ericmulk wrote:
Ron_Burgundy wrote:
ericmulk wrote:
spudone wrote:
OlderTryGuy wrote:
Shallow water blackout???? Usually very experienced swimmers.
One of the early tests they have to pass is a 50m underwater swim, no pushing off the walls.
Is this swimming breaststroke UW, or kicking with fins, or??? Also, are they not at least allowed to push off the wall initially, assuming the test is in a 50-m pool??? Just curious as it seems a lot of their swimming is with the long dive fins.
jump in, flip one time, breaststroke down, push off, and back. It's easy but hyped up a lot, no fins. The SCUBA drills are much harder from a hypoxia standpoint, really hard.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. So, again just out of curiosity, how do these guy stay in shape when they are on a ship for weeks/months at a time and can't swim???
Each team, platoon, squad etc can have different skills and or focal points. Though all SEAL's have basic abilities that make them different from other special operation units, specific maritime operations skills can vary quite a bit. The operational tempo needed for the last 15 years has been such that some teams have refocused their training to be less maritime based to meet specific needs in preparation for deployments. Often deployments can lead to a loss of fitness due to the demands/tempo of the job. Some guys might be deployed to a ship off the coast of Africa and have ample time to maintain their maritime skills while another group is deployed to Afghanistan for 8 months and will never swim. During the pre-deployment workup you will most often go back through essential training to ensure skills are up to date in addition to specific deployment training.
Edit: Also just to add some clarification, most teams will have a typical deployment cycle of 6-10 month deployments to a predetermined zone (each team has a different focal point), then some down time post deployment, individual training, then pre deployment workup that could be 3-4 months to 14 months of training which will focus on requalification of essential skills and working on aspects that are operationally relevant. On occasion a team like Devgru might do a special mission like UBL.