Im having a lot of trouble with the 5 minute prone float. Im an athletic guy that weighs about 200 lbs. with very little body fat, i dont know if that puts me at a disadavantage here or not. I can swim/tread water all day long, but when i go to float i sink- no matter how much air i get in my lungs. Im BDCP pilot heading to ocs soon are they real picky with the float? i can do it kind of if i kick a little here and there. Ive been practicing every day and its starting to worry me. How the hell do you learn to float?
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Sink Like a Rock
- Thread starter dk009
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Not to sound negative, but I do know a chick that couldn't swim coming into OCS and she DOR'ed because of it. I suppose that's not the same as not getting past the swim at OCS...but....
Have you tried sucking in as much air into your lungs and then breathing normally? I don't know if I'm making much sense in the way I describe this, but sometimes I would just take in as much air and then "breath" exhaling a little bit of air and then back in again (not to be confused with hyperventilating) near the max capacity of my lungs. It seemed to help out a little then...who knows.
Have you tried sucking in as much air into your lungs and then breathing normally? I don't know if I'm making much sense in the way I describe this, but sometimes I would just take in as much air and then "breath" exhaling a little bit of air and then back in again (not to be confused with hyperventilating) near the max capacity of my lungs. It seemed to help out a little then...who knows.
shortncurly
Registered User
My husband had a really hard time with floating in API, (it was actually where you jump off the high board and have to swim X amount of feet without coming up for air... he kept floating straight to the surface as soon as he jumped in) and had to go on mando swim to rectify it. They worked with him and encouraged him a lot and eventually he got it. Don't know how it is regarding OCS since he didn't do it, but they were great in API. Don't worry, you'll get it eventually. Stressing over it only made it worse for my husband, so just try to relax.
I was stashed at DWEST for 6 months. Saw many rocks come through the program. Most made it with some sub-swim help.
The key I think is the angle of your neck.
If you keep your neck bent with your chin on your chest, you'll most likely do the dead man's float okay.
If you keep your head upright, so goes the body down and you will sink. Take quick breaths and get back into that chin down on your chest position. You may sink down a little bit, don't panic, you'll come back up. The human body is buoyant.
Good luck.
r/
G
The key I think is the angle of your neck.
If you keep your neck bent with your chin on your chest, you'll most likely do the dead man's float okay.
If you keep your head upright, so goes the body down and you will sink. Take quick breaths and get back into that chin down on your chest position. You may sink down a little bit, don't panic, you'll come back up. The human body is buoyant.
Good luck.
r/
G
I taught swim instruction last summer, so a few things about this...
1) Some people seemed to have an excessively hard time learning to float, and not regarding technique, just seemed their body (usually the legs) would not float.
2) The legs usually come down first, and bring everything else down. Be sure to keep your legs up, and your arms straight out (like an airplane). Get as much air in your lungs as you can, and keep your spine straight (so essentially looking down at the floor NOTE: Only for a 'survival float', for the on your back float, obviously the opposite is true. Look straight up at the sky, again keeping your spine straight, if you put your head up you are going to sink).
3) I have an old app for commision (from Dec.) and my recruiter just gave me the new one. It HAS been changed, and one of the things to check is now "can float for 5 minutes" it replaced the "can swim underwater for 20 yards".
Good luck..
1) Some people seemed to have an excessively hard time learning to float, and not regarding technique, just seemed their body (usually the legs) would not float.
2) The legs usually come down first, and bring everything else down. Be sure to keep your legs up, and your arms straight out (like an airplane). Get as much air in your lungs as you can, and keep your spine straight (so essentially looking down at the floor NOTE: Only for a 'survival float', for the on your back float, obviously the opposite is true. Look straight up at the sky, again keeping your spine straight, if you put your head up you are going to sink).
3) I have an old app for commision (from Dec.) and my recruiter just gave me the new one. It HAS been changed, and one of the things to check is now "can float for 5 minutes" it replaced the "can swim underwater for 20 yards".
Good luck..
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