Tips & Tricks in pooling

[WetBoy]

:inlove POOL Freediver :inlove !!


My fin and Swim technique is not the best in the world.......... BUT !!
Though i make 200m +. This is without a good swim technique and i can only describe how i made it work for me.
Offcourse it is important and better with good technique, you will reach further. I think there also exists other very important issues that can make a diver go far in the pool without a splendid technique.

Some Issues :

1. Safety
2. Focus
3. Fin
4. NeckWeight
5. Lung Packing
6. Warm up
7. 1 min rule
8. PushTurn
9. Relax in diving & Food
10. Training / week

1. For the diver to make a maximum dive. Tho most important issue is safety. It is very important to have atlest two person for safety (Preferable three). One or two in the water and one walking along the poolside. The safety will make you feel more relaxed and it will make the dive better. It is also good for them to have Timer and after dive give you Time for 50 and 100m.
When you only have 25m more to go in the pool it is also recomended that the Safety bangs on Metal so you get more aware of yourself and how far you are in the pool.
It is recomendable to do the maximum dive in a non public hour.

2. Another issue is your focus and how bad you really want to accomplishe the dive. This is a very thin line between Intelligense and Madness. To know your own limits and know your body and WarningSigns. If you are a beginner in pool you dont know your body so well and you should progress slowly. You have to be strong and fight the contractions. They will probably start between 50-60m and they will feel strong and really bad around 100m. They will probably feel better after 125m because the oxygen level is dropping rapidly.

3. You can use Bi-Fins or Monofin. It is twice as hard to swim with Bi-Fins so i recomend to drop this immediately. I think you should invest in good equiptment.
The best Monofin is the GLIDE freediving Fin. It is better to have the fin tight atached to your foot. So when you order the fin it is recomendable to use the FinSwimmers size. You should use the HalfSock that covers the foot up to 50%. This makes the finstroke more firm.

4. To be able to have the right position of the body in the water you must use a neckweight. This is a must. It will probably take quite a while for you to know how much lead to put in. This will change over time and you will probably rebuild your neckweight a lot. The weight is offcourse combined with how much lungpacking you can do. You should be 20-30 cm above the bottomline in the pool with your eyes looking only on the LINE and not look up at all. Arms should be streched forward above your head.

5. Lungpacking is recomendable but with care. You can practice this every day and stretch your lounges bit by bit slowly. Progress slowly is a must (risk of injury for beginners). For me i do atleast > 20 packs. This will not make you stressed if you dive in a pool that is 2.20 m deep, the pressure makes it comfortable. The deeper pool the more you can pack. I say pack as much as you can if you are experienced....

6. Before the dive it is good with some Streching but not too much. Relaxation is an important issue. I recomend 2 breatholds before the dive. Before every breath hold i use nosebreathing in 5 min (slow hyperventilation) and 1 min of normal breading just before breath hold to relax. The breathholds can be maximum where you fight a lot or just two breath holds where you stop just before contraction starts. Somehow the contraction in the dive will feel a little better with warm up. Have 5 min rest between warm up breath holds and 7 min rest before starting nosebreathing for the Maximum dive. I know that OneShot without warm up could be better but not for me.

7. One issue of importance to do a good and far dive is the 1 min rule. This means that the first 50m should be on 1min. This is a nice slow speed that will not consume up your oxygen before contraction starts nearby 50m turn. The first 50m should be done most of it with eyes closed as much as possible. The fin kicks must be followed by relaxation in legs. Do not tighten your arms instead be relaxed and lose. After the 50m turn you need to raise your speed one level and you can tighten your arms more. Do not raise the speed to much. After 100m turn you need to raise the speed even further. I think 1.50 min is a good time to reach 100m.

