We were goofing around after practice the other day and decided to see who could swim the farthest underwater. We both went well over 50 meters (the underwater turn was a killer). I opted for dolphin kicking a ways and then switched to the underwater breastroke. I’m not sure which technique is better for distance as opposed to speed. Anyone out there ever make a full 100m underwater? Oh yeah, this can be dangerous because a lot of people pass out. So if you make an attempt, be sure someone is on deck watching you. Perhaps some of you dorks could even put on your competitions suits and monofins and see if it improves your performance. You guys kill me with all your equipment.
Well, I'm a breaststroker, so open turns is all I do. I only do front crawl in practice as a warm up and to make sure I don't do so much breaststroke that I wear myself out.
Wow. The world records for holding ones breath are over nine minutes for men and exactly eight minutes for women. That's hard core!
Why would men have an advantage in this?
Back in the glory days, we had this competition at the end of practice. I went between 90 and 95 yards before surfacing. I remember that I was convulsing when I came up and it really scared me. The twitching went away as soon as I took a breath, but it scared the crap out of me.
I can easily do 50 meters today (did it this summer with my 10 year old on my back), but I don't see any reason to try for more. I guess seeing your life flash before your eyes at the age of 18 makes you a little cautious.
Beyond a certain point, I think this "contest" has little swimming value beyond bragging rights. I wouldn't encourage it, but I guess there is the Darwin effect out there.
Discretion is the better part of valor!
Men typically have a larger lung capacity and a slower resting heart rate than women. The lower resting heart rate doesn't matter so much when you're holding your breath in the pool, but the cause of it probably affects it a bit. Men--in general--have larger hearts than women, and so they have to beat less to pump the same amount of blood. The faster your heart pumps, the faster your oxygen is depleted. I'm not a doctor, but I'd say that probably helps explain it.
Of course, any one woman could have an advantage over any one man. It isn't an across the board thing, since I may have a smaller lung capacity than some women and vice versa.
Why would men have an advantage in this?
It's not clear that they do. It may just be that there are more men dumb enough to try this sort of thing, so we've gotten further out into the tail of the distribution.
We (3 guys from swim team) did a challenge against some synchronized swimmers (2 very good ones) and they destroyed us. We made it to the 75 (short-course meters) + 1 person made a turn and had to come up - they went on without much struggle to the 100.
I wasn't sure why a regular flip turn couldn't happen underwater. What's the difference if your feet can't come out of the water?
Try it and you'll see! Trying to do a flip turn while completely submerged is very slow. If you do the tumble turns like Paul suggested you'll see what we mean.
I think most people would say swimming underwater means exactly that. If you come to the surface for the turns--even if you don't breathe--it's cheating.
Yeah, I know what you were talking about. I thought this entire thread was about underwater no breathers, but now that I reread aqualung's posts it seems he's talking about regular flipturns.
Yeah. I'm still trying to understand what the issue is. I don't know if it's still within subject.
Would a flipturn with your feet coming out be a conflict with the goal of being underwater? Is the whole idea being unable to inhale air because your head is underwater or being completely submerged?
I wasn't sure why a regular flip turn couldn't happen underwater. What's the difference if your feet can't come out of the water?
submerge completely as you reach the flags
I usually don't torpedo until the final 'll try torpedoing as early as the flags and going underwater for the wall. We'll see what happens... My turns normally plant my feet right on the horizontals of the cross-hairs. What if you adjust depth on the underwater travel so that the turn puts the feet on those same horizontals, thus having the feet come out of the water?
I count all of my long-axis regular turns as being underwater. I've swam underwater across the length of a pool but usually stop and surface at the wall. Only in distant memory have I tried going more than one pool length underwater, and at the time, it wasn't a regular long-axis somersault turn at the end nor very fast--more of an old-fashioned butterfly hands on the wall turn.
Have you guys ever done turn drills where you break the motions apart? Drill 1-just torpedoing. Drill 2-turning but coming to a halt as you plant your feet on the wall (to check alignment, form, etc), etc?
Well, I'm a breaststroker, so open turns is all I do.
What about short-axis back somersault turns for a breastroke? Is that what you mean?
