Floatation training

In Denver this past weekend, the Denver team took on the Women's B Team and struck a deal where the men of Denver wore Life Jackets and the ladies pulled their shoulder straps down below their arms. While quite enjoyable yet difficult to ref this game (my mask kept steaming up, er, I mean fogging up), it did even out the teams so the women got to play their game rather than getting rolled over. While talking to a few of those that wore the vests afterward, a couple of ideas came out. The idea of having a beginner try to get to the bottom wearing a life vest for a few minutes as a training aid to keep kicking down came into the discussion along with training for more experienced players who quit kicking in their curls and end up floating up a bit. While I know this seems cruel to do to someone just starting out, I have seen many beginners get down far enough to fully extend their arm down to get to the puck leaving themselves vulnerable to anyone of any strength with only half-decent positioning. And for the vets, it could make a great kick through your curl drill as the second you stop kicking you start heading up. In the past at clinics when we tell players to keep their hips down and shoulders up we would always get the "Women have more floatation" argument. As soon as that came out we would grab a swim pull-buoy, prop it between our legs and show them that it could be done with extra floatation. Dead argument. So to where this is leading, has anyone done any real training using extra floatation? I ask as "real" training since we have done it as a model but never used it other than for demonstration purposes.

What sort of devices?
How were they used?
What was the intended purpose?
What was the result?

__________________
Just in case you weren't sure, it's official -- CMAS sucks.
Oh yeah, and now they're broke.

we tried this a few years ago in a training session [can't remember if it was NZ team or a provincial team]

we used aqua-jogging belts and vests

worn the same way the aqua-jogging folk were using them

purpose was two-fold - make training tougher as it would be harder to get to bottom of pool and stay there/play with added bouyancy and to create an unorthodox situation for players to deal with - training games sometimes get stale and routine, so shocking the system mentally and physically makes players concentrate on basic skills and timing again.

result: physical and mental shock was achieved, but aqua jogging belts made most guys unable to bend at the waist, the vests were far too bouyant for some of the younger/lighter guys to be able to get to the bottom [only a 2.0m pool]
experiment was amusing to participants and spectators for about 5 minutes, then abandoned after another 10.

conclusion - less bouyant vests might work better.
perhaps using electrical tape to somehow strap a kick-board to the chest might work? assuming that i can determine a method of fixing that allows players to still bend at the waist and turn etc. i might have to perform a little surgery on some kick-boards.

__________________
http://snorkelbattlesafari.blogspot.com/

That's what I was thinking. The straps system on most waterski vests is nice to keep it in place so removing a section of the float might do the trick.

__________________
Just in case you weren't sure, it's official -- CMAS sucks.
Oh yeah, and now they're broke.

just tuck something down the back of your speedos. keeping the hips/bum down is the most important part of stability anyway.

__________________
it's more polite on the grating than on the subs bench

I used one time the neoprene trousers of a dive suit and it worked very well. I trained apneas with them and it was difficult to get the bottom but possible. Then I took off them to play the match and I injured my knees with the bottom because I unconsciously made too much force...
I think it was a suit of 5mm of neoprene

__________________

Shorty or triathlon wetsuits would let you retain flexibility, but might be too bouyant. A standard tri suit provides approximately 2kg of bouyancy.

I've played in a shorty and it doesn't do much. I think with it on and a puck in hand I am nuetral. 2 pucks I sink. So it's a little annoying but I don't think it has the reinforcing properties to it.

__________________
Just in case you weren't sure, it's official -- CMAS sucks.
Oh yeah, and now they're broke.

Hey Duck!
try eating some popcorn before going in the water