them is just so much more FUN- and we all know that the more enjoyment you get out of exercise the more often you will do it.

Another thing that makes a BIG difference, for me at least, is having a bottle of gatorade on the poolside to sip off of every other song- which is how I base my workouts. I swim oneway for one song and switch drills for the next- with a momentary break everyother song for a slug from my water bottle. Doing this helps me stay hydrated and by having something inside my bottle, besides water, keeps me from getting super hungry while I swim.

One thing that I do find "Freestyle" swimming helpful for is free Immersion. You use similar muscle groups and you can do breath hold freestyle in any pool- no matter if they let you use fins or not.

BTW: I screwed up my shoulder this past winter skiing, and then playing underwater hockey the next night without giving it any time to rest. It kept me away from freestyle for a couple of weeks, but i've built it back up since then. Breast stroke is still so painfull i can't do more than a lap or two that way- as compared to a couple of miles in freestyle. I guess I should actually see a doctor one of these days.

I have worked out with the local Master's swim team in the past. I can swim the distance without any trouble, but I certainly am NOT the fastest guy there. By swimming with them I learned about a lot of the techniques covered in the Total Immersion swim program- which is an excellent book and also has some great videos that go along with it. One of the key things they did was help me with my hand entry into the water- which has since saved a lot of wear and tear on my shoulder.

Jon

[trux]

Swimming crawl is actually much less tiring than breast stroke, when you learn it properly. When I have to do longer distances in water, I prefer crawl over breast stroke. And if I am not mistaken, marathon, triathlon, iron-man and Channel swimmers mostly swim crawl too. They would not do it, if it was more exhausting.

Swimming crawl is purely about the technique, not at all about strength, endurance or physical fitness. People who cannot swim crawl or do it just poorly, have problems because they did not learn the technique. And mostly it is the breathing that makes them troubles - they did not learn to keep the head in a streamline position and turning it just slightly in the right moment to take a breath. Once you learn the breathing, even if your overall crawl swimming technique is still miserable, you will enjoy it much more and be able to swim miles with it easier than with breast stroke.

[fcallagy]

I agree with Trux, I used to have ok front crawl technique and did the 1500 m swim for part of a triathlon but after that I decided to do go the whol hog and do all in a sprint triathlon. I used to swim breathing on one side and then started to try on both I slowed down at first but am a lot better now. i usually try to swim 1500m plus 3 times a week no fins allowed in pool. its nearly all front crawl maybe 250m of breast stroke to warm down with some dolphin kicks thrown in.
I reckon I would be a good swimmer in comparison to most in the pool but an average to slow amongst serious swimmers. Umberto in his books talks a lot about aquacity feeling at home in water and I think swimming helps it but so does any activity in water. I think most freedivers would be able to look after themselves even if they lost a fin or fins due to this.
Jon like the sound of the mp3 player would be good but if the pool is busy enough I don,t get bored as try to catch up on pepole in front and then see how long before I can catch and pass them again. It definatly helps if you have some one to train with though.

[JPPLAY]

[quote=Cliff Etzel] It also does not allow you to see where you are going unless you stop. QUOTE]

You could use heads up crawl if you need to see a point above water.

[land shark]

I Freestyle 3 to 7 mi per week and yes it helps. I agree with Umberto's aquicity practice. Even playing UW hockey with Jon's group has improved my abilities. The More you swim the better. Hell I feel like going out and blowing some bubbles.

[efattah]

Despite my poor swimming technique, I have a 'backup plan' which has saved me in many situations.

I first used this backup plan when I was just 7 years old in Hawaii in 1982. The undertow on the beach was so strong I was not able to get back to shore. I had only a mask, no fins or anything else.

After exhausting myself trying to swim against the current, I treaded water and rested. Then, I went to the bottom and crawled along the sand. I would then go up for air, and back to the bottom to crawl.

These days, if either a rocky cliff face or the bottom is available, I will always pull myself along the rocks or bottom, against the current, even if I have a monofin on. It is way more efficient than swimming against a current, and I can often cover 3 times the distance in the same amount of time.

I'm very rarely in 'bottomless' water. Of course in bottomless water this method wouldn't work.

[Narsil]

I've done exactly what Eric has described a few times.

Even where there is no danger, and in relatively shallow water, you can save energy when returning to shore from a dive. Especially useful when you are towing a float line heavy with fish - grab onto rock/ weed while the water surge works against you, and then letting go for a free ride, when it reverses shortly afterwards.

[iceselkie]

I am a pretty good swimmer, most of my swimming is done in the pool because of my background and have been quite able to swim 1 k freestyle and another 1 k of drills in the same session (without music). I like how it quiets my headspace really. I am not a good static apneist. :P

[Nickel]

For me it was a natural progression from pool swimming to open water swimming and finally to freediving. I started out on my high school swim team. A lot of the drills we did are the same drills used in freediving. We would do static and dynamic apnea drills to improve our competition times.

From there I discovered open water swimming via an Alcatraz race and picked up triathlons along the way. When I started freediving, it wasn't much different from what I had been already been doing, just going deeper and holding my breath longer.

I definetely think that having a swimming background is extremely helpful even if it is just learning how to be familiar and comfortable in the water along with know your own limits.

[sheepeck]

Many years ago in my childhood I didn't care about going to deep water even I wasn't able to swim at all - I just hold breath and dived.

As I posted here before = I started with freediving because of my interest in surfing - I wanted to learn how to hold breath after wipe out. I need to use my arms to paddle so swimming crawl (freestyle) is almost must for me. Well, I don't say I'm good at it because in fact I'm not.
I decided to focus more on swimming training.

Not long time ago I read book The Big Drop - amazing big wave surfing stories. One guy called Jose Angel were diving off the Maui for black corals. When coming up he found himself being swept by the current too far from boat and there were no chance to swim back to it - so he swam about 13 miles to Molokai.
And others guys did terrible swims in more then 20ft swells. Of course without fins and buoyant wetsuits. Would you dare? Maybe, but not me.