8. Many people say that the kickturn is the best way to turn. I say it is an enegyconsuming turn because you use the biggest muscles in the body, it is complicated and there is also a glue effect of fin against the wall. So you should use the arm push. This is with fins only not without fins.....
When you see the T-bar in the poolfloor raise your eyes towards the Wall. Raise your right arm a little above the head and with a little angle. Your left arm shold fall down along the side so the hand is at the level of the legs. The legs should flip up with knees bent in 90 degrees and feet pointing right out so the fins is pointing in totally upright position. When you push yourself away from the wall,try pushing so the head goes downwards otherwise it os common that you float up and you loose speed if youre fully packed >20. Immediately after the wallpush you should make a swimstroke under your body with the left arm so your body leaves the wall and directly followed by the finstroke where the fin actually already are in position. Be careful with fin in the beginning because it is possible to bang it into the wall.


9. Another important issue in the diving is the relaxation in the first 100m. To relax it is good to regularly close the eyes and in finstroke really actually relax in legs after the stroke. Do not be tense in the body or in the arms, its much better to be really loose in the beginning of the dive. When the speed is raised the arms can be more tensed and in upright position. Depending on what time in the day you will dive you should stop eating long before the dive. For example my training starts at 20:00 in the evening. I take a great meal at 12:30 and afterwards i dont eat anything at all. 2 hours before the dive i drink 2L of Water that make me feel better and more comfortable. Can you have a nap 1h before the diving its great.
When it comes to the start of the dive i prefere sitting on the poolshelf instead of beeing in the water. This helps me to
not getting too cold. I throw my body into the water and kick of from the poolwall. I get a good angle and speed in the start by doing this. It feels somehow relaxed.


10. To reach lenght > 150m it is important to train regularly atleast 2-3 times / week. It is good to train in both 50m and 25m Pool. It is also good if you are in good fysical condition offcourse. I would say it is 80% focus and will and 20% of other issues. As the months passes you will notice that your breathold will increase and your body gets used to low O2 levels. I would recomend that you do atleast one Maximum dive /week. When you reach a lenght do it atleast 3 times before moving further. The 3:rd time your body will recognise the low O2 and you will come up clear with full protocol. In every dive you should always end with full AIDA-protocol so its done automaticly.

Finally i think you should do what makes you feel good and what makes you go further or deeper if you have that desire. Freediving is very individual sport and often its better to go your own way. Dont listen to negative Freedivers.
Listen to the positive happy Freedivers that makes you feel good about beeing you.


This is one of my Training Dives : [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rfl1-06z_c"]YouTube - 200m DYN in 25m Pool[/ame]I broked the 1min rule in this dive. And to you people who like to point out the "danger" in apnea diving to others. look at the 2 safetydivers and there r also one man on the poolshelf.......


:friday:friday:fridayGood Luck in the Pool :friday:friday:friday

 

[bite ya]

That's some great advice, i'm new to the freedivng world (SETT Deep Tank Diver) i completed the course last year and have been training one to two times a week in statics and dynamic. At present i just cant get past 80mtrs, i keep telling myself in the days before i dive that i'm going to finally do the 100mtr mark but always bottle out at 75mtrs to 80mtrs???

Is it a matter of me just being more metally tougher? I have a good healthy life style and always stop eating on training days 7-8hrs before.

I do statics before i carry out any dynamic training but i usually push quite hard in my statics, would this slow down my progress in dynamic?

Thanks
Chris

 

[WetBoy]

That's some great advice, i'm new to the freedivng world (SETT Deep Tank Diver) i completed the course last year and have been training one to two times a week in statics and dynamic. At present i just cant get past 80mtrs, i keep telling myself in the days before i dive that i'm going to finally do the 100mtr mark but always bottle out at 75mtrs to 80mtrs???

Is it a matter of me just being more metally tougher? I have a good healthy life style and always stop eating on training days 7-8hrs before.

I do statics before i carry out any dynamic training but i usually push quite hard in my statics, would this slow down my progress in dynamic?

Thanks
Chris

Hi Cris !!

Well its funny the way progress works in Dynamic. For me it started after 3-4 months of regurlarly training 2-3 times/ week. I went from 80m to 150 m in three weeks when i changed from Bi-fins to MonoFin.

