I am surprised that competitive swimming was not mentioned here. Many Swimming clubs around the world practice lung buster drills whereby the swimmer holds their breath for 50 meters at a time and repeat multiple times. Clearly not necessary as the maximum streamlining one can do in competitive swimming is 15 meters before breaking the water surface. Often these drills are used without the participant and/or parents (even some younger coaches) being educated about the danger of hypoxic blackout. The more competitive the swimmer the higher the chance of it occurring. Michael Phelp’s friend Chandler Watson is a clear example of this and fortunately survived. I participated as a first responder to such an incident in Perth, Australia and the father of the child took it further despite his daughter being alright. This led to Swimming Western Australia advising this practice to cease and the city that I am employed with banning such drills at all of their Aquatic Centers. One only hopes that this is implemented worldwide.
I am surprised that competitive swimming was not mentioned here. Many Swimming clubs around the world practice lung buster drills whereby the swimmer holds their breath for 50 meters at a time and repeat multiple times. Clearly not necessary as the maximum streamlining one can do in competitive swimming is 15 meters before breaking the water surface. Often these drills are used without the participant and/or parents (even some younger coaches) being educated about the danger of hypoxic blackout. The more competitive the swimmer the higher the chance of it occurring. Michael Phelp’s friend Chandler Watson is a clear example of this and fortunately survived. I participated as a first responder to such an incident in Perth, Australia and the father of the child took it further despite his daughter being alright. This led to Swimming Western Australia advising this practice to cease and the city that I am employed with banning such drills at all of their Aquatic Centers. One only hopes that this is implemented worldwide.