Thank you in advance for your advice. My son has joined the Air Force, though he has not gone to Basic yet. He was approved for a very challenging career known as a TACP (Please see Link - www.globalsecurity.org/.../tacp.htm )
One of the criteria for getting into this particular specialty was to pass the NON-SWIMMING portions of the PAST (Physical Ability Stamina Test - www.afsoc.af.mil/.../pastcriteria.asp ). He was approached today and told that an even more critical need for the USAF was for Combat Controllers, but he would need to also pass the 2 swimming portions of the PAST (see link above, please). Now, he's in great shape, and he can swim like a regular person can swim, but he's NEVER been a swimmer, per se. The question I have is, what should he do in order to prepare to pass the 2 swimming tests:
1) 2 x 20 Meter Underwater Swim: Provide the member 3-minutes of rest between underwaters. If members surface or break the water surface during any portion of the swim, the test will be stopped and considered a failure.
2) 500 Meter Surface Swim (max. time limit 14 minutes for CCT/SOWT; max. time limit 11 minutes 30 seconds for PJ): This swim is conducted using the freestyle, breaststroke or sidestroke. The swim is continuous (non-stop). If a member stops any time during the swim, the test will be stopped and considered a failure for the entire PAST.
Sorry for the long message. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
The local USAF guys here give this test often during my workouts.
One interesting thing is that they do not allow flip turns in the 500. They encourage the recruits to take as much of the time as possible (ie pace themselves and use the full 14 minutes). There are no extra points for finishing faster, and they need to complete a run right after.
On the underwater, they can't break the surface at all, even with the tip of a toe, so it's important to practice staying deep. The guys who do it best swim breaststroke. It is from a push.
I would encourage him to use whichever stroke(s) comes easiest to him and work on it until he can repeat 50s around a minute. Ten of those during the test should not be too tough with a little practice.
They all wear jammers, BTW.
Good luck to him! :applaud:
The local USAF guys here give this test often during my workouts.
One interesting thing is that they do not allow flip turns in the 500. They encourage the recruits to take as much of the time as possible (ie pace themselves and use the full 14 minutes). There are no extra points for finishing faster, and they need to complete a run right after.
On the underwater, they can't break the surface at all, even with the tip of a toe, so it's important to practice staying deep. The guys who do it best swim breaststroke. It is from a push.
I would encourage him to use whichever stroke(s) comes easiest to him and work on it until he can repeat 50s around a minute. Ten of those during the test should not be too tough with a little practice.
They all wear jammers, BTW.
Good luck to him! :applaud:
