MY CLAIM IS THIS:
If athletes got better at finishing their perfomance we would only have one "borderline" LMC case out of a hundred performances.
One guy that is not given the benefit of the doubt. A price to be paid if one wants to keep LMC out of a performance.
In order to explain what I mean by "finishing of a performance in a correct way" I will first explain my understanding of what a LMC is.
WHAT A LMC IS:
1) When the brain is low on oxygen the nervoussystem will falter.
2) If a muscle is used it will ask for guidance from the brain.
3) The brain cannot send any coherent directions on how the muscle
shall proceed (move).
4) It will be a kind of on-and-of flicker of uneven signals.
5)Therefore the muscle will shake (in an UNEVEN way)
HOW TO AVOID LMC (the correct way to finish a performance)
1) When surfacing use as little muscles as possible. RELAX - FLOAT
(let the bouyancy in your suit hold you).
1a) Hang on the edge of the pool! Dont stand on your legs.
1b)Hold on to the rope with a straight arm (the only muscles working
will be your fingers) (As Herbert finishes his 87 meter dive in Ibiza).
2) Use hook-breathing (keep the pressure in your lungs).
Now you have only two muscles working:
- The diapragma breathing and your head that has to be held out of the water (if balancing the head on the spine you will only have one muscle working: the diapragma.
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO:
- If done as I propose above this is the tiny detail where LMC will have to be discovered and judged. The BREATHING!!
- This will be harder to judge than the halfsecond sway of the upper body of a standing athlete in a pool (stomach and back muscles give up on him for half a second and he falls. Could be just as little as 10 centimeters forward fall before his muscles start working again and "catches" him. And this is NOT a stumble because the athlete SHOULD NOT MOVE. Should actually not STAND at all.
- The breathing will be even harder to judge than the halfsecond dip of the head (I have felt it and seen it in others). But if the head dips it is LMC bacause the athlete SHOULD NOT MOVE. (A shiver out of could is not a dip of the head).
THE FIRST RULE IS TO MAKE IT EASY FOR THE JUDGE TO JUDGE YOU.
So to finish this of:
If the judge follows the athlete face to face up from the depth, or side by side in the pool and beeing there face to face at horisontal angle when the respiratory tracts leave the water.
The athlete may stare, have blue lips, gasp for air, cough and EVEN shiver of could. Samba will still be obvious in 99 out of a hundred cases.
HOW TO TELL SHIVERING FROM LMC
HOW TO TELL GASPING FOR AIR FROM LMC:
Shivering out of cold, gasping for air are different from LMC movements. Cold shivering is more EVEN. LMC is not. Gasping can be even but if the nevoussystem signals from the brain send UNEVEN, ERRATIC signals to the breathing muscle then breathing will be uneven - that is LMC. (Herbert N STA 2001 Ibiza). You will HEAR IT aswell as SEE it if you are experienced and CLOSE to the face. In addition to a diapragma freaking out the tounge might fall back and cause an even more uneven airflow (I have heard it many times and
felt it in myself)
I have only seen two cases that was very hard to judge. One STA 5.45 Swedish record 2000. And Herberts STA 8.08 Ibiza 2001. All other cases I have seen have been obvious. EVEN the danish guy in Ibiza doing a 360 degree horisontal circle in the water after surfacing. He was taking his mask of (he had a UW-rugby attachment). I was on the opposite side of the judges so I saw what they didnt see (they should have had a judge in the water in that situation). The guy had NO LMC but he was disqualified. That was a good judgement since the "silly sod" turned his face away from the judges directly after surfacing.
Use a normal mask, dive shallower, be in control when you surface is the message to this guy.
HOW DO WE LAERN TO JUDGE SAMBAS?
The above I have learnt by seeing sambas (LOTS - I have filmed at competitions), only marginally by experiencing them myself. When I LMC I have a memory loss, I cannot tell which muscle gave up on me or started shaking.
Just keep on watching them and you will eventually be an expert at detecting them!
Sebastian
/Sweden
PS. I have just accepted a nomination for assistand AIDA judge in Sweden. I accepted it since I believe in my (among other) abilities to detect LMC.
So, freedivers, does your experience support this or do you have arguments against it? Looking forward to hear....
