Underwater Torpedo League helps veterans cope with mental health
[ad_1]
While 15 feet underwater wrestling and grappling for a pool torpedo, your body enters “fight or flight” mode.
It’s time for survival with an important decision: Come up to breathe or hang on a little longer until the torpedo is in hand.
The Underwater Torpedo League can get physical and dangerous, with players holding their breath for as long as a minute at a time. That alone is difficult enough, but adding an opposing player pulling your leg and body to grab a torpedo creates a terrifying time.
But, through practice, the league teaches players how to stay calm and relaxed during tense moments underwater – and in life.
NEW SPORT:What to know about Underwater Torpedo League
“I’ve used a lot of what I’ve learned here,” says Kurt Lichthardt, a member of the Newport Guppies, a team in the Underwater Torpedo League. “And just the mental fortitude you need to have to go through those types of things. Deep end fitness has really played a role.”
It has resulted in the Underwater Torpedo League having a strong impact on mental health and serving as a community for veterans who struggle fresh out of the military.
According to the website StopSoldierSuicide.com, veterans are at a 57% higher risk of committing suicide than those who haven’t served. Don Tran, co-founder of the Underwater Torpedo League, has lost eight friends to suicide, and he acknowledged that veterans lose a sense of purpose and brotherhood when their service ends.
Tran says they’re hoping to recreate that sense of community with the Underwater Torpedo League.
“It’s a big thing that we’re trying to do now and, unfortunately, we’re still kind of late for those other guys,” Tran said. “But the more we can do now and spread awareness and just build the community better and better. Because a lot of the veterans, when they leave the military, they lose that sense of purpose, they lose that sense of community and that brotherhood.”
That brotherhood carries into the water, which Tran calls the ultimate equalizer.
The community aspect is one aspect that has helped grow the Underwater Torpedo League. It emphasizes a unity and a sense of camaraderie between the players. Co-founder Prime Hall preaches the slogan “calm breeds calm.”
While in the water, no matter if you’re an Olympic swimmer or a Marine veteran, everyone is going through the same situation, establishing a togetherness.
“Everybody can feel the same effects of holding the breath and being under water and putting a unifying environment of like, hey, I’m dealing through struggles in the water as well,” Tran said.
The Underwater Torpedo League provides specific exercises to keep players calm while underwater. The exercises are easily transferrable to everyday life, too.
Newport Guppies head coach Peter Belden says the workouts and games serve as a destresser. The breathing techniques taught calm down the heart and slow down the mind. Lichthardt, who does backcountry snowboarding at 10,000-plus feet during the winter, pointed to those techniques as what kept him calm during tough situations.
It’s all a result of the workouts Tran and Hall designed to help the mental health of their athletes. The situations are in a “controlled and safe environment” with the goal to help athletes adapt and improve their coping mechanisms.
For many, overcoming that barrier in the game improves their mental health.
“Put you in that stressful situation, someone wrapping you up underwater like, ‘Hey, where’s my air source?” kind of thing,” Tran said. “And then challenging you to push past that to make decisions based on that to make sure that your team can score and win.”
Tran added they’ve taken bits and pieces from various places, including the weightlifting and foster communities, that’s led to constant improvement. He admitted that their background in the military helped with training and learning, but they’ve removed the yelling and stressful situations to improve the community culture.
As a result, it’s led to a “no flex zone” environment, one that Tran says is key to maintain.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a special operations guy, it doesn’t matter if you’re an Olympic swimmer,” he said. “Everybody’s here to come to the community to learn, to grow, to be better than they were when they showed up at the pool.”
Easier said then done when wrestling 15 feet underwater.
Source link
