Introductory Training
First there are four weeks of introductory training. In this time the applicants are pushed hard physically and psychologically by fixed exercises. All exercises have the goal to take away the fear of water and to make the applicant feel safe in the water. One of the exercises is called gefesseltes Schwimmen (= the bound swimming). The applicant is placed on the starting block in the full combat suit, with his hands tied behind his back and his feet tied together, and then pushed in the swimming pool. He must stay for 30 seconds alone clearly; afterwards a safety diver pulls him back up.
In the so-called "hate week" the trainees are deprived of sleep. Between the night exercises, there are night runs. Meanwhile the normal routine of the day continues: swimming, diving, and push-ups.
They also have to train to exit a submarine through a torpedo tube and must re-enter it through there. At the final examination they have to swim about 30 km with full equipment in the baltic sea to reach the beach after being discharged at the sea.
Read more about this topic: German Commando Frogmen
Famous quotes containing the word training:
“An educational method that shall have liberty as its basis must intervene to help the child to a conquest of liberty. That is to say, his training must be such as shall help him to diminish as much as possible the social bonds which limit his activity.”
—Maria Montessori (1870–1952)