Dive time

[Simos]

I think you misunderstood some things I was saying - I certainly didn't mean to 'lecture' about relaxation etc and I was actually dead-serious about taking part in competitions.

I am not a very competitive person by nature (not with others but I usually am competitive with myself if that makes sense) - yet, I would really encourage anyone to take part in at least a few freediving competitions, especially at club-level.

Freediving competitions are generally fairly friendly and relaxed affairs (especially at club level but very often at national level too) and it's a great opportunity to improve your freediving and learn from others more experienced than you. It also gives you an opportunity to see who has been improving a lot and perhaps, try to understand a bit more what they have done to achieve those results.

One more thing is that freediving competitions really can teach you about coaching someone else and also diving under conditions that are beyond your control - unlike training, you don't have all the time in the world to start your dive, prepare etc and therefore you need to be able to adapt and relax in more 'stressful' and unfamiliar surroundings, which in my books makes you a better freediver.

Oh and above all, they are great fun! )))))))

 

[Antoine]

Sorry Simos, I was a bit harsh

My problem is that I have started freediving without the time to back it up and that was in hind-sight a bad idea. I simply do not have to time for comptitions. By not having the time I mean, like not even a spare hour.
On top of that I have intense training in another sport throughout the week and I tend to be knackered after that!

It's just that, because I don't have any time, I had absolutely no idea where I was relative to other people and that's sort-of disorientating.

Anyway, my sport has just been kicked out of the 2016 olympics so I no longer have any aim and my sponsors have no reason to sponsor me! On the bright side, next year I should have much more time for freediving and I will hopefully be able to do some competitions!

Thanks,
Antoine.

 

[Simos]

Believe me I know the feeling, don't have a spare hour myself these days and even last year, when I had 1-2 spare hours a week I was trying to do 3 sports at the same time and ended up with moderate improvements in each. Still I really enjoyed all 3

Take it easy with freediving - static times and dynamic lengths can be a very limited view of freediving, when you go for real diving in open water you will notice some people who are clearly great freedivers, even if their numbers don't look that impressive on paper.

 

[mystiach]

I won't lie, at the moment I can't comfortably exceed one minute dives

You will

 

[Antoine]

Thanks Simos and Mystiach!

Just out of interest Simos, what level do you have to be to compete at club competitions ( I mean, are their any minimum requirements?) Look at me, I am already getting entinced by competition! A couple of posts I was just ranting on about how much I hate everything to do with competition and now I want to get into it! Its simply impossible for me to stay away from competition when doing sport! For some reason I have a strange love-hate relationship with competition. On the one hand I can't stand always having to compete. I despise always falling into the trap of contantly having to be better that the other person. Yet on the other hand I just feel the immense urge to get involved in competition! I always feel as though the best way to improve is to compete. I must be bi-polar!

Anyway, thanks mystiach! Hopefully you'e right!

 

[cdavis]

Antoine,

I know exactly what you feel like. Perfectly normal and expected to want to compare and learn. Been there, for most of my life. Problem is the variability of divers and diving really does make it impossible to give you a number that means anything for you. Somebody above had the right idea, a dive that you feel good on surfacing. Figure out what that is for you. It will be fairly consistent given the same conditions. Then start tweeking your technique, better surface dive, try different breathup styles, improve the efficiency of you stroke, weighting, streamlining, etc.

The things that brought me the most improvement were a PFI course and learning FRC diving. You will probably find different things. Just to give you an example(which may be completely inapplicable to you), I was a 45 second average dive diver for many years, PFI stretched that to about 1:15, years of tweeking technique got it up to 1:30 and FRC yielded about an average 1:55 that often stretches to 2:15, sometimes longer, all comfortable dives. By the way, 45 second average works fine and put several tons of fish in the boat.

Have fun tweeking. It can be endlessly fascinating.

Connor

 

[Fondueset]

Hi Antoine,

Just to put more legos in the soup.
The big key - which is what comes with FRC - is deep relaxation. Your long, slow, easy breathe-up should almost require waking up to dive. Then you keep the softness of deep relaxing - using no extra muscles - perfect surface entry - no extra effort on the bottom. Soft, easy, disciplined relaxing. This is where it is different from other sports.

Some work with yoga can help release mechanical tensions in the body - but relaxation is the single biggest key. The dive is shaped by the breathe-up.

Your competitive nature is very clearly evident in this thread . If you truly wish to be free of it I suggest you leave it on the surface - like oil; floating on the water. Already, in each moment of the dive, having forgotten all comparing. Make staying relaxed your challenge - instead of time.

People do not want to talk about time because trying to match another's time, or your own from a different day, is one of the ways people die in this sport.

My dives, at this point, are mostly a function of the quantity and quality of time spent relaxing between them.

 

[Simos]

Thanks Simos and Mystiach!

Just out of interest Simos, what level do you have to be to compete at club competitions ( I mean, are their any minimum requirements?) Look at me, I am already getting entinced by competition! A couple of posts I was just ranting on about how much I hate everything to do with competition and now I want to get into it! Its simply impossible for me to stay away from competition when doing sport! For some reason I have a strange love-hate relationship with competition. On the one hand I can't stand always having to compete. I despise always falling into the trap of contantly having to be better that the other person. Yet on the other hand I just feel the immense urge to get involved in competition! I always feel as though the best way to improve is to compete. I must be bi-polar!

Anyway, thanks mystiach! Hopefully you'e right!

Club competitions are usually very relaxed - no minimum requirements, you can just turn up and do a 30 second Static or a 10m dyn etc. In our club we go one step further and vote competition winners based on criteria like enjoyment, relaxation etc - often people with moderate performances win eventhough there are also people pulling big numbers. I am sure that you might even find that national competitions are also quite friendly and at least in the UK, again you can just enter (no min performances needed).

Happy fun!

 

[Antoine]

Great. Thanks guys, very helpful