Before I begin, I must preface that the manner in which I write might carry a certain amount of subtle levity to it, but please try to look past that and see the actual information I’m humbly trying to convey vs the tom foolery and or shenanigans.

First things first; what is and underwater and why on earth would anyone want to do one? An underwater is the act of swimming below or “subsurface” the natural surface of the water for an extended period of distance and or time. At this point, the sane person should instantly object! This is nonsense, why would anyone want to participate in such an inane and useless pursuit. There are a few answers my split toed, nose breathing friends. The most important one is to impress people. The common person is not adept at adapting to extended periods of oxygen deprivation. By completing said act you immediately set yourself apart from “them” as unique, talented, interesting, and or just plain crazy! This in turn will enamor you to the pool staff and if there are any lovely male or female lifeguard types, they will instantly remember you and all your awesome “waterworld” type talent. Another and equally important reason could be for legitimate training reasons. There are a few unique jobs in each branch of the service which require a certain amount of ability of a subsurface marine nature. It can only behoove any individual aspiring to that end to train in advance to achieve said goal. In order to do that it helps to have a guideline. This document will hopefully provide that. Another reason which I suppose ties in with the actual training aspect is the concept of water confidence. Being able to complete tasks like this will inherently increase your confidence in the water. That’s extremely important because it’s often said that “water is the great equalizer.” It will take the strongest dry land beast and reduce them to mere puddles of a person. It doesn’t matter who you are, if you lack confidence in the water, it will only make your goal that much harder.

Now on to the “theory” of underwaters.

What is the most important aspect of a successful underwater technique? Efficiency! That is the key to success in underwater activity. Economy of movement is paramount. As on the surface, every movement uses oxidized blood cells at a rapid pace. When conducting the business of underwater swimming, those oxygenated particles become increasingly more vital. Thus arises the need to conduct yourself in a manner that helps preserve them for as long as possible.

Now if you do your research on underwater’s you’ll probably realize that there are a variety of techniques. The old adage of “different strokes for different folks” rings resoundingly true in this discussion. The technique I’m going to attempt to describe has in my research (practical and otherwise), served to be the most efficient of all of them. Does this mean that other techniques aren’t acceptable? No. Does this mean you have to use my technique? No. I’m just providing what I believe to be the best technique that I’ve learned through practical application. With this, I’ll also provide some alternate training methods that should help increase the individuals overall lung capacity, efficiency and oxygen deprivation ability.

Now, what we’ve all been for, the technique

While reading this remember it’s going to help for you as the reader to visualize what is being depicted

For this technique we will begin all underwaters  with the swimmer in the water and hanging on to the wall at either end of the pool.

The first thing you must do is RELAX!!!!!!! One of the most important keys to success is the individuals ability to relax. You must calm your breathing as well as your mind. You have to remember, for humans it is unnatural to not breath. Once you start on a course of oxygen deprivation, intentional or otherwise, your mind and body’s natural reaction is to crave and demand an immediate solution to it’s oxygen addiction. This will trigger what I like refer to as the “wig button” or “dry land wigging.” It’s the reaction that you get when you basically become frightened to the point of quitting what you are doing and finding a solution to your oxygen problem. You will wig out and push towards the surface and in essence fail your task.  The practice of relaxing at all times no matter what, will help control the wig button. At all times during the underwater phase of your training, remember to RELAX. Control your breathing if you are out of the water, and control your mind while subsurface. The underwater truly is an exercise in mind over body. One will always follow the other, but only you can control which

