I was wondering if having a competitive swimming background helped in transition to freediving and if there were any benefits with having that background.
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You know when some people are thinking about their "happy place" when struggling with contractions while doing static?
I think of doing static when getting stressed out during daily life. That's my happy place.
Why is that Phil?
I think that, all things being equal, somebody with a swimming background will do better in freediving than somebody without. But it's also possible to be an elite swimmer with a physiology that is totally unsuited to freediving. Some people can be very fit, very strong and have excellent technique but still BO after a 100m dynamic.
It's also clear that strength, fitness and swimming technique, while helpful, are not everything in freediving - it's possible (at least for the time being) to be poor in all of those categories and still be a WR-level freediver, particularly in the pool disciplines. The other physiological aspects like DR are just so overridingly important.
Swimming background will have huge impact on your freediving
Swimming ability is probably the best foundation for a beginner freediver than probably any other sport
Largely genetic. Although pretty much everybody responds to apnea-specific training to some degree, the extent of that response seems to be genetically determined. I think that goes for every sport (I could never be a top powerlifter, for example). It's just that the relevant traits are less visible in freediving and harder to measure, so there's a bit more romanticism about people's potential. That doesn't sound particularly inspiring, I know. But it's the reality in all sports.
Of course, training and technique still matter. They matter for an individual who wants to get better; they matter in competitive diving and this will become more pronounced as the sport grows and there is a bigger pool of equally talented athletes competing for the top spot. But they're not everything, by a long way.