:t:tYou must use a monofin and a GLIDE freediver:t:t

I think most of it was mentally actually but the glide is sooo very good.
I belive in that a secret is to pushing you to the limit regurlarly and often in a SAFE way. NR 1.
Atleast once a week.
I dont belive in only doing 50:m lenght in the pool with short restingtime. Doesnt work for me.
I think you should experiment in what kind of start that suits you but i dont recomend more than two breatholds before Maximum in Dynamic.
Maybe you are a OneShot guy that dont need warm up. The body isnt tired at all with OneShot but the contractions will not be nice.....
My best advice is to atleast train 2 times a week. Try to follow some of my advices, Im sure some of them will be perfect 4 u :t:t:t

 

[gingko]

5. Lungpacking is recomendable.

Well, I really don't think that lungpacking is a good advice..!

Ok, you must be very good in DYN (and 'hope so in other disciplines), but I think you can't promote this kind of practice, particuliarly for beginners, because of the risk of injury with packing.

And also because Freediving should be practiced in a high-level of relaxation. The lung-packing stress your body (and your mind..?), and is really really not natural...

.../...

 

[WetBoy]

Well, I really don't think that lungpacking is a good advice..!

Ok, you must be very good in DYN (and 'hope so in other disciplines), but I think you can't promote this kind of practice, particuliarly for beginners, because of the risk of injury with packing.

And also because freediving must be practiced in a high-level of relaxation. The lung-packing stress your body (and your mind..?), and is really really not natural...

.../...

Well you are right in that LungPacking should be practiced with much care especially for beginners. As i pointed out in the text "With Care" but just to please you i added a more appropriate text....
I dont agree with you at all for one second when it comes to Lungpacking, (Im not that good in other Disciplines because i dont practice them as often and its coold where i live). I wouldnt give up my packing for anything when it comes to deept and in pool.

Maybe the packing stresses you ....It doesnt stress me and i like it as well. The text above is just a description on what i have done to reach 200m in DYN. How did you do to reach 200m ? I would like to know ? Maybe it can improve my diving in the pool with the help of how you did ??

The sport is individual and we all react differently thats why it is important for each one to find their own way. It is specially important not to listen to people with a negative mind, that will affect the diving and remove the fun part of it. The joy of "SAFELY" reaching deeper and further and the happieness one can feel in a completely perfect dive....

 

[bite ya]

Now, now guy's i only wanted some advice. I want to get good at what i do and am willing to listen to anyone with some good advice and detailed training techniques. I belive that if you can do 200mtrs dynamic you should be listened to.

I understand the safety aspect of freediving is paramount and that safety is everything but sometimes the more experienced freedivers dont share how they got from A to B they just bombard newbies with safety safety safety when most of you did hyperventalate at some such point just to see how far you could push your body, mind and spirit or pack till you couldn't pack no more regardless of how uncomfortable it made you feel the first time.

You all got good by trying different styles and techniques, i just want you to sgare them as they happened and not wrap them up with cotton wool for us new comers.

O.k rant and rave over, i am a very determined guy who wants to succeed and do my best. I only compete against myself which i feel is the best way to start.

More advice please........i would love to get to 100mtrs and dream of 200mtrs. For now!!

Cheers
Chris Holmes

 

[BennyB]

I think all of you are missing the most important training tip... YOU MUST CHEW TOBACCO!!!!! Isn't that right Wetboy? I hope you're the guy I suspect you are (Martin) otherwise that joke is completely lost :duh

One thing all of you guys should remember that this forum is used by freedivers at all levels, between complete beginner and multiple world record holders. Because of this, the advice that is given out may not be right for everybody.

Things like Packing, in particular are advanced techniques that don't need to be used until the freediver is at an advanced level themselves. I learnt to pack from the internet a long time before I should of, and as such came to be very dependent on it for all my diving which isn't really right.

You always have to remember that what you read here isn't necessarily the gospel of freediving, it's a bunch of good people sharing ideas. Look at Eric Fattah as an example - he is clearly an unbelieveable freediver and has radical ideas on what works for him in terms of freedive technique, diet and physiology. I have tried a few of his ideas and, for me, some work and some very much do not. It's individual.

Read what you want on the forums, but take it all with a grain of salt. And it's always better to do a course and learn the essentials first before heading into the internet to become an expert. But by all means, look at the internet to supplement what you learn.


