David White – Exercise enabled longer time spent in SETT, so they played volleyball at lunch

One of the things in the Tank, the science of it is, we are limited, very limited to time at the bottom, so you can only spend 20 minutes at the bottom in any day. 

Simon:  In the water? 

In the water, under pressure at the bottom. You can spend 90 minutes at 18 metres and 9 metres and above you can spend all day because you’re not under any real pressure, it dissipates easily but 20 minutes on the bottom. And that was a day.

Well, the Institute of Naval Medicine got involved because it was found that to be able to maintain that you had to have a lot of Instructors, which meant a lot of them, a lot of the time were unemployed but you needed that. 

Simon: Resting or …? 

… to give people time on the bottom, so the Institute of Naval Medicine got involved and they said, “Right, if you do fairly active physical exercise for an hour at lunchtime, you can do another 10 minutes on the bottom” and you know, the purse, the bean counters worked out that could save them a few Instructors and pay, you know, so that’s what we did.

So, we tried all sorts of stuff, we tried five-a-side, I can’t kick a ball to save my life. Running, boring, but we found volleyball, everybody liked it and it’s very fast and you come back soaked. You know, in the winter, play in the Gym, in the summer, on the outdoor volleyball courts and we got so good we beat all-comers in Dolphin.

We beat the Germans, the Germans sent over a team, no, I lie, they beat us, but virtually every team, every Sports Day in Dolphin, we weren’t allowed to compete in the end. 

Because if you play something every day you get good at it, and you know how everyone else plays.

Simon:  So the idea there was getting more oxygen into you? 

The more exercise you get you get this, it’s not getting more oxygen, it’s getting rid of these little bubbles that are formed in your bloodstream. 

So, physical, strenuous exercise dissipates it quicker, so we could then do another ten minutes in the afternoon, so we could get 30 minutes of bottom time. Or 120 minutes at 9 metres and below, you know, so it was great science and brilliant.