Hey i am headed to TBS in a month. What is the test like? are you timed in the different types of swim techniques? Why such a long wait?
Well, you have to go all the way from class 4 to class 1. Class 4 though class 2
are done with gear(flak/LBV/weapon) and class 1 is done just in your cammies. I was a horrible swimmer at the start of TBS and even I made it to class 3.
Class 2 is a little bit tougher but not undoable. You have to use either the back storke, breast stroke or side storke and swim 50m in gear(flak, kevlar, weapon, LBV). Then you have to do a buddy tow for 25m, whicle your buddy uses 2 packs stuffed under his arms to stay afloat and you pull him by holding on to his collar or whatever. If you absolutely can't swim then you will most likely have trouble with this. I found that the back storke is the easiest one to use for class 2...especially the 50m swim portion.
For class 1, you have to be able to do the three strokes properly. I can't really expain what I mean by proper but you will see what I mean when you get here. You swim 25m and demonstrate that you can do each storke. After that you have to do 3 types of rescues. For the first rescue, you swim towards your victim, who is about 20m away from you, and when you are close enough, he will jump on your and try to drag you down. The victim is one of the instructors and they are just trying to simulate what an actual victim would do. You then have to break free using the proper technique and surface. Once you surface, you will have to pull the victim by the wrist 20meters using either the sidestroke kick or back stroke kick.
The second rescue is designed to show you what can happen if a wave hits you and you end up facing away from the victim. So, again you will swim about 20m towards the victim and when you are about 6-8' away from the victim, you have to turn around so you can't seem him. When you get close enough, the victim will jump on you. You then have to use the proper technique and break free and surface. This is the rescue that gives everyone trouble. You have to have a very strong backstroke kick in order to do this. rescue. Basically, you have to come behind the victim, level the victim off using both your arms at the surface and use the back stroke kick to move about 10m and then switch to the side stroke kick to go the rest of the way. This was the one I failed the first time but after working on my back stroke kick, I had no issues the second time.
The third rescue is the easiest. All you do is swim to the victim again but this time the victim will just grab your. You then have to use the technique they teach you to break free, which is easy. After that, you just swim along side the victim to safety while he is using the breast stroke kick or whatever to swim next to you.
The final portion is a 250m swim using one of the three or a combination of the three strokes. Again, the back stroke is the easiest for this as well. I can say though that I now feel way more comfortable in the water than I ever have. I spent a lot of time trying to learn the breast stroke but my kick never had any power, until I worked on the backstorke using a board and just kicking. Within a day, I was able to put down the board and move all the way from one end of the pool to the other using just the kick...something I had never been able to do before. It also taught me the breast stroke kick, which I can do well now. I also couldn't tread water using just my legs prior to this and sure enough, I can now. For me, all this would not have happened if I hadn't practiced the backstroke kick with the board.
So, in a nutshell, that's what swim is all about at TBS.
