Underwater 25 Meter?

I am sure the test is not related to what you would do if on a mission. The test is to see if you can participate in the required training. You would not be dropped in the ocean with your boots on. I am sure you would have fins on.

"Now this is interesting. I thought you could somehow 'expand' your lung capacity through training." Syd. No, not within reasonable limits. If you had some lung disease, or post op from some huge surgery, you might do some respiratory execises to augment your lung capacity. But within physiological boundaries, your lung capacity is the one you were born with, it is genetic and hereditary. What you gain through exercise (swimming) is an overall increase in your cardiovascular capacity due to minute muscle changes, at cellular level, less fat, more mitochondria, more capillaries, better blood circulation and so forth. billy fanstone lung and cv efficiency can be greatly improved (VO2 max) through all forms of cv exercises..See www.brianmac.co.uk/vo2max.htm

In case you need any extra motivation or want to look at some excellent technique, check out Stig Severinsen and friends. Here's one clip on Google: 2007 AIDA World Championships

learn how to streamline take a big breath before you push off learn how to smoothly move through the water conserving energy and air ande Alright, im new to this site, Im not a usual swimmer but i recently got in the pool and feel in love. I quickly made friends at the local pool on-base. Im a United States Marine with hopes and dreams in Becoming a Reconnaissaince Marine. In other words Marines with Gills. They are like the SEAL's from the Navy and Pararescue from the Air Force. The guys at the pool quickly tought me how to swim "the right way" cross-over and *** stroke as well as the Side-stroke and other technics. i go to the pool everyday. My biggest problem is dealing with the underwater 25 meter swim. To become a Recon Marine i have to accomplish the following.... 1) 500 meter swim with out touching the floor in under 17min. 2) 30 min. tread 3) Deep end Rifle retreaval and then treading water for 5 sec. 4) 5 min. water float by using trousers as floating devise 5) 25 Meter underwater swim (my problem) I have no problem with any of the others but the 25 meter kills me only because i feel like my lungs are going to explode. is there any tips of any kind out there that can prepare me for my "indoc" or evaluation to see if im sea worthy and serve as a Recon Marine. Thanks for hearing me out. :banana:

Yes - any time you are practicing this stuff, do so with supervision. I always think it's a good idea to release a little air as you go. That 'out of breath' feeling is really an excess of CO2, not a lack of Oxygen. So you can release some of that CO2, which releases some of that CO2 buildup. But watch out for passing out... that's why you NEED supervision. Stay relaxed. In a swimming-with-just-a-speedo scenario, it's much easier for me to go 25 yards underwater if I go slow than if I go fast. Sort of like a car... your best miles-per-gallon is somewhere in the middle. If you go really fast, you're just burning fuel too quickly. Personally, when I swim underwater, I try to swim right along the bottom of the pool, just an inch or two above. I find that there's a certain 'ground effect' that helps me stick to the bottom, so I can focus more on going forward and less on staying submerged. -Rick

I remember from my SCUBA training that breathing out slowly allows better use of the oxygen in your lunges. I also agree that faster is not better for this test. Stay relaxed and Glide a lot.

Lots of good advice here - especially the point about CO2 buildup. Experienced swimmers know that their body signals the need to breathe earlier than you actually have to. Although I was just a decent high school swimmer, I was very good at swimming underwater. The summer before my freshman year of college (1976) I swam 100 meters underwater - two laps of a 50 M pool turning underwater. I used to practice swimming underwater because I enjoyed it and it was a fun challenge. The next several summers I was a lifeguard and regularly swam 75 yds underwater (but didn't make it to 100 yds - too many turns). I found the following helped: 1. swim efficient full breastroke at a measured pace. You may feel a desire to accelerate at the end to reach the wall when you feel like dying. That's OK - but don't start out so fast that you consume vast amounts of oxygen. Flutter kick is way too INefficient underwater and will burn up oxygen. I assume you have a workable breaststroke kick. 2. When I attempted my 75 yd. swims, I'd swim 25 yds first. I'd rest a bit, then do it again. The second swim was always easier than the first. Then I'd do a fifty and rest. Then I'd go for 75 yds. I think the warmup swims help you smooth out your stroke, stretch your lung cavity slightly, and get your confidence level up that you survived (and will be able to go further the next time). For your 25M goal, practice by starting with 10M. Pop up and relax. Next time go 15M and relax. Then go for 25M. 3. You must begin exhaling somewhere around halfway to get rid of the CO2. 4. practice in a 25 yd. or 25 meter pool where you can stand up. My two teenage sons absolutely kick my ass in the pool now, but I can snorkel underwater quite a bit better than they can now. As a related note - I met Tanya Streeter - multiple world record holder in breathhold diving. Google her and see what she has done. One of my son's friends hired her for some training tips (swimming). Tanya told him to prepare for races by slowly filling his lungs with deep breaths and exhaling slowly. She said this builds up a bit of oxygen that would not be present with normal breathing.

going under water for distance is scary. When ever I try to see how far I can go I feel like passing out at the end. The furthest I have gone is 75 meters. When you hold you breath for a long time you are basicly dieing and its not a good feeling. Be careful because passing out under water is not good. I know a kid who passed out under water and inhaled some water into his lungs. He spent the night in the hospital.

"So you can release some of that CO2, which releases some of that CO2 buildup." Rick, I can't let this go by without commenting. The buildup of C02 is in your blood, your lungs are just used to blow in and blow out air. If you don't renew the air in the lungs there won't be any change in the dynamics of the exchange of gases from blood stream to lungs. You will blow out air with C02, yes, but you won't make "space" in your lung for the C02 circulating to jump into your lungs, because they will be deflated. There is an equilibrium always between the blood side and the air side in the alveolli. More oxygen on air side will make it move into blood, hence breathe deeply and hold it for awhile because you are letting your blood "catch" the oxygen (the release of C02 is happening at the same time in the opposite direction). "that breathing out slowly allows better use of the oxygen in your lungs." Bill, this would work with scuba diving and very little with free diving. The breathing out slowly is just a way of making a PEEP (positive end expiratory pressure) which helps maintain the alveolli non collapsed longer. In running this is done by breathing out through partially closed mouth and other techniques. When all out, fast running, or swimming you just got to breathe in real fast and breathe out real fast, the PEEP factor is irrelevant here. You remember, when scuba diving, you deliberately blow out air slowly to use less air, and also to keep your balance and also to maintain position by not changing density too fast. When using a snorkel there is that slow deliberate breathing out. This wold work a little in free diving, or apnea, or whatever we are doing in this thread, but go a little ways with full breath held, then slowly exhale. One of my biggest problems and maybe for others here is exhaling as I am in the middle of a flip turn, so as not to get water up my nose, causing me to gasp for air sooner on the way out of the turn. Good swimmers keep the water out of their noses by slight positive pressure on the air there, but I am lousy and tend to blow air as soon as I start going upside down. Sorry for long post...billy fanstone

Or is that all mental? and i need to get over it? Swimming 25 meters underwater isn't very difficult, even with camo's on. I have 6 year olds that do it for fun. (wo camos) I do not even need to ask them. I know I am going to get crucified for saying this, but if that is all you need to do to pass the test to become a Recon Marine, then my advice is to just get er' done man. Practice different things. See what works for you in that situation. Experiment. 25 meters isn't very far. You are young, get er' done. You are going to have to swim a lot farther than that to escape any type of gunfire. Do as if your life depended on it.