Exercises without tanks

[Sbiriguda]

I have seen some nice excercises they do in UTD training
I found them very interesting, I am PADI and we didn't do the same excercises
What sort of excercises do you without using a tank, we special reference to buoyancy and trim excercises?

 

[happy-diver]

What's with the arms outstretched, is there a soup kitchen out of shot

 

[BlueTrin]

I have been taught to reverse kick using only a semi inflated drysuit. Not exactly buoyancy and trim.

No cylinder, no fins, no BCD.

Find a shallow place of water in a quarry or some place where there is no current/waves and it is safe. float on your front, arch your back so your head is out of the water.

start reverse finning:

1. Bring feet together knee bent
2. Lower your feet
3. Do the reverse finning where you pull the legs backwards
4. Then repeat

If you do it correctly you’ll start moving backwards after a few moves.

You can probably do it in a pool by holding a board to float ?

 

[runsongas]

UTD: when drinking kool aid isn't enough and you start snorting pixie sticks

 

[Lorenzoid]

Some of those exercises remind me of when the instructor (GUE) would have a student with no scuba gear lie prone on a table and move his feet through the stages of a kick (frog, flutter, back kick, etc.). So I suppose a similar exercise could be done underwater. But it seems to me that the underwater exercise might be an extra step of less utility than simply doing the table exercise and then getting into full scuba gear and trying the same thing in the water. After all, the ultimate goal is to do the kicks in good form, while in horizontal trim, in full scuba gear.

 

[CrumhornDiver]

I have been taught to reverse kick using only a semi inflated drysuit. Not exactly buoyancy and trim.

No cylinder, no fins, no BCD.

I was originally taught this way resting on a BCD floating in a pool. I could do it that way in a pool but in no other way. Instead of backward, I kicked up when submerged. I got much better results underwater, neutrally buoyant without fins on. I later taught it the same way and found it easier to teach to students that way. This can all be done in the shallow end of a pool; no need for deep water or ultra-long hoses.

But it seems to me that the underwater exercise might be an extra step of less utility than simply doing the table exercise and then getting into full scuba gear and trying the same thing in the water.

I have done the laying on table kick practice as well. The UTD type training (with gear on without fins or just with long hose) helps you figure out neutral buoyancy while doing the back kicks. When someone can move forwards, backwards, and helicopter kick without fins on, then they can try with fins on. Typically, they'll have it. This step has aided me and students when learning to back kick.

I think that if you start off neutrally buoyant in horizontal trim at the beginning of open water, it might be easier to skip this step. If that training had not been done, I think it helps. YMMV.

 

[Sbiriguda]

Some of those exercises remind me of when the instructor (GUE) would have a student with no scuba gear lie prone on a table and move his feet through the stages of a kick (frog, flutter, back kick, etc.).

It’s likely the kicking exercises can be made out of the water, but what I found interesting in the videos are also the exercises without BCD both with the snorkel and with the BCD floating on the surface and the regulator with a long hose in the diver’s mouth. They are meant to learn buoyancy by controlling the breath without using the BCD.

 

[happy-diver]

Training people in watermanship with varying bits of gear is a brilliant idea
to be mandatory like no baby licence until you know resus, in happy world

 

[SoFlaDiver954]

How do you practice proper body position and fin kicks at the surface? It's pretty hard for your fins to push water if they aren't in it.

 

[divad]

(In the pool) I do a reverse breast-stroke, pulling my upper body under the surface, then back-kicking 1-2 times. before surfacing (when I'm doing laps). An easier way is holding a rubber weight out in front of my face and back-kicking until I need air.