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.
my team does a kick set, instead i do underwaters :D
And I bet you get a better workout from the set.
Most of the posters to the thread seem to assume that the main point of doing underwaters is to improve breath control. IMO that's at best a secondary goal; the primary goal is to improve speed and endurance of your underwater kicking. Once you're on the surface you're not kicking as hard.
Even in theory I don't think you work your legs as hard on the surface as when underwater, and in practice the disparity is even greater b/c swimmers tend to use kick sets as recovery between swim sets and this tendency is more pronounced when you are using a kick board and chatting with others.
But of course to work on underwaters you have to actually BE underwater so hence the need for breath control...
As far as the question asked by the thread title: sunruh is right again that it is very individual. So what follows is true FOR ME and your mileage may vary. I am not tall and have average/small sized hands and feet...but I *have* been blessed with floppy ankles and a high lung capacity.
For me the risk of doing a 25 underwater with plenty of rest is pretty much zero unless I smack my head on the wall or something. I could do 25 underwaters at 7 years old before I even started swimming year-round, and can still do 50 no-breathers, so it is hard to take seriously the notion that death can result from a 25 no-breather unless I am already pretty short of breath.
If you do many of them and don't recover between them, certainly the risk is there. But I don't see what is so magical about the 15m barrier that some propose as the limit, either: that's pretty far out there, farther than most people do in practice or in races. It is not hard to imagine sets in which someone -- anyone -- struggles to reach 15m on each repeat.
If you want to work on underwater kicking in a serious manner -- more than 1-2 kicks off the walls -- there is no safe distance. So it becomes a matter of not ignoring warning signs or doing something stupid. For me the warning sign is a need to pee (which I never give into, of course!), which occurs before any spots or narrowing of vision or diaphragm spasms.
my team does a kick set, instead i do underwaters :D
And I bet you get a better workout from the set.
Most of the posters to the thread seem to assume that the main point of doing underwaters is to improve breath control. IMO that's at best a secondary goal; the primary goal is to improve speed and endurance of your underwater kicking. Once you're on the surface you're not kicking as hard.
Even in theory I don't think you work your legs as hard on the surface as when underwater, and in practice the disparity is even greater b/c swimmers tend to use kick sets as recovery between swim sets and this tendency is more pronounced when you are using a kick board and chatting with others.
But of course to work on underwaters you have to actually BE underwater so hence the need for breath control...
As far as the question asked by the thread title: sunruh is right again that it is very individual. So what follows is true FOR ME and your mileage may vary. I am not tall and have average/small sized hands and feet...but I *have* been blessed with floppy ankles and a high lung capacity.
For me the risk of doing a 25 underwater with plenty of rest is pretty much zero unless I smack my head on the wall or something. I could do 25 underwaters at 7 years old before I even started swimming year-round, and can still do 50 no-breathers, so it is hard to take seriously the notion that death can result from a 25 no-breather unless I am already pretty short of breath.
If you do many of them and don't recover between them, certainly the risk is there. But I don't see what is so magical about the 15m barrier that some propose as the limit, either: that's pretty far out there, farther than most people do in practice or in races. It is not hard to imagine sets in which someone -- anyone -- struggles to reach 15m on each repeat.
If you want to work on underwater kicking in a serious manner -- more than 1-2 kicks off the walls -- there is no safe distance. So it becomes a matter of not ignoring warning signs or doing something stupid. For me the warning sign is a need to pee (which I never give into, of course!), which occurs before any spots or narrowing of vision or diaphragm spasms.
