DM swim tests...what a wake up call

[lulubelle]

If your brother was listed as a USA swimmer, here are the USA swimmers who have held the WR in the 50 m Free;

Long Course

Joe Bottom
Ron Manganiello
Chris Cavanaugh
Rowdy Gaines
Bruce Stahl
Robin Leamy
Tom Jager
Matt Biondi

Short Course

Steve Crocker
Anthony Ervin

There are no real WR's in the 50 yard free, because most of the World has never swum 50 yards. If my much narc'd gray matter had to guess, it would guess Chris.

Swimming is among the worst exercises for fat burning, because the water is too efficient in it's cooling.

The only way to burn real fat by swimming is to eat a fair amount of food right before swimming. Our dna is not far evolved from the hunter/gatherer who often had to flee the apex predators right after eating. The metabolism cranks up to allow you to burn the "stored energy" in order to get away to eat another day. The key is that it stays cranked up for a few hours, so your swimming would be burning fat long after you are out of the cooling water.

My comments about the timing of food intake relative to swimming were aimed at the OP, who is looking to improve his endurance, not to burn fat.

Going to have to agree to disagree that the only way to trigger fat burning is to eat substantially right before swimming. Ideally, if one was after fat burning, you might do a lengthy but not terribly intense swim while fasting, though the first 20-30 minutes will be burning stored glycogen before switching to fat catabolism. I can't do the type of swim I do fasting though. I usually have a small complex snack 1.5 hours prior, or something immediately available (like a small portion of juice) right before I start. Otherwise I poop out mid swim. It's working.

I will concede your point that the cooling effect of the water works against that process. Hence the intervals, which pay off in spades in terms of revving the metabolism.

Missed on the bro. But this is the internet, and to protect my privacy, please excuse me if I don't clarify further. He is a wussy once a year diver now.

 

[soltari675]

Soltari675 ...

The 400 meters is strictly a swim test (no mask, fins, snorkel)...however you can use any stroke. For the 800, it is a mask, fins, snorkel test...kick only.
For the tired diver tow, both divers are in full scuba gear.

...

Ah thanks a bunch.

 

[TMHeimer]

I finished mine a little over a month ago. I'm 46 now, just turned. Before the test I rode bicycle and race enduros on dirtbikes, so out doing endurance stuff for 5-7 hours some races. Consider myself in decent shape. When I started swimming I about died, hadn't done lap swimming since swim lessons when I was 15. I swam for a month before I tested doing laps at the local pool. I worked on my stroke and most importantly was not starting to fast. I didn't set the pool on fire and just did ok but that month in the pool made all the difference. You will get there with a little practice. Good luck and don't give up!!!

How about being on the swim team at 15 and doing DM at 55 with NO swimming in between! Yes, training did even get me up to it. Lots of good and DIFFERENT replies here. I even agree with an old nemesis Halemano. He says snorkelling is all fins. Yes. That's why one of my suggestions was to lengthen the 800 and allow use of arms--you'd do that for a rescue, no?

 

[lulubelle]

How about being on the swim team at 15 and doing DM at 55 with NO swimming in between! Yes, training did even get me up to it. Lots of good and DIFFERENT replies here. I even agree with an old nemesis Halemano. He says snorkelling is all fins. Yes. That's why one of my suggestions was to lengthen the 800 and allow use of arms--you'd do that for a rescue, no?

I quit the swimteam at age 10 and didn't swim laps again until 46, so I feel your pain. I'm lucky to have some good coaches in the family. And it has taken some real effort and commitment. Though no time I will reach will ever seem anything but painfully inadequate and slow. Comes from flying all over the world to watch my brother spend 21 seconds in the water.

Not planning to do my DM, but am doing rescue soon. Offshore here. I'm going for endurance.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Am I the only guy who trained a little for this?? I swam a mile once a week for 4 weeks in quarter mile intervals improving time a little each week. I found my pace at about 90 second per hundred and scored just fine. Divemasters need to swim competently to get to divers or swimmers in distress, and with power to tow them when needed. I hope we all learned from the testing that we need to be in reasonable shape and competent under AND ON the water.
DivemasterDennis.

 

[ClayJar]

Am I the only guy who trained a little for this?? I swam a mile once a week for 4 weeks in quarter mile intervals improving time a little each week. I found my pace at about 90 second per hundred and scored just fine.

