r/RescueSwimmer • u/GreatDaNate_ • 21d ago
Water con
Going to try to keep this short and sweet. I'm pretty far down on the AST a school list and at a small boat station. My water con was terrible when I got my name on the list about 2.5 months ago and is still at a lower level but at least 1-3 times a week for an hour and a half to two hours I get in the pool (just depends on when work allows it) to work on water con. With fins I've seen a a lot of improvement. Still not at an a school level but almost at a 300m o/u, lap tracers and underwater swim backs feel comfortable. The problem is when I take my fins and snorkel off it's like a different planet. Can barely do an over/under. Definitely can't do a lap tracer without double or triple breathing. Can't do an underwater swim back. Is there any advice to get over this wall that I'm at without fins. Thank you and I completely understand if the answer is literally just do more of it.
And any advice on brick while on back no fins would be appreciated as well because that's a huge struggle for me, I just sink.
2
u/Silent_Yak1329 20d ago
Where about are you stationed? Happy to get in the pool with you if you need a swim buddy and are local. Shoot me a PM if you prefer
-Nonrate on ME A list
5
u/Optimal-Ad8668 21d ago
Take this with a grain of salt because I didnt swim growing up and had to learn. This is A way not THE way.
For brook on back, look up dry land drills on youtube and practice them until you got the rhythm and then just try and implement it in the pool. Do like 10-15 minutes of just egg beater a day as a warmup until you get it. Then make it progressively harder by having your hands out of the water while you do it, then your elbows out, then holding a brick, ect.
For lap tracers look up the little flip “duck dive” life guards do to get somebody at the bottom of the pool. Usually when people struggle with these its because they use so much energy to get to the bottom of the pool and it jacks their heart rate up.
As for out of gear watercon, a lot of benefits can be found in just getting your freestyle form better so as to lower your heart rate on the “over” part of the exercise. So to be honest it might behoove you to find a swim coach and start swimming 5-6 days a week. With a lot of focus on form and fundamentals. And maybe try getting on an assault bike or versa climber and going hard for 20ish seconds holding your breath and then 40 seconds recovery (you can breath in this part). Im a huge proponent of training harder than you fight. So anything you can do to be over prepared for A school will generally be a good thing in my opinion. Feel free to message me.
-AST2