Chris - hi it's Ben, we've talked on MySpace before, though I am rubbish at checking my Myspace account. Glad to hear you're still at it. Don't stress about hitting numbers too early. My advice for new'ish people is always to not be concerned with hitting particular numbers, ESPECIALLY round numbers like 5 minutes and 100m. When it happens, it's nice but you shouldn't have a pre-conceived notion of hitting round numbers. There's nothing wrong with aiming for 98m, or 103m, or 4m past your PB or whatever. Fixations with round numbers can either make a freediver aim to far or not push hard enough.

You're at a good spot at the moment where you're learning all about your body and it's reactions to apnea. This is the bit where you learn how to push yourself properly and to really read your body. I think the most important point in pushing yourself to new PB's is having responsible and trustworthy buddies that you know can help you out if it all goes pear -shaped. I would never ever attempt a max (or be confident enough to attempt one) if I didn't think my buddy could physically rescue me if needs be. That alone is a big mental barrier that assists me in my attempts.

The other thing is to be very conscious of what's going on when you do your dive. Assess how you feel and at what point you get the feelings, ie. when you get the urge to breath, the lactic feeling in your legs, at what point your head says "just give up", that sort of thing. Isolate these feelings in your head and try to address them one by one.

Physically, do a max attempt and have a think about what felt good and what felt bad. Count your kicks per lap, and then later do 1 lap at a time and try to improve 1 thing at a time. Doing 15 kicks per 25m with a monofin? Try to do 13 or 12 kicks by doing multiples of 1 lap and just work on technique.

And then there's training tables and other techniques that are taught in the AIDA 3* course, there's tons of stuff you can do to improve everything.

Keep checking in and letting us know how you go - hopefully next year you'll be competing in the British Championships (looking at your PB's you would have fared pretty decently against the opposition this year). I think your attitude of competing against yourself only is fantastic, that's what it's all about at the end of the day.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[Tony Babowicz]

Wetboy
Thanks for your informative description. My weakness in dynamic is in my turns (or so I think). I seem to lose alot of momentum when I don't push off the wall with my fin, yet when I do push off with my fin, sometimes I almost get stuck. Can you describe your swimstroke with your left hand? I have not made it to 100 yet dynamic, although I have made 100 dnf. I give credit to the push and glide,(and I also used to swim breastroke, ALOT). I have 200m as my goal for dynamic, and any advise from someone who has been there is greatly appreciated. My monofin technique needs alot of improvement as well. I don't get to do a max attempt very often (it's been about 4months, and that was with bi-fins, 90m) so I'm excited about the next one. Hopefully This week. Unfortunatly, I quit chewing tobacco last year, so I will have to perfect my technique and not use this as a training aid. If you get a chance, breakdown your turn a little more and describe you swimstroke how hard you push with right arm, what you do with right arm while swimstroking with left,etc.
Thanks,Tony

 

[bite ya]

Hey Benny B, good to hear from you, i'm not to good at checking my "my space" either!! I'm still training but only in the pool once a week now due to work commitments. I am training more on mmy cardio (running whilst holding my breath) which i only started this week. I'm also looking more into my diet and started yoga last night (i'm really aching today!!)

I do work on my technique for about 30mins each week just a length at a time and usually kick 12 times per 25mtrs which i'm trying to reduce slowly. I still love it and i would love to compete next year (do you know what distances or times they did in this years comp?)

Anyway, its great to hear from you, dive safe!

 

[bite ya]

Oh sorry Benny one more thing, i have just been on your blog page. Do you work at the Geek Squad over by Acton? I am over that way once a week working.

Let me know and i'll buy you a coffee (oops sorry, no caffine i'll buy you a decafe)

Chris

 

[BennyB]

Hey Chris,

Sounds like you're getting more training in than most of us - i'm lucky to do 1 hour a week at the moment! Careful with that apnea running though, people at the gym will think you're a right nutter

Sounds like you're doing all the right things anyway.

