400 yard swim in less then 12 minutes
- Thread starter jbop65
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
- Messages
- 22,171
- Reaction score
- 2,790
- # of dives
- 5000 - ∞
PatW
Contributor
I would do the crawl the whole way which is what I did when I did it. However, I am a strong swimmer with very good endurance.
Assuming that you are not a strong swimmer, there is no real need to worry. Look 12 minutes is a near eternity. So there is real need for speed. You just need to keep your progress slow and steady and you should get it done. Changing strokes is a good way to keep fatigue at bay. If you can do several strokes, I would do a lap at one stroke and then shift to another. It could be crawl, side stroke, back stroke, and breast stroke and back to crawl (or whatever your variety of strokes is). If you don't know back stroke, it is a good one to pick up because it is pretty physically undemanding and surprisingly easy to make decent speed with, the tricky part is leaning your head back to look ahead every once in awhile so you don't sail into the wall.
It is a good idea to go and do laps. You might want to time yourself.
Assuming that you are not a strong swimmer, there is no real need to worry. Look 12 minutes is a near eternity. So there is real need for speed. You just need to keep your progress slow and steady and you should get it done. Changing strokes is a good way to keep fatigue at bay. If you can do several strokes, I would do a lap at one stroke and then shift to another. It could be crawl, side stroke, back stroke, and breast stroke and back to crawl (or whatever your variety of strokes is). If you don't know back stroke, it is a good one to pick up because it is pretty physically undemanding and surprisingly easy to make decent speed with, the tricky part is leaning your head back to look ahead every once in awhile so you don't sail into the wall.
It is a good idea to go and do laps. You might want to time yourself.
- Messages
- 16,402
- Reaction score
- 5,219
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
I should add that if you do laps several times weekly you should be able to do it easily if an old guy like me can with once weekly.
eelnoraa
Contributor
It is similar to one of GUE fundie's requirement I just did over the weekend. Everyone in the group happened to pick freestyle, some finished in 7min30secc. I think it is not as hard as I expected.
So what I did was get an inexpensive Casio watch with a countdown timer that resets. I set it for 3 minutes & I needed to do 4 lengths in that time. For me, that was 3 lengths of crawl and one length of elementary back stroke. I finished at 11:56 & not out of breath. (BTW, this was the requirement for California State University scuba entrance)
If the 400yd/12min challenging for you, spend a few weeks in the pool & you should meet standards pretty quickly.
If the 400yd/12min challenging for you, spend a few weeks in the pool & you should meet standards pretty quickly.
nolatom
Contributor
I, on the other hand, swim a 50-yard lap freestyle at about a minute, a sustainable pace for me. Flat-out, it's about 40 seconds. So 400 yards sustainable pace is about 8 minutes.
Breast stroke, sidestroke, backstroke, all come in at about 1:15 to 1:25. Let's call it 1:20. That's about 10.5 minutes.
I'm an 'older' swimmer, over 60, not that fast. But I'd do the freestyle/crawl if I had to do the test, to have a comfortable margin.
I went swimming at lunch and tried it, that's how I know my approx times.
Anyway, good luck.
Breast stroke, sidestroke, backstroke, all come in at about 1:15 to 1:25. Let's call it 1:20. That's about 10.5 minutes.
I'm an 'older' swimmer, over 60, not that fast. But I'd do the freestyle/crawl if I had to do the test, to have a comfortable margin.
I went swimming at lunch and tried it, that's how I know my approx times.
Anyway, good luck.
Guba
Contributor
My wife and I started practicing swimming for a triathlon just this evening. I did 350 yards using just about everything BUT the breaststroke (no particular reason...it's just not my favorite stroke). I even used the "resting backstroke" just to catch my breath a couple of times and STILL finished in under 12 minutes. After another couple of pool sessions, I have no doubt I'll be doing 400 m in about the same time or less with a lot less huffing and puffing as I regain and hone my form.
In short, it's certainly doable, and your plan of continuing to sharpen your skills will undoubtedly pay off.
In short, it's certainly doable, and your plan of continuing to sharpen your skills will undoubtedly pay off.
freewillie
Contributor
Use whatever stroke you feel most comfortable with.
As a former competitive swimmer and lifeguard, breast stroke hands down easiest stroke. May not be as fast freestyle but less physically demanding. Like the tortoise and the hare, will get you to the finish line.
As a former competitive swimmer and lifeguard, breast stroke hands down easiest stroke. May not be as fast freestyle but less physically demanding. Like the tortoise and the hare, will get you to the finish line.
Similar threads
