Preparing for any military diving training will involve significant time in the pool and open water as well as land-based exercises. These types of special programs can require several months of practice for most candidates, especially for non-swimming athletes. Here is a question from a Military.com reader who needs to understand how much time should be spent on pool skills such as swimming, treading and using fins prior to shipping out to Boot Camp:
Stew, I will be going to Dive School after Navy Boot Camp. How much should I be treading every day without hands? Swimming with fins? Thanks, Santos.
Santos, our military training groups train four to five days per week in the pool, and when the weather is nicer, we add an open-water swim with fins to the training week. Each session is about an hour in length, and by the end of the week, most candidates have spent five to six hours in the water working on a variety of aquatic skills. These include:
Warming up with Treading. Each swim workout starts out with a 5- to 10-minute tread. The goal is to build up to being able to tread water with no hands for the entire time, but as you learn to perfect your kick using either scissor or eggbeater (alternating breaststroke) kicks, you can use your hands if needed. This is a great way to ensure you do not blow off treading as many people do, and discover how hard it is in school.
Swim Conditioning. Workouts in the pool are about two things: technique for efficiency and conditioning to get in swimming shape. We usually use the common freestyle/crawl stroke as our work stroke to help with conditioning, then follow the set with a technique focused on the testing strokes, such as the combat side stroke (CSS), elementary side stroke, or breast stroke used in the Navy Physical Screening Test (PST). Swimming conditioning should be incorporated into each swim workout.
Swimming with Fins. Make sure you add swimming with fins to your workout twice per week. We usually coordinate swimming with fins on the days we do leg training on land with weights and calisthenics. Build up to 2,000 yards of swimming with fins nonstop, and time yourself. See if you can break 35 minutes.
Pool Skills. There will be more than swimming and treading at Dive School. Learning how to remain calm underwater while fixing problems with scuba gear, tying knots, and drownproofing will be tested. These will require solving problems while holding your breath. Receiving a scuba qualification prior to joining the Navy is not a bad idea. Never practice any of these skills alone in the pool. Often these skills can be practiced between swimming sets for 1- to 2-minute segments as active rest.
While pool evolutions in military dive training will be a major part of the training day, you will still run, do high-rep calisthenics and get under the log to build teamwork. By the end of the week, a good level of swim training is four to five days per week, 10,000 meters of swimming accumulated (fins/no-fins), an hour’s worth of pool skills/treading, and two to three days each of upper- and lower-body resistance training. Your endurance, strength, and muscle stamina must also be ready for dry-land training. Check out more aquatic and dry land training for any military training program at the Military.com Fitness Section.
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