200m swim test and 10 mins water treading

[BlueTrin]

Thanks everyone. Will be taking it with SDI. during water treading, do we hold breath, or just breath as usual?

You need to breathe in a relaxed way.

If you are positively buoyant I suggest you learn to just float on your back for example.

If you less buoyant than the average guy (that was my case), you can ask if you can swim it ? I think I just did the same movement than a breaststroke with the upper body to get my head out of water when I needed to breathe.

 

[Marie13]

In my OW class, there was one other gal besides me. We floated and the several guys treaded water. They couldn’t float to save their lives. Very lean, not much body fat. But if you can float and the instructor allows the option, float! Why work when you don’t have to?

 

[Landau]

If you can't manage more than 75m of breaststroke you're either over exerting yourself or you are in really really bad shape..

As a former swim coach and swim instructor and current masters swimmer I disagree with this. Swimming is all about technique. As others advised work with a swimming instructor and make sure they know your goals. Relax as you swim.

A definite pattern I saw with my students was it took a while to build up from 10m to 25m to 50m. But somewhere between 75m to 150m they found they could just keep going as long as they wanted as their swimming efficiency had improved. This was for both children and adults.

Keep practising with an instructor. You are close to that magic turning point!

 

[Neilwood]

One thing that I think a lot of people do with the swim test is start too hard and get out of breath really quickly. It is not a race and the only stipulation is that it is non stop. Therefore instead of thrashing about to get it over with, take your time and maximise the glide within your chosen stroke. With swimming the faster you try to go, the more resistance you meet. Easier to go slow and smooth than try to be a watermill and thrash it out.

With the "tread water" part , it really is a case of don't drown for 10 mins. There is nothing in any of the standards to say how it is achieved - paddling, floating, "drownproofing" etc have all been used in the past. Personally I did a combination of floating and slow use of the hands (moving my hands back and forward with my palms directed at 45 deg downward for push me up) and occasional foot kick.

Get a bit of practise in in a pool with an instructor that knows what you are aiming for. I started doing about 4 lengths breaststroke (25m pool) but quickly got it to a lot more by slowing down and a bit of focused practise. I now routinely do 40-50 25m lengths in a session.

 

[The Chairman]

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. It's not a race. It's not timed. move your arms and legs the least you need to propel or tread. I float. I can do twenty minutes of floating with my hands out of the water the whole time. That's how I tread!

In addition: have fun. Make it fun. Make tiny challenges to yourself. If you did only 75 yds today, try to get to 80 yds tomorrow. I used to holler "Yousa, Yousa, Yousa" with every tiny goal I made and then smile to myself. I recently broke my leg and am now rehabbing myself. I wanted to make to the fence and back which is about 500 yds. Yep. Startled my cat when I touched the fence and hollered. Did it again as I touched the stairs going into my home. Walked only 1,849 steps yesterday and I hope to break 2,000 today and I'm already half way there. Small goals generate intermediate goals and become big accomplishments with time. All it takes is YOUR determination. Why are you reading this and not in the pool?

 

[Addicted2H2O]

With SDI (and any other agency as far as I know) it's not 10 minutes of treading water....it's a 10 minute safety swim. Basically....don't drown. Swim, float, drownproof....whatever you have to do. It's meant to check your watermanship and how comfortable you are in the water and helps determine whether or not you'll be up to the challenges of some of the scuba skills you'll learn during your class. It's nothing to stress about. It's not something you have to do over and over......it's a one and done skill.

Something to try to help you float.....try to lay flat on your back and spread your arms and legs out like you're making a snow angel. This makes your body cover more surface area on the water and should help you float a little easier.

 

[DiveDay]

This post speaks to me because I was also a non-swimmer before starting scuba training. My advice:

- Practice 2-3 times a week if possible. Try to set a goal for yourself and increase the distance a little bit each week. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that.
- Get a swim instructor/coach. I failed to learn anything from group lessons both as a kid and an adult, but then I figured out the local universities have private lessons available at very affordable rates. It was a bit humbling to have a 18 year old freshman student as an instructor, but I quickly realized they were actually very good at it and most seemed to have years of experience teaching kids, etc. One on one attention will help you tremendously. I can't stress this enough.
- Learn the egg beater kick for treading, other methods *will* wear you out. Once you figure this out and become comfortable with your chin touching the water you'll do 10 minutes no problem.
- My advice would be try to do the swim test in breast stroke. There's no time limit and it allows ample opportunities for catching your breath. Don't forget to glide.
- Lastly, what I found *really* helped my comfort in the pool was practicing kneeling and standing dives in the deep end with my instructor. Repeatedly touching the bottom and coming back up made me much, much more confident around water.

Good luck!

 

[johnslowinski]

Thanks everyone! really appreciate your replies. in that 10 minutes floating/treading does our face must be above water all the time though?

 

[Addicted2H2O]

Thanks everyone! really appreciate your replies. in that 10 minutes floating/treading does our face must be above water all the time though?

There's a technique known as drown-proofing where you face goes in the water so no. At least not with any of the agencies I've been under (NAUI, NASE, SDI)

 

[Seaweed Doc]

It's worth checking SDI standards word for word. I don't know them, but for PADI there are oddities people don't realize.

1. On the 200 yd. swim, an alternative is a 300 yd. swim using mask, fins, and snorkel. Many non-swimmers (meaning folks who don't swim routinely) find this easier.

2. The tread water requirement is either tread or swim 10 minutes. I'd rather swim than tread water.

3. The Divemasters tread requirement is different and gets confused with the open water requirement. For DM, you can tread, float, bob, or drown-proof for 15 minutes, with hands out of the water the last few minutes. No swimming mentioned....