Wondering if this is a problem for anyone else, any suggestions?

[RJP]

Take swimming lessons. Some people take to the water naturally, but most do not. You may well do under the water but sooner or later you are going to be on top of the water and potentially with a buddy needing your help. N

To that point... here's some data from a study I did recently on scuba training with ~700 divers. One of the things that was most highly correlated with student-reported "Preparedness for OW" and "Satisfaction with Pool Session" was the student's self-reported swimming ability coming into the pool sessions:

Getting New Divers Off On The Right Foot

By comparison, here are the "Preparedness" and "Satisfaction" scores for people with self-reported swim ability of "Better Than Average"


80% of those students felt "Mostly" or "Extremely" prepared:

And 76% of them were "Mostly" or "Extremely" Satisfied with their pool sessions...

 

[TMHeimer]

Is this a PADI class? If so, you have the option of doing a longer swim with a mask, snorkel and fins. Would that work?

From my experience, it's up to the instructor to decide, not the student. The instructor can offer both, let the class vote, or dictate which one. Obviously the m/f/s 300 is far easier, and has nothing to do with swimming (as the "sport" of swimming would describe it). But you've all heard my rants on this many times. If you have to do the 200 Swim and have trouble, my advice is to get advice/training on a proper stroke (the front crawl being the most common), proper breathing (equally important), and pacing (as pointed out, it's not a race). Any stroke is allowable (even dog paddle, though I don't necessarily agree)--if the instructor says otherwise, I think you have a beef. I was a sprint swimmer 45 years ago in H.S. and had to re-evaluate all that stuff to pass the DM swim test.

 

[dmaziuk]

RJP's pole again... define "average swimming ability" in terms I would understand so I can rate myself correctly.

 

[RJP]

RJP's pole again... define "average swimming ability" in terms I would understand so I can rate myself correctly.

Do you really not understand the concept of "average swimming ability?"

Or is the concept of "self-reported" the difficulty?



---------- Post added April 16th, 2015 at 10:58 PM ----------

From my experience, it's up to the instructor to decide, not the student.

There's nothing in the IM to support that idea...

"At some point before certification, have students complete a 200 metre/yard continuous surface swim or a 300 metre/yard swim with mask, fins and snorkel."

 

[TMHeimer]

---------- Post added April 16th, 2015 at 10:58 PM ----------



There's nothing in the IM to support that idea...

"At some point before certification, have students complete a 200 metre/yard continuous surface swim or a 300 metre/yard swim with mask, fins and snorkel."

I know that's how it reads Ray. I see that as: "Instructor: They have to do the 200 or 300". Who would you suppose then makes that decision, the student (who doesn't read the IM)? Or the instructor. Personally I disagree with the wording and feel every student should do the same test, but you know that's another of my old rants.

 

[RJP]

I know that's how it reads Ray. I see that as: "Instructor: They have to do the 200 or 300". Who would you suppose then makes that decision, the student (who doesn't read the IM)? Or the instructor.

The student materials offer the same options.

 

[Frosty]

I didn't have the option of lenths of the pool when I did my OW.I was a bit in lala land after two dives in the morning and the instructor told me "YOUR boat ride stops here-Get off and swim".So my swim was about 300m/yards back to the wharf.
Same with the "float' part. The water was 3.0m/10 feet deep and I had to float around till he told me to stop--he was good enough to pass me down my hat and sunglasses whilst he sat eating his lunch. --Peed me off because he ate MY lunch too.
To me the swim should be in the environment you will be diving in

 

[RJP]

I didn't have the option of lenths of the pool when I did my OW.I was a bit in lala land after two dives in the morning and the instructor told me "YOUR boat ride stops here-Get off and swim".So my swim was about 300m/yards back to the wharf.
Same with the "float' part. The water was 3.0m/10 feet deep and I had to float around till he told me to stop--he was good enough to pass me down my hat and sunglasses whilst he sat eating his lunch. --Peed me off because he ate MY lunch too.
To me the swim should be in the environment you will be diving in

So if I'm training in NJ to go diving on vacation in the Caribbean... where do you propose I find crystal-clear, 85F water?



PS - when did you do your float? After the swim?

 

[Lorenzoid]

When I was learning to swim laps, I got a lot of advice from people and by watching videos, but much of it was lost on me until I could get myself past the hurdle of just calmly making it across the pool and back without stopping (other than to do a turn, of course). My brain would tell me I couldn't do it, my breathing got difficult, I thought about the depth of the water below me, I was on the verge of freaking out ... I just couldn't manage to do a full lap (that is, there and back without stopping). Again, my advice is to figure out a rhythm--whether using a tune in your head or whatever works for you--and first learn to calmly do a full lap. I must have done just a single lap dozens of times before I felt confident to add a second lap without having to rest and reset my brain in between. But then I was doing TWO laps! And soon I was doing THREE. Around that time I went back to the advice and videos and learned to do my strokes more correctly, and of course that helped a lot. But first tackling the hurdle of getting into a rhythm between my strokes and my breathing, without letting my brain interfere, worked for me.

 

[dmaziuk]

Do you really not understand the concept of "average swimming ability?"

I really do understand the concept of average.

In the pool where I work out there are people who by my definition can't swim and those who can. Compared to the latter group I am below average: I could never do bat right even back when I swam, and I tend to suck at slow crawl and am not really in shape for doing it fast.

On the scale from Michael Phelps to Amanda Beard I can't swim.