Mullins

[Mullins]

Is the slight speeding up and using more strokes at the end of your dive a concious decision because vasoconstriction and a lower heartbeat make energy expenditure better this way? Or is more a mental thing in that it gets harder and harder to keep the technique good and stay relaxed during the glide phase?

Partly a conscious decision as I'm pretty careful to take it slowly for the first 75m or so. But muscle fatigue does mean it gets harder to keep a low stroke rate towards the end of the swim. I could maintain 2.5 strokes the whole way, but I'd have to push my arms & legs very hard so it's better to take more strokes.

I also noticed that you do one full exhale before the final big inhale with packing. In what way does that help you? By doing this, are you looking for a little mental relaxation or does it really help in reaching your maximum performance?

Just getting rid of some dead air space. I tend not to do this any more (the video is from a while ago) because it did mean I was overbreathing a bit.

 

[Mullins]

Maybe you can tell us when your vasoconstriction kicks in?

The more I train, the less obvious this gets and there is only a gradual accumulation of lactic acid rather than the distinct changeover I used to get. So it's really hard to say when the vasoconstriction really ramps up. I assume it's around the 75m mark, once I've had a couple of contractions (they start at 60m).

 

[Mullins]

CNF 35m... in 6C water with no wetsuit in winter

Bugger that for a joke! By my calculations that works out to about..... 96m in 26C water!

 

[osusim]

Dave, at the dive you didn't use any cap. Does it increase dive reflex? Or water was too warm? And when did you have your first hard contraction?

 

[Mullins]

I just didn't have one handy

First contraction at 60m

 

[radek cz]

Dave also did 257 meters in DYN

 

[fcallagy]

Dave also did 257 meters in DYN

I was gonna ask would some one not give him the loan of a pair of fins for fk sake. savage Dave well done.

 

[azapa]

Dave, the legs looked lazy with much more emphasis on the arm stroke, you seemed to advance much more in the armstroke too. Do you find that you use too much energy snapping a stronger leg stroke?

 

[GreekDiver]

Ok boy another Mullins video.

1) Click on play on youtube

2) Make breakfast

3) come back in time before he surfaces

Well done.

 

[efattah]

I really wish that AIDA would enforce a 50m pool for DNF. This crazy near 1:1 ratio in DNF to DYF is only an artifact of pushing off the wall so many times.

I'd like to see a new category as well: DNF, 50m pool, no wetsuit allowed, no weight allowed !

Dave have you tried any long DNF swims in a 50m pool ?

 

[Mullins]

I hardly ever swim in a 50m pool, haven't done it for ages. It'd reduce the distance all right, not sure how much though.

The DYNNF ratio is tricky to determine from current results. On one hand the longest comp swims (257:232) are pretty close together. But on the other, there are now several people around the 250 mark in DYN whereas I think only 2 people have ever done 200 DNF officially (me and Tom, with Byarte at 199). So in the elite group the average DNF is much lower than the average DYN, and I expect this is similar across the rest of the competition divers.

 

[Fondueset]

Refrigerated 50m pools.

I tried dynamics with a suit for the first time yesterday. I took my blue orca 'avatar' suit and WOW - automatic 1/3 drop in kicks per 25m - and dramatic increase in speed.

I wonder about the tradeoff between the effort of turning vs the distance/speed gain of the kickoff.

 

[Mullins]

Turning takes very little effort in DNF. Just by spinning yourself around and straightening out you've effectively moved 2m forwards (even for short people, 'cos their arms are out in front), then you've got a pushoff.

I've done some training with a turn and no pushoff, just starting each lap with a normal kick. Didn't seem to change my performances much but I never did any really long ones.

 

[Fondueset]

It's kind of you to say nice things about short people.

 

[Kars]

For many Dutch people, the world is made of short people

 

[Fondueset]

Yes, I've heard there is less gravity there.

 

[Mullins]

I always wondered why people said I lacked gravitas. Now I know!

 

[Fondueset]

In your case, Dave, I think its the increased centrifugal force near the equator.
You must have done a lot of standing as a young man.

 

[mystiach]

I've done some training with a turn and no pushoff, just starting each lap with a normal kick. Didn't seem to change my performances much but I never did any really long ones.

Really? But it's about 8-10m off the wall and only 3-4 off of a kick. Did you end up with a much higher stroke count?

From what I remember, on average, people who aren't natural breaststrokers can't get nearly as good results as people who aren't natural at the other strokes but train hard. If you look at IM split times, the fly and free laps are usually pretty similar, the backstroke laps are moderately variable, and then there is the breaststroke lap which is insanely variable. Also consider that breaststroke WR holders (or even just professional swimmers) are normally specialised in that one stroke. The others have much more crossover... Brs kick only comes naturally to a few. So I am not surprised that freediving no fins discipline has that distribution - I reckon it's not dissimilar to that of swimming. And, perhaps they should separate 25/50m records like they do for swimming, but it's much more fun doing a DNF in a shortcourse pool!

 

[Mullins]

Slightly higher stroke count, I think it went up to 3 or 3.5. At the distances I was doing I probably wouldn't notice a 4-5m/length deficit. It'd become more apparent if I went further, i.e. 175m+

I don't think the wider distribution in DNF has much to do with technique. You simply don't need good breaststroke technique to do big nofins swims because you don't need much power output. I can do a decent leg kick (honest!), but I don't use it in DNF. I just wave my legs around like an idiot and because I'm a particularly relaxed kind of idiot, it takes me a long way.

I reckon the distribution is more for 2 other reasons: 1. fewer people focus heavily on DNF, and 2. you have to be physiologically suited for slow speeds. Not much point trying to do a Fred Sessa in DNF and travel at a 8.4 metres per second because the arm-stroke recovery brings you almost to a standstill with each stroke.