Jan 14 • Special Ops Swimming
How much I should be treading before Navy Dive School?
Many military diving and rescue swimming training programs include a wide variety of pool skills. One of the most overlooked and frankly ignored by students is treading. Because treading is easy, right? Wrong! Here is a question from a recruit preparing for a military diving program in the future, who is curious about how to add in treading workouts:
Stew, do you have any recommendations on how much I should be treading before Navy Dive School? I can swim well, but I struggle to tread water without my hands. It is much easier for me to sink than float. Thanks, Joseph.
Joseph, it is smart that you recognize treading is something you need to work on regularly. When you are negatively buoyant (sinker), treading water is extra effort and requires both technique and conditioning to keep you afloat for longer without using your hands. Most tread tests in Navy Special Warfare/Special Operations will require treading without hands. Here is what we do:
Add Treading to Warmup/Cooldowns – Warmup with a 10-minute tread without using your hands (as much as possible). NO grabbing the edge of the pool, but when you start to sink, use your arms to keep you on the surface. But once you have recovered, take away the arms again. You can either start or end your workout with this 10-minute treadmill “warmup or cooldown”.
Add Treading to the Workout (as rest) – Resting with treading is easier said than done, but when you can build up to it as an active rest exercise, you are getting into the type of swimming conditioning needed to excel in these pool skills. We will typically do 100-200m swim sets, and for the rest, tread for 1 minute with (or without) hands. A good swimming workout is roughly 1500-2000m of distance per workout (with or without fins), so depending on your sets, you can get 5-10 minutes of treading time accumulated in the workout alone.
A classic workout is the 50/50 - Swim 50m of freestyle / Swim 50m of CSS, for 10-15 sets. Rest in between each set with a 1-minute tread, float, or bottom bounce to mix in more pool skills you will need to improve during your preparation phase. Not only will you need to master treading, but you will also need to learn the drownproofing skills. Mix those into the workout “rest” sets as well.
So, to answer your question, we swim five times per week for roughly 50-60 minutes, for a total of 10 minutes per workout of treading. In five days, you will have accumulated 50 minutes of treading. Learning HOW to tread is just as important as getting into treading shape. Make sure it is part of your cardio training. If you are negatively buoyant, treading will be difficult. If you are positively buoyant, you are not treading, but floating. Bobbing up/down from the bottom will be more challenging for the positively buoyant candidate. So, there are challenges for all body types.
Here are a few videos and articles from the StewSmithFitness.com Article Section to help you see how to do it and how to add in flexibility and mobility to enhance the treading movement range of motion, each kick:
Treading and Mobility Issues #1 Reason Why People Struggle
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How much I should be treading before Navy Dive School?
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Veteran - Stew Smith (former Navy SEAL) helps military, law enforcement, and firefighter candidates and recruits succeed with coaching and programs.
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