You're certainly not the only guy who trained for it. I used the aforementioned ZERO to 1650 in Six Weeks by Ruth Kazez. I did the NAUI 450-yd swim around between the first and second days of week five, and I finished the 450 in 8:45 (1:15 under the required 10:00) even though I aspirated water on the first lap and spent a big chunk of the swim coughing up a lung or two. :biggrin:

 

[drbill]

I was a competitive swimmer who had to do 10 x 400 reps in practice. Of course that was back in my teens. Today I'd be lucky if I could do one (hence, I'm not a DM... but that was more an issue of taking on unwanted liability). Good luck on the next try.

 

[boulderjohn]

When I did my DM, I was in very good shape for a man my age. However, since I despise swimming on the surface as a recreational activity, I had done it as little as I could for decades and was not all that good with it. I therefore went to the nearby recreation center and swam and swam and swam for weeks before going for a score. Before long I was routinely swimming a mile as one of my activities during that period.

I also feel it is important that a dive professional maintain those skills, as you will see...

I agree that a DM should be a strong swimmer. However, having to swim nearly a kilometer with fins on? I'd like to see the study that made them come up with that!! How about swimming 200 meters and finning 400 meters but reduce the time a bit? Better yet, eliminate the finning portion altogether and require a stronger, shorter swim but a longer diver tow? Seems that would be more realistic!!

I have only see a DM do anything resembling a rescue once. In this case, the DM was of the kind that supervise the situation from the boat. When he saw a problem in the distance, he quickly put on mask, fins, and snorkel, jumped in, and sprinted out to assist. It was not 800 meters, but it was still a pretty far shot. I believe it was a good thing that he had that skill.

Just to be fair on the comment there are a lot of Dive Masters out there who perform well in the stamina test and the water skills and everything else going into a dive master course. However like any one there are dive masters out there who have never been exposed to real life emergencies and that lack of experience can be taxing even for the most physically fit people.

A friend of mine witnessed another DM in action. Their boat was moored on the Spiegel Grove in Florida, and all the divers had just finished ascending. They noticed a diver from another boat having some trouble on the surface. The diver was attempting to swim in heavy surface current to his boat, but for some reason had not inflated his BCD properly and was struggling. The DM on my friend's boat (and others) were shouting to that diver's boat to help him, but the personnel on that other boat just froze. When the struggling diver went under, the DM jumped in (no fins or snorkel--was expecting the other boat to help their own diver) and swam to the spot the diver submerged. He dived down after him and brought him to the surface. He was unconscious. He towed the diver back to his boat, where he was given CPR. To the amazement of many, the diver came out of it and survived. Sprinting to the spot, taking a deep breath, free diving without gear to a sinking diver, bringing him back to the surface, and towing him back to the boat required strong swimming skills and stamina.

Consequently, as much as I despise it and although I never work in a DM role, I still practice surface swimming from time to time.

 

[endurodog]

Am I the only guy who trained a little for this?? .

I trained for a month for mine, 3 days a week, before testing and I was in reasonable shape to start with. I see lots of comments on here about guys that just jumped in and did it, better men (and women) than me.

I will add this I think there needs to be some allowance for doing it at altitude. I have to do some fitness testing for my job and there is an allowance for the Denver air. The Cooper Fitness standard is one that gives altitude adjustments on times for arobic activity.

 

[k ellis]

A friend of mine witnessed another DM in action. Their boat was moored on the Spiegel Grove in Florida, and all the divers had just finished ascending. They noticed a diver from another boat having some trouble on the surface. The diver was attempting to swim in heavy surface current to his boat, but for some reason had not inflated his BCD properly and was struggling. The DM on my friend's boat (and others) were shouting to that diver's boat to help him, but the personnel on that other boat just froze. When the struggling diver went under, the DM jumped in (no fins or snorkel--was expecting the other boat to help their own diver) and swam to the spot the diver submerged. He dived down after him and brought him to the surface. He was unconscious. He towed the diver back to his boat, where he was given CPR. To the amazement of many, the diver came out of it and survived. Sprinting to the spot, taking a deep breath, free diving without gear to a sinking diver, bringing him back to the surface, and towing him back to the boat required strong swimming skills and stamina.

Consequently, as much as I despise it and although I never work in a DM role, I still practice surface swimming from time to time.

Man thats a sad situation. I have witnessed this too in professional roles I am involved with. I have witnessed officers freeze up and ask me what they should do (Can you imagine police officers asking what to do?) Its a human nature that when confronted with a situation your not familiar with to freeze up and in these circumstances it can cost a life.

I am proud of your friend and I do thank you for sharing such a heart warming story too. I know I should practice swimming a little more too but with our roles in life we never have alot of free time.