Mask Clearing - Water Up Nose

[hotpot]

Hello

Has anyone any suggestions for helping a trainee with mask clearing problems? Every time she takes her mask off she breathes in through her nose. This tends quite naturally to result in her bolting for the surface.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Chris

[michael smith]

Hello Chris, start by taking your student right back to basics.

Try the student with a mask on underwater breathing from the DV if that is okay move on.

Next try starting on the surface without a mask brathing from a snorkel, ask her to place her face in the water and breath from the snorkel. If she is happy and confident doing this, move on. If she is still having difficulty ask her to do some swimming without equipment. Then add the mask & snorkel once she is okay swimming with these, try again swimming with just the snorkel. The aim of this session is to ensure she happy having her nose in the water, by using the snorkel there won't be any bubbles around the nose.

If you find that your student is happy keeping her face in the water while breathing from a snorkel, progress to her breathing through a regulator with no mask. Start at the surface and then slowly kneel. If you student is okay with this we can move onto mask clearing.

An important point is that the student should start breathing out of their nose before they tilt their haeds back. If you do it in the other order, it can result in water up the nose.

One of the problems your student may be having is that when she removes the mask she lifts it from the bottom first which could cause water to start going up the face, perhaps if she allowed the mask to fill from the top initially it would remove this problem.

Anyway just a few thoughs of mine. The main advice to stress to your student is that the most of us have had some area of training which was difficult, however with a little bit of trust in the instructor and some work she will overcome the problem she has now.

Let us know how she gets on.

Regards Mike

[angiemac]

Could try suggesting she breathes out through her nose as she takes the mask off, then concentrating on breathing in through her mouth, then out through her nose again. Obviously try this in kneeling depth first so her head is just below the surface. Once she's got the hang of it there then go deeper. Once she can remove her mask happily without water going up her nose get her to swim round the pool with no mask concentrating on breathing in and out of her mouth. Soon it will all drop into place quite naturally.

Angiemac

[Melanie]

Mask Clearing - Everyones Favourite!!

As a pool session is not very long you can get her happier with the water by suggesting that every time she has a bath she just dunks her head under for a while. Most people do this anyway but don't associate that it is pretty much the same thing.

If when she breaths in with her mask removed she tips her head forward so her chin is on her chest the water is less likely to go up.

I know it is not ideal but you can also get her, instead of bolting for the surface to hold her nose. It then becomes something you grow out of, I used to always hold my nose but now I hardly ever need to.

[terryh]

Hello

Has anyone any suggestions for helping a trainee with mask clearing problems? Every time she takes her mask off she breathes in through her nose. This tends quite naturally to result in her bolting for the surface.

Thanks in advance for any help.


Stand up in shallow end. Stick reg in and ask her to close her
eyes, breathe in through mouth and out through nose.

Once you have a rhythm going bend your knees and go underwater.
Tell her if she doesnt like it then stand up.

Once she masters this. Next time you go down take a mask.
Without changing the rhythm in any way get her to put the mask
on u/w. Each time she exhales through the nose more water is
purged. Once this is mastered tidy up the whole process with
tilt head, open eyes etc.

You can also tick off no mask breathing!

TerryH

[Keith Lawrence(BSAC)]

Has anyone any suggestions for helping a trainee with mask clearing problems? Every time she takes her mask off she breathes in through her nose. This tends quite naturally to result in her bolting for the surface.

I've found the main problem with trainees is that they are in too much of a hurry, huge rush of air through the nose, bubbles and water everywhere, mask blows off face and doesn't clear properly! It's the inhaling ready for that big blow that causes the problems IMHO.

Back to basics, mask on, no water in mask. Breathe in and try seeing how sloooowwwlllyyy they can very gently breathe out through the nose, anything less than 5 secs is far, far too fast :-) Then with head up in standing depth put a little bit of water in there, finger on the top of mask, again very slowly breath out - oh look, the water clears without a big rush and having to force it! Progress from there.

I've always found that the problem is the fear/speed element. Get them to slow it all down, they can then see it works just as well (better in fact), that takes away the fear. Problem solved.

HTH

Keith L

[Ian Ellison]

Hi Chris,

Strange, but I originally sent this post in almost exactly a year ago...how time flies when you're having fun!

It's a common problem, with practice your trainee will overcome what is basically a commonsense 'reflex' of the body.
Breathing underwater from your DV but without a mask, in standing depth is a good place to start from. Cold water makes the problem worse, so make sure you have your technique 'sorted' in the pool first.

What really might help is if your trainee thinks about her tongue position! (yes I know this is starting to sound odd, but bear with me). Ask her to try to place her tongue on the roof of her mouth, behind her upper teeth when breathing out through her nose.

Sorry if the rest of this is going to sound like a rather pedantic and over detailed account, but sometimes it's the little details that can make all the difference.

So practice this;

in standing depth, above the water, without mask
breath in from DV, and out through nose, think about tongue position, 5 reps.
Success ? if NO then repeat above, if YES then next....

in standing depth, face IN water, without mask
breath in from DV, and out through nose, 5 reps
Success ? if NO then repeat above, if YES then next....

in standing depth, above the water, WITH mask
breath in from DV, press top of mask gently and breathe out through nose, 5 reps.
Success ? if NO then repeat above, if YES then next....

in standing depth, head just underwater, WITH mask
breath in from DV, press top of mask gently and breathe out through nose, 5 reps.
Success ? if NO then repeat above, if YES then next....

in standing depth, head just underwater, WITH mask
Start clearing exercises allowing only small amounts of water in at a time. Don't forget to start looking down, then as you clear, slowly look up, not forgetting to stop pressing the top of the mask before you finish breathing out through your nose.
Success ? if NO then repeat above, if YES then next....

Carry on practicing with increasing levels of mask flooding, until you are happy to remove, refit and clear your mask. Progess to deeper water and practice again and again until your trainee is completely happy with her ability, then progress to open water, but it might not be that good of an idea to do it in January! :-D

Hope this helps!

Best Regards
Ian

[Justin Owen]

Hi Chris,

Strange, but I originally sent this post in almost exactly a year ago...how time flies when you're having fun!


I remember! It was me you sent the post too!! And I can recommend Ians method as it's what got me sorted! Still hate doing it, and still pants at it - but i spose if you can do a mask removal and refit at 10M in Eccy Delph you can do it anywhere!

Cheers Ian!

Justin.

[hotpot]

Thank you to all of you for your suggestions.

I went in the pool with my trainee a couple of weeks ago and we spent a hour trying various of your ideas, eventually sorted out the problem. She didn't like placing her face in the water with a reg in but no mask as she still had the sensation of water going up her nose.

The tip about filling the mask from the top was good. But in the end I got round the problem by sitting on the bottom of the pool and then getting her to let a small amount of water into her mask and keeping it there for a while before clearing. We then progressed to swimming round the shallows with a partially flooded mask.

I guess this got her used to the sensation of having water around her nose and made her a bit more relaxed about the whole thing.

Thanks to all

Chris