Ok, so I am bored out of my mind right now and need to take my mind off of my recruitment process (waiting on MEPS to approve prescreen or the Guards Flight Doc or something, I am not sure what is going on, all I know is I sent 320 pages of crap so that may be the delay haha, and I think the email system is down soooo). Anyway, like I said, I am bored and decided to look over the forum and see if there was anything missing that could help people and I figured a thread like this would benefit.

When my buddy came and trained with me (he is a PJ) he told me that people all have strange things that they do to help relieve the stress of some of the events in the pool. So I figured we could list some things that help us get through the events.

Here is what I tend to do for each event...

Underwaters -

ADD TO YOUR ESTIMATED STROKE COUNT - When doing UW's I like to practice my strokes and try and reduce the count as much as possible. I have managed to do a 25 UW in 2 strokes (with wall push and goggles) and 4 with a mask. Knowing the amount of strokes it takes makes it easier for me to complete the UW. It especially helps if you KNOW 4-5 strokes will get you there but mentally prepare to do 7. Expecting 7 makes the 4 to 5 seem like nothing.

CLOSE YOUR EYES - After my first stroke I like to close my eyes, and I open them after my 3rd or 4th stroke. This kind of drowns out the middle of the UW for me.

ANIMAL NOISES - If you are doing UW's with a friend, try to communicate with each other in a way to keep your minds clear, a good trick is to make whale noises or something.

Mask & Snorkel -

MOUTH PIECE BY NOSE - When I tie the snorkel and mask together I make sure that the mouth piece is under the nose, so that when I pull it out the mask doesn't need to be flipped or anything.

3 PUFFS - This seems to be the perfect number for me.

MOVE THE MASK - Have a friend dive down half way through your UW and move the mask... nothing raises your stress level like getting there and realizing its not there, helps with stress management.

10 UPS -

BURP AND FART - For some reason when I do 10 ups, I have to burp and fart more than normal UW's. I don't hesitate with the burps, but if I have to fart, I wait until I am UW to fart... its just a bit of added humor to the event, keeps your mind off of it.

THROW EACHOTHER - If you are working with a friend and are on opposite sides of the pool try to have one go over the other. Fling the person under you, at the end of your keyhole stroke, put your hands on their feet and fling them.

Doom Ups -

HUM - Hum going down, stop when your head hits the wall, this works for me and plugs my nose. Hum going back up too, this doesn't use much air at all and helped me.

Bobbing

KNEES - Land on your knees and push from your knees, dont let the bottom of your feet touch the ground. This makes it very hard to get all the way back up but with practice you should be able to do this.

FLIPS - Instead of bobbing for 5-10 minutes, trying bobbing with a flip every time for 2 minutes. It becomes pretty difficult.

That's all I have for now, Ill post more if I can think of more.

Anyone else have little things they do to help?

This is awesome advice.
I like the throwing each other concept.
Very team related effort right there!
Thanks for sharing!