The next step is the initial push off the wall. First ensure you get a good breath. You should breath to your diaphragm(no not the female prophylactic) vs into your chest. Your chest should never rise during good inhalation/exhalation practices. It should happen in your stomach basically. That just means your abdomen should be distended vs your thoracic cavity. Proper breathing will in turn help you to relax as well as prepare for the evolution your about to attempt. Your initial push off the wall should bring you into a smooth tight streamline. A good streamline consists of everything in your body being lin ine with itself. Your hands should be extended above the head and clasped one over the other in a point creating the tip of your streamline. That streamline should continue down your arms to the point where your arms connect to the shoulders. Your head should be tucked in between your arms to a point where you are looking straight down but not so extreme that your chin is completely rested on your chest; there should be a slight gap between the two. The trunk of the body is of course rigid as well as your legs which flow down to your toes which should be pointed. This total position should result in the least amount of drag possible for your body. Keep in mind that your body should be firm but not flexed. Do not consciously flex your body in any position of the underwater. Flexing will deplete oxygen in your body that is more needed to complete the exercise. At this point of your streamline you should ride out your glide for as long as you can. You should almost come to a complete stop before the next phase of the technique. Remember, your brain plays tricks on you when you are depriving it of oxygen. As a rule you can always glide just a bit further than you think. If you think you can’t glide anymore, give it another second……

The next step of the technique is to go from the streamlined position to what I’ll refer to as a modified streamline. Once you feel that you’re initial glide has finished, the next thing you will do is called a “Pull.” You will take both arms and simultaneously pull them down and “through” your body. It’s important to keep your arms within the width of your body if at all possible. Try if you can to imagine an old fashioned key hole (or the hour glass figure of a female) and as you pull, create that silhouette with your hands. Once your arms are completely extended in a position that basically resembles you holding your arms at your side, you need to once again ride this glide out for as long as you possibly can without coming to a complete stop. It’s important to understand that at this point your legs are still straight and together and haven’t moved……

For the final step in this technique you will be relying solely on your legs. Once you feel that your current glide has become ineffective the next thing you will want to do is a simultaneous two part movement. I will describe each movement separately but remember they are done at the same time. With your arms that are in essence “hanging” at your side, you will bring the hands into the middle of your body where they should meet at or around just below the xyphoid process, press them together as if you were praying and then push them forward past your face until they achieve the position of hand over hand that was established in the initial step, the “streamline”. At the same time, your legs will be conducting a frog kicking motion. I lack the ability to describe it more succinctly than that. It could also be called the kicking motion used in the swimming stroke referred to as “breast stroke.”  Keep in mind, when you first try this part of the technique, you will probably feel as if you’ve done something wrong and that you’ve come to a complete stop. This is definitely not the case. You are once again creating a motion that is high in efficiency even though it may initially not seem so. This third phase of the technique accomplishes two tasks. It helps maintain your efficient glide while at the same time putting your body back into the initial full streamlined position you created from your push off the wall. At this point, you repeat the steps of pulling and kicking once the streamlined glide established from the kick is ineffective.

That in a verbose nutshell is what I have found to be the most effective, successful and efficient way to develop underwater technique. As I said before, there are different techniques for everyone but through my training experience, this is the most effective one. 

Here are a few ways to help improve your underwater skill.

1: Swim on the surface for 25 meters. Upon touching the far wall, go subsurface using the prescribed technique for as long of a distance as possible. This trains your body to do more with less so that when you do a traditional underwater your body is (initially) less stressed.
2: Grab two bricks or some type of weight (most pools normally have rubberized bricks or weight of some sort), allow the natural weight to submerge you and then walk for as far as you can along the bottom of the pool.
3: Conduct surface sprints of 25 meters and focus on taking no or as few breaths as possible to complete the distance. This will train your body to be more efficient.
4: Grab the bricks and just sit on the bottom of the pool.
5: Once you feel you have enough stamina, strength and ability, start out with 25 meter underwaters, swimming on the surface back to your starting point. Give your self a certain time in which to do each underwater before starting the next one, or give yourself a certain amount of rest upon reaching the starting point before conducting the next underwater.

With all this being said, I would be remiss in my duties if I ignored the safety aspect of all this. This type of training is inherently dangerous. It is important to ensure that you have a trained lifeguard on duty observing you. Make them aware of what you are doing. Trust me, they will be more than willing to help someone who is actually training vs the majority of splishers and splashers that attend the pool. It also never hurts to have a buddy there as well.

So with all this being said, I hope this helps anyone interested in this type of training or aquatic bar trick. If you need any clarifications on this, please feel free to PM me on the website, my handle is “latimusdorkus”

Be Fatal

Peyton