Posted by Wayne on July 23, 2002 at 22:34:28:
In Reply to: Swimming, Diving and Fitness posted by Kendall Raine on July 23, 2002 at 10:07:17:
I have given this a bit of thought in the past and convinced myself of the validity of allowing divers to swim in some gear. I have never witnessed a student do the longer swims in mask&fins, but it would be a lot easier for me to do it that way. In my case, I rarely swim without fins. I hate to swim like that. Even when I body surf or body board, I wear my duck feet. Because I rarely do laps in a crawl, I am not in nearly as good of condition for that kind of swimming. When I have to "swim" for a test or other demonstration, I need to hit the pool and get the arms in shape for the activity.
But I often "float/swim" in lakes rivers and at the beach. In this I am not doing sustained swimming, but rather am enjoying lazing around the water with no particular place to go. This is without fins and the pace is definately slower that doing laps -- which I dislike. When I was 4, my parents got a pool and enrolled me in swim lesons at Adlai Swim Club (now called Akai). I was taught to swim and even won a ribbon or two in races. Then when I was 7 or 8, my parents gave me a mask and fins. I never swam on the team again. I learned that underwater was better than on the surface. I have been ruined ever since. Thanks, mom and dad!
I think that it is good to make sure that the students can swim without gear and survive in water without aids. But I think it is good to encourage swimmers to learn to swim without the arms flailing around, too. f I need to swim somewhere -- like to another person in the water -- I ALWAYS put on my fins. The additional few seconds will save minutes in my getting where I am desired.
Wayne