If athletes got better at finishing their perfomance we would only have one "borderline" LMC case out of a hundred performances.
One guy that is not given the benefit of the doubt. A price to be paid if one wants to keep LMC out of a performance.
In order to explain what I mean by "finishing of a performance in a correct way" I will first explain my understanding of what a LMC is.
WHAT A LMC IS:
1) When the brain is low on oxygen the nervoussystem will falter.
2) If a muscle is used it will ask for guidance from the brain.
3) The brain cannot send any coherent directions on how the muscle
shall proceed (move).
4) It will be a kind of on-and-of flicker of uneven signals.
5)Therefore the muscle will shake (in an UNEVEN way)
HOW TO AVOID LMC (the correct way to finish a performance)
1) When surfacing use as little muscles as possible. RELAX - FLOAT
(let the bouyancy in your suit hold you).
1a) Hang on the edge of the pool! Dont stand on your legs.
1b)Hold on to the rope with a straight arm (the only muscles working
will be your fingers) (As Herbert finishes his 87 meter dive in Ibiza).
2) Use hook-breathing (keep the pressure in your lungs).
Now you have only two muscles working:
- The diapragma breathing and your head that has to be held out of the water (if balancing the head on the spine you will only have one muscle working: the diapragma.
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO:
- If done as I propose above this is the tiny detail where LMC will have to be discovered and judged. The BREATHING!!
- This will be harder to judge than the halfsecond sway of the upper body of a standing athlete in a pool (stomach and back muscles give up on him for half a second and he falls. Could be just as little as 10 centimeters forward fall before his muscles start working again and "catches" him. And this is NOT a stumble because the athlete SHOULD NOT MOVE. Should actually not STAND at all.
- The breathing will be even harder to judge than the halfsecond dip of the head (I have felt it and seen it in others). But if the head dips it is LMC bacause the athlete SHOULD NOT MOVE. (A shiver out of could is not a dip of the head).
THE FIRST RULE IS TO MAKE IT EASY FOR THE JUDGE TO JUDGE YOU.
So to finish this of:
If the judge follows the athlete face to face up from the depth, or side by side in the pool and beeing there face to face at horisontal angle when the respiratory tracts leave the water.
The athlete may stare, have blue lips, gasp for air, cough and EVEN shiver of could. Samba will still be obvious in 99 out of a hundred cases.
HOW TO TELL SHIVERING FROM LMC
HOW TO TELL GASPING FOR AIR FROM LMC:
Shivering out of cold, gasping for air are different from LMC movements. Cold shivering is more EVEN. LMC is not. Gasping can be even but if the nevoussystem signals from the brain send UNEVEN, ERRATIC signals to the breathing muscle then breathing will be uneven - that is LMC. (Herbert N STA 2001 Ibiza). You will HEAR IT aswell as SEE it if you are experienced and CLOSE to the face. In addition to a diapragma freaking out the tounge might fall back and cause an even more uneven airflow (I have heard it many times and
felt it in myself)
I have only seen two cases that was very hard to judge. One STA 5.45 Swedish record 2000. And Herberts STA 8.08 Ibiza 2001. All other cases I have seen have been obvious. EVEN the danish guy in Ibiza doing a 360 degree horisontal circle in the water after surfacing. He was taking his mask of (he had a UW-rugby attachment). I was on the opposite side of the judges so I saw what they didnt see (they should have had a judge in the water in that situation). The guy had NO LMC but he was disqualified. That was a good judgement since the "silly sod" turned his face away from the judges directly after surfacing.
Use a normal mask, dive shallower, be in control when you surface is the message to this guy.
HOW DO WE LAERN TO JUDGE SAMBAS?
The above I have learnt by seeing sambas (LOTS - I have filmed at competitions), only marginally by experiencing them myself. When I LMC I have a memory loss, I cannot tell which muscle gave up on me or started shaking.
Just keep on watching them and you will eventually be an expert at detecting them!
Sebastian
/Sweden
PS. I have just accepted a nomination for assistand AIDA judge in Sweden. I accepted it since I believe in my (among other) abilities to detect LMC.
So, freedivers, does your experience support this or do you have arguments against it? Looking forward to hear....