GUE fundamentals

[BlueTrin]

aside from the swim test, are you supposed to prepare things before to do the Fundies class ?

I read through the slides quickly but I assumed that the instructor will go through them for the class.

For the swimming test, my breaststroke is so slow that I am barely doing the 275m in 14 minutes

The 15m in one breath, are you supposed to be totally submerged or just head in the water. I actually find it very hard to stay underwater long enough in one breath when you start swimming but my technique is probably rubbish.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Underwater and fully submerged swimming for breath hold.

 

[BlueTrin]

Underwater and fully submerged swimming for breath hold.

Any tips ? For some reason as soon as I go submerged I barely move and feel out of breath after 4 swings

 

[seeker242]

aside from the swim test, are you supposed to prepare things before to do the Fundies class ?

Not really that much. If your are preparing wrong, you will have to relearn it, so the preparation would be pointless. The one thing that is good to practice is just maintaining a stable and quiet position in the water. In the shallows, get yourself close to the bottom and just hang there. No ascending or descending, no flailing of arms/legs, etc, etc. and just practice maintaining that stable quite position.

 

[tbone1004]

Any tips ? For some reason as soon as I go submerged I barely move and feel out of breath after 4 swings

kick and GLIDE
there is no reason to take a gargantuan breath because it will make the whole thing harder. Just a normal breath will suffice.
If you do it properly, you should take between 3 and 5 strokes. The hand motion requires your hands moving straight along your body instead of out and around. You want all of the thrust directed backwards.

one of our students who struggled with this skill

bit of explanation from another source

 

[Jack Hammer]

Any tips ? For some reason as soon as I go submerged I barely move and feel out of breath after 4 swings

Like Tom said, kick and glide. Slow is fast, you'll get further easier by gliding longer, staying relaxed, then adding a kick to repeat.

 

[BlueTrin]

kick and GLIDE
there is no reason to take a gargantuan breath because it will make the whole thing harder. Just a normal breath will suffice.
If you do it properly, you should take between 3 and 5 strokes. The hand motion requires your hands moving straight along your body instead of out and around. You want all of the thrust directed backwards.

one of our students who struggled with this skill

bit of explanation from another source

I saw the second video earlier on but now that you reposted it I noticed something that I missed the first time: like you said he is not making a circle outwards but a paddle with his arm like in front crawl !

That’s probably why I was barely moving.

Thanks

 

[CptTightPants21]

They will go over the slides, but depending on your current level of scuba instruction I would look at them a little more closely---especially the math sections. A few of the topics you can really breeze right through, the problem is when a person doesn't have an understanding of gas planning/math and the class can get bogged down. Forget calculating turn pressures in different scenarios, the student is still processing what a turn pressure is. Fundamentals is a beginner class and it IS the place to learn, but if you are an individual that really struggles with math do yourself the favor look at the math portions much more closely.

For the swim test, freestyle is usually best and usually gets done in 8-10 min. If there is some kind of issue with doing that, alternate freestyle and breast stroke could work. Somehow when you are taking the test there is ALWAYS plenty of time to get it done.

The same holds true for the breath hold. You need to be fully submerged. A good trick is to kick off the side of the pool and go as deep as possible (try to do it in the deeper section of the pool). You swim as far horizontally as you can and then as you begin to ascend from depth you get an extra 5-10ft horizontally before you break the surface.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Assuming it's a standard 1.5-2m deep pool, swim as close to the bottom as you can. Your strokes will be far more affective completely submerged and you won't be expending energy trying to fight positive buoyancy to stay under. As others say, gliding in between stokes is vital for long breath-hold distance.

 

[BlueTrin]

They will go over the slides, but depending on your current level of scuba instruction I would look at them a little more closely---especially the math sections. A few of the topics you can really breeze right through, the problem is when a person doesn't have an understanding of gas planning/math and the class can get bogged down. Forget calculating turn pressures in different scenarios, the student is still processing what a turn pressure is. Fundamentals is a beginner class and it IS the place to learn, but if you are an individual that really struggles with math do yourself the favor look at the math portions much more closely.

For the swim test, freestyle is usually best and usually gets done in 8-10 min. If there is some kind of issue with doing that, alternate freestyle and breast stroke could work. Somehow when you are taking the test there is ALWAYS plenty of time to get it done.

The same holds true for the breath hold. You need to be fully submerged. A good trick is to kick off the side of the pool and go as deep as possible (try to do it in the deeper section of the pool). You swim as far horizontally as you can and then as you begin to ascend from depth you get an extra 5-10ft horizontally before you break the surface.

Assuming it's a standard 1.5-2m deep pool, swim as close to the bottom as you can. Your strokes will be far more affective completely submerged and you won't be expending energy trying to fight positive buoyancy to stay under. As others say, gliding in between stokes is vital for long breath-hold distance.

Thanks for the tips: I guess I should have prepared a bit sooner but ... ah well I don’t really have a good excuse

On the + side, theory and maths are easy for me.

I’ll try these tomorrow when I get back to the pool. I could try to alternate front crawl and breaststroke but my freestyle isn’t good enough: sometimes I take a breath of water, I would need to improve on my front crawl for this to be a real option.

Do you know what happens if I fail the swim test, do I still get to do the rest of the training (not that I plan to fail it but I would like to know), and I get a chance later to do the swim test ? Or does it prevent from doing the class at all ?