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Just before I broke out of water with all the grace of a clumsy walrus, I remember the last instruction.
"Make it dramatic," my teacher explained.
I spread my arms like Christ the Redeemer, leaned briefly in the air before waving with alarming steps and having a huge slam.
This is a first synchronized swim attempt for men, and it's hardcore
Male Synchro received the big-screen treatment in a new British comedy watching Adeel Akhtar, Thomas Turgoose, Jim Carter, Rob Brydon, Daniel Mays and Rupert Graves.
(Image: carl fox)
In Mind from The Full Monty, he follows the antics of a group of middle-aged men who escape their banal life by forming a troupe of sync
There are many laughs, but the movie shakes up the synchro myth is a sport for girls in shimmering swimsuits with fixed smiles.
To find out just how demanding it is, I join Stephen Adshead, Ronan Daly and Chris Jepson, three of our best male synchro competitors, for a splash course. 19659002] My guides, all appearing in the film and helping to train the actors, are members of the UK's only men's synchronization team, led by Out To Swim
. Lido in South London
(Image: carl fox)
Once in the water, Chris explains that every novice synchro must master the art of staying afloat gracefully.
It's harder than it looks. The movements of the required hand are called rowing and the movement of the leg calls an eggbeater.
In competition competition, touching the bottom is forbidden, so a combo of skull and egg beater is vital.
The egg beater is ridiculously hard and works by rotating one leg clockwise and the other counterclockwise.
Chris explains that a strong egg beater allows a swimmer to come out of the water. majestically blue like Poseidon without his trident. I'm trying, but I'm doing some streamers and I'm going round in circles like a disoriented guppy
(19659025) I I'm in the business, though. Rob Brydon confessed that he also struggled with the egg beater. He said, "I have never mastered it … it's diabolically difficult."
Competitive Synchro involves all the technical skills of gymnastics and ballet, while holding your breath under the air. water, often upside down.
As Ronan explains: "In general, people think it's not difficult."
"But the reality is that sync is technically and physically demanding, you have to think and coordinate so much at the same time. "
Swimming With Men's cast joined my guides on a
They spent four hours a day in the pool, a process so demanding, each cast member lost about 7 pounds.
(Image: carl fox)
Later Brydon, 53, who plays the lead role of Eric, said: "If you m & Had said from the start what we would do, I would have said no.
"Being held under the water with someone's feet around your neck and your feet around someone else was pretty scary." [19659002] Back in the lido, I master a half-decent skull, which allows me to try a few forms. First, I try a rear layout, then I slowly put my knees inside to create a fetal "bathtub".
Remarkably, in a few minutes, we have a basic routine.
a tub, turn individually, then stretch our legs to return to a cross.
Judging by the faces of the audience, it seems awesome all the way out.
I start the next movement; the ballet leg. From a back layout, I have to bend one knee and then straighten that leg in the air
Whenever I try, I sink. In the end, it helped me stay afloat, but the effort of straightening a leg in the water makes me scream and yell.
Ronan then suggests trying an inverted tub to feel the feeling of being upside down.
Chris shows and hangs under the water in an upset kneeling position.
When I try, my body refuses to invert, so my guides help and
I get hooked, disoriented, I wonder which way is up and which way is in low.
I then try another classic shot, the clam. This involves pivoting at the waist and gracefully flowing under the water.
I turn on the surface, and I am told later that buoyancy can be a blessing or a curse, depending on whether you must be above or below the waterline. 19659002] In the film, Jim Carter, 69, was so weary that he had to have weights inserted into his shorts for the underwater scenes.
(Image: carl fox)
The Out To Swim team was established in 2009 and the club has been the first to offer sync sessions for men.
The idea sprang up after some members watched the Spanish sync team repeat. 19659002] Stephen explains: "They did a routine at Stairway to Heaven and there were no fake smiles or flashy costumes." 19659002 "It was different, and it was masculine, some of us looked at it and said: So we came back and started the club."
They're hoping that life will encourage more people to try the sport and that it will one day be an Olympic event for men as well as women.
(Image Chris Carl tells me how, ironically, the sync started in the 1890s as a male sport, but became associated with women in the 1930s and 1940s through Hollywood films by businessman Busby Berkeley
Before throwing in the sponge, I want to tempt one of the most synchronous moves difficult but impressive, the elevator
This implies that swimmers use the strength of the legs and arms to propel a member of the team.
is pumping as Chris tells me to watch dramatic when I
Then comes this big flop – and after 30 minutes of intense sync, I concede that this sport is not for drops.
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