Commentary by Jeff Commings<\/i><\/p>\n
Most competitive swimmers believe they are invincible. If they can survive a 10,000-meter workout during the holiday\u00a0break or do a 2,000-meter butterfly set and ask for more, then nothing can stop them.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, that is not true.<\/p>\n
With the research indicating that underwater dolphin kicking is faster than swimming on top of the water, athletes feel the need to add more underwater kicking to their daily workouts. When University of Texas men\u2019s swimming head coach Eddie Reese said he started every workout this past college season with some underwater dolphin kicking, I\u2019m sure every coach said \u201cWe\u2019re going to do that, too!\u201d Sometimes, the goal is to reach the 15-meter mark. Other times, athletes will push past it and challenge their teammates to see who can kick the furthest underwater.<\/p>\n
In many cases, a swimmer will stay after practice to do some extra credit work on underwater dolphin kicking. That\u2019s what happened to Louis Lowenthal in 2012 when he stayed after practice with the North Baltimore Aquatic Club to improve his kicking work. Though lifeguards were on the deck, it\u2019s understandable to think that they didn\u2019t need to watch him closely, as he was a very accomplished swimmer.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, a lap swimmer noticed Lowenthal motionless at the bottom of the pool. He was pronounced dead later that day, the victim of shallow water blackout. It\u2019s caused when oxygen levels in the brain get drastically low, and carbon dioxide in the body is even lower, often due to hyperventilation before submerging. The low level of carbon dioxide is the catalyst for shallow water blackout, as it\u2019s often too low to signal the brain to tell the body to surface. Once oxygen is depleted, the swimmer faints underwater and drowns.<\/p>\n
Lowenthal\u2019s death was a catalyst for Bob Bowman to use his stature in the swimming community to educate his fellow coaches about shallow water blackout. While he spoke with his peers at the 2014 American Swimming Coaches Association\u2019s world clinic<\/a> about the silent killer, Dr. Rhonda Milner was walking the halls with an equally important goal.<\/p>\n