Drown Proofing: Army Special Forces

testing starts immediately get back out here first up on the pool deck is alpha squad 10 men get ready for their first test swim underwater for half the length of a football field on a single breath we have to bring in a guy who is ready to train we don't have time to teach a guy to be comfortable in the water you send me the combat swimmer and i'll make the combat diver don't give a command go subsurface once you go subsurface you will not push off the bottom of the pool at no time will any part of your body break the surface of the water it's a demanding test break the surface and you're out of the course go sub surface safety swimmers shadow each soldier once they go subsurface they're gonna move to the far side they're gonna turn around push off the wall come back to the red line start finish line once they cross that they come back up on service we'll bring this out of the pool get them ready for the next event all ten men in alpha squad make it to the finish line go ahead slide out but this course is just ramping up how do you feel holding your breath is one thing controlling fear is another this is drown proofing first up are kennedy and headache they're each bound with velcro straps wrists and ankles they are positioned facing 10 feet of water this is a confidence event so if you can remain calm from the water you'll probably be successful to pass drown proofing each man will bob up and down in the deep end for five minutes float on the surface for two minutes then swim 100 yards around the pool after the swim they must do a front and back flip in the deep end grab a mask off the bottom with their teeth then perform five more bobs drop the mask break the restraints or touch the side of the pool at any time and you fail fail twice and you recycle to the next class the purpose of this is just to find out in the most uncomfortable situation you can imagine your hands and feevey inside and being in 10 feet of water can you find a way to fight through a perfectly normal mammalian reflux panic kennedy and headache start their five bobs it requires the right balance of taking air in from the surface and letting it out slowly to sink too much air and descending is a struggle what he's doing is bouncing off the bottom of the pool coming up getting a breath of air exhaling is there to go back down to the bottom of the pole and he's bouncing back up so he doesn't drown they've completed their bobs now they will float on the surface for two minutes then swim more than the length of a football field with their wrists and ankles restrained starts the 100-yard swim in front of kennedy but in this event speed kills see how fast he's going that's going to be challenging when he comes back it's going to be difficult for him to do the bobs because see how hard he's working his heart rate's easily over 100 now both kennedy and headache complete the swim they start the final phase one front flip one backflip now they must grab a mask with their teeth and complete five more bobs but headache is in trouble the mask in his mouth blocks his airway he lets go if he can't secure the mask and complete his bobs he fails oxygen depleted his teammates step in get that mask in your mouth grab it and maintain it you suck it up it's five balls get your t-shirt on i dropped the mask please i started the second bob yeah i dropped it i couldn't recover it yeah because i sucked it's like a lot of water you know kennedy passes the test how do you feel i feel quite nice all right slide out headache will be given one last chance to complete the entire test so uh yeah i'll go again do it this time as headache stands by one of his teammates is struggling tucker is running short of air and over compensates by pushing too hard off the bottom he's broken the restraints on his feet ending the test fail to maintain restraints the observation that i have is you're pushing off way too hard off the bottom okay and you're kicking on the way up all right once you go up you come up get a breath relax and then exhale when you break your restraints like that all right that sounds a pain you understand very nicely the other eight members of alpha squad struggle through the drown proofing test and pass good job good one

Channel: KJ Green

Views: 826,121

Rating: 4.9310346 out of 5

Keywords: Drown, Proofing

Id: M3n4HTRRRV8

Length: 7min 43sec (463 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 26 2012