400 yard swim in less then 12 minutes

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jbop65

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Location
Spring Hill Florida
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Hi everyone this may sound like a stupid question but here is the deal,I will be trying to volunteer to help the dive masters at the Tampa Aquarium,Part of the test to make sure you can be a diver with them is to Swim 400 yard in less then 12 minutes,Now with that being said the test they give is similar to a rescue diver test.

My question is this. What stroke did most of you use when doing your rescue swim,400 yards is alot of swimming and don't want to wear myself out so I was thinking a breast stroke is the best, less effort.

I plan to spend the next month at the pool (ymca) doing laps.
 
When I need to swim long distances I generally use the side-stroke, although if they are letting you use your mask and snorkel maybe then I would just flutter kick. If you're performing the test in a 25 yd pool then you need to complete sixteen lengths (or you can look at it as eight laps) so you have 45 seconds to complete each pool length (or 1 minute 30 seconds per lap). Even though I swim a few days a week I would find this fairly difficult to do, so good luck! Let us know how you make out.

Michael
 
"I plan to spend the next month at the pool (ymca) doing laps. " Always a good idea.

400 yards in a 25 yard pool is 8 laps (had to check my higher math). That is 1:15 per lap (including turns).

Alternating strokes will work IF you have a good breast stroke.

FWIW typical DM and Inst requirements are 450 yards in 10 minutes
 
Doing 400 yards in 12 minutes (assuming a 25 yd. pool) means a bit less than a minute and twenty seconds a length ... easy to sidestroke that.
 
For the PADI DM 400 meter (Canada) swim I did it in just under 13 minutes (scored a "3", which I believe is the same as doing 400 Yards in 12 minutes or a little more). I trained once a week for about an hour from Nov. through April. I used the standard forward crawl. I would doubt you could do it that fast (I know guys, that's NOT fast) with other strokes--such as breast,side (maybe butterfly?), but my brothers are the swim experts, not me.
 
It's hard to go fast and conserve energy with the breast stroke. You have to do a lot of strokes and don't really get a far glide with each stroke.

I swim front crawl/freestyle, but that's probably because I did a year of competitive swimming when I was young.
Sidestroke or freestyle is a good bet. Just remember to have a glide period between each stroke, it'll conserve your energy a lot if you have one. Reach out far, stroke, glide, repeat.
Wear a compression swim suit like a speedo jammer. Board shorts will add a ton of drag. :wink:

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Crawl is really the way to go. 2 minutes per hundred is pretty much cruising so 12 minutes should not be a problem. I for one will be impressed if you do a 400 butterfly. Get out and practice, use the pace clock, and count strokes per length. Work on getting your time and stroke count down.
 
For what it's worth, I've done this test three times now and each time I used a breast stroke (gliding underwater) and did it in under 9 minutes each time. I'm a good swimmer but I don't swim laps regularly. Your pool-lengths may vary.
 
Doing 400 yards in 12 minutes (assuming a 25 yd. pool) means a bit less than a minute and twenty seconds a length ... easy to sidestroke that.
400/25 = 16 lengths. 16 lengths in 12 minutes = 45 seconds per length.
 
Freestyle (I think another name for it is the crawl). Be sure to control your breathing. That is the biggest part. It shouldnt be to hard (I swim a 500yrd in under 6min). Good luck!
 
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