After being "spoken to" by the lifeguards about training SDKs, I am wondering how dangerous it really is to do multiple full 25 SCY SDKs.
Consider this set:
Fins on.
10x/2:00
This is just an example. Basically I'm referring to any set that contains multiple full 25 SDKs on a fixed time interval.
I've seen multiple people post sets like this in their blogs.
I've heard that on some age group teams the coach will demand that swimmers complete N full 25 SDKs on some fixed interval or everyone does it over.
The above observations would suggest that training full 25 SCY SDKs is a reasonable thing to do, but I've talked to some coaches and guards who seem to genuinely believe that even going past mid-pool underwater is just asking for trouble.
For a reasonably fit masters or age-group swimmer (Let's say a "BB" or stronger swimmer between the ages of 10 and 70 who can comfortably train 4x1hr/week), what do you think:
-Sets like these are generally safe as long as you don't do something stupid, like intentionally hyperventilate to the point of making yourself light headed before your push-off.
-Sets like this are generally safe, but you can never know if you have an un-diagnosed medical condition that renders them very dangerous so you shouldn't do them.
-Such sets are a little risky, but it's a risk you have to take to get really good at SDKs.
-If you do this kind of training regularly, you will eventually pass out under water and possibly die.
-The modern world is sufficiently rampant with litigation that no one can admit that sets like these are safe, even as anonymous vote on this forum.
I'm on the lifeguards side here. Every year we lose a few healthy swimmers to shallow water blackout. Last one at NBAC here in Baltimore last year and I saw there was another a week or two ago. www.independent.com/.../
You say you feel fine and that's the key kinda, that's what makes it dangerous, in shallow water blackout you feel fine until you just blackout. You can deplete your CO2 in your blood before the swim and train yourself to withstand more CO2 buildup. Enough so that you will stay under past the point where your O2 is depleted.
That's kinda the key mechanism, CO2 buildup makes you surface, not O2 depletion. You don't sense O2 depletion but that is what will kill you.
So in the end, with partners or as part of a coached workout, fine. On your own with no one else paying attention, so such a hot idea. The risk percentage might be relatively low but the consequences are as high as can be.
I'm on the lifeguards side here. Every year we lose a few healthy swimmers to shallow water blackout. Last one at NBAC here in Baltimore last year and I saw there was another a week or two ago. www.independent.com/.../
You say you feel fine and that's the key kinda, that's what makes it dangerous, in shallow water blackout you feel fine until you just blackout. You can deplete your CO2 in your blood before the swim and train yourself to withstand more CO2 buildup. Enough so that you will stay under past the point where your O2 is depleted.
That's kinda the key mechanism, CO2 buildup makes you surface, not O2 depletion. You don't sense O2 depletion but that is what will kill you.
So in the end, with partners or as part of a coached workout, fine. On your own with no one else paying attention, so such a hot idea. The risk percentage might be relatively low but the consequences are as high as can be.
