Equlistn - Swallowing air at 16+m

[TerryJamesWalker]

Hi,
So beyond 15m, I seem to pump air into my stomach or lungs rather than eustachian tubes. I know this is glottis related.

I can replicate this at 2m in a swimming pool, on an empty lung. It doesn't happen if I'm head upwards. It doesn't happen on full lungs.

So there must be some pressure from the lungs that helps me to keep my glottis closed? When that becomes relatively lower, I can't equalise.

Do we think that my glottis is never really closed? But I don't notice before 15m, or the rightway up. Is it a pressure difference problem?
How do I fix it? Seems like a swimming pool on out-breath might work?

 

[adrian.u]

Control of the glottis (and soft palette) does become more difficult when descending head-first, simply because of the different way that gravity is acting on the air (it tends to rise upwards from mouth to throat to lungs) and on the anatomy (structures in the head, throat & ears are pulled & stretched in ways that are not normal for them).

This previous post may have some relevant information & suggestions, so I'd recommend you read it through:

https://forums.deeperblue.com/threads/help-with-clearing-for-son.122889/post-1010193

(In particular, the part about checking head position while descending; as well as applying the part about swimming/sinking down at different angles in the pool to your specific situation, etc.)

There are also some exercises that can help to improve glottis control, and the following youtube vids give some examples:

(the title suggests above is aimed more specifically at learning mouthfill eq, but I think the exercises that it gives, starting at about 6mins with the balloon, are also useful more generally to see & understand how it feels to control the glottis)

(pretty similar stuff to the one before - but can be helpful to hear things described in different ways by different people...)

Finally, if you get hold of an "otovent" (https://www.otovent.co.uk/what-is-otovent-for/) then there are also other exercises that might be helpful. For example, take a look at this youtube vid:

(the 'eq tool' it shows is mostly just a more expensive and slightly more sophisticated version of the otovent - but the basic otovent is just fine for practicing many of the most important exercises).

Hope that helps!