I was working at Geek Squad in North Acton but I finished up there 4 weeks ago. Still would be good to catch up for a coffee though (no decaf... some things aren't worth giving up!), I have to go back to catch up with the guys for lunch at some point in the next couple of weeks. Send me a PM with a day in mind & i'll come in. Has to be in July cause i'm hitting the road after that.


You can see the results of last week's comp here: http://forums.deeperblue.net/722959-post6.html
We had a few new guys come along and do some impressive dives, but the most imortant thing was that they came along and gave it a shot. It's always good to start comps when you're not yet at world record level as you learn how to dive competitively (ie. learning the surface protocol, getting your timing right for warm ups and official top etc), this is one thing that gets people at every comp. Best to learn it and make mistakes before you're more serious about your performances.

Cheers mate

 

[bite ya]

That's a shame, i'm off to turkey on the 17th of this month till the end of July, pant's!!! Would of been good to meet up (maybe another time?)

Just one more question....were do i get a neck weight? will this help me?

Thanks Ben

 

[salibandy]

You can make one easily. Out of some mountain bike tyre tubes and lead shots.

 

[bite ya]

Thanks Salibandy, but how do you block then ends up after you have cut them and how to i attach it around my neck?

Sorry if i'm being thick!!

 

[salibandy]

I left some tubing free at both ends after stuffing lead down it, so that I can thread it through the ends of a plastic buckle, not unlike those found on backpacks. I then glued them down. However the glue I used did not work well, so I taped it down. This effectively stops the lead from coming out. I also used 2 layers of tubing, one on top of the other, to make it tougher.

 

[bite ya]

Superb stuff, thanks so much!! I'm off down the shops to make one immediatley

I love this site purely because of people like you!

All the best
Chris

 

[salibandy]

Always a pleasure to help. Just ask if you need help.

 

[bite ya]

Hey, i made one, i went to the pool and i broke my personal best 100mtrs, i'm sooooo happy.

It all started just by reading this thread.....Thanks to everyone for the advice

Chris

 

[WetBoy]

I think all of you are missing the most training tip... YOU MUST CHEW TOBACCO!!!!! Isn't that right Wetboy? I hope you're the guy I suspect you are (Martin) otherwise that joke is completely lost :duh

One thing all of you guys should remember that this forum is used by freedivers at all levels, between complete beginner and multiple world record holders. Because of this, the advice that is given out may not be right for everybody.

Things like Packing, in particular are advanced techniques that don't need to be used until the freediver is at an advanced level themselves. I learnt to pack from the internet a long time before I should of, and as such came to be very dependent on it for all my diving which isn't really right.

You always have to remember that what you read here isn't necessarily the gospel of freediving, it's a bunch of good people sharing ideas. Look at Eric Fattah as an example - he is clearly an unbelieveable freediver and has radical ideas on what works for him in terms of freedive technique, diet and physiology. I have tried a few of his ideas and, for me, some work and some very much do not. It's individual.

Read what you want on the forums, but take it all with a grain of salt. And it's always better to do a course and learn the essentials first before heading into the internet to become an expert. But by all means, look at the internet to supplement what you learn.


Chris - hi it's Ben, we've talked on MySpace before, though I am rubbish at checking my Myspace account. Glad to hear you're still at it. Don't stress about hitting numbers too early. My advice for new'ish people is always to not be concerned with hitting particular numbers, ESPECIALLY round numbers like 5 minutes and 100m. When it happens, it's nice but you shouldn't have a pre-conceived notion of hitting round numbers. There's nothing wrong with aiming for 98m, or 103m, or 4m past your PB or whatever. Fixations with round numbers can either make a freediver aim to far or not push hard enough.

You're at a good spot at the moment where you're learning all about your body and it's reactions to apnea. This is the bit where you learn how to push yourself properly and to really read your body. I think the most important point in pushing yourself to new PB's is having responsible and trustworthy buddies that you know can help you out if it all goes pear -shaped. I would never ever attempt a max (or be confident enough to attempt one) if I didn't think my buddy could physically rescue me if needs be. That alone is a big mental barrier that assists me in my attempts.

The other thing is to be very conscious of what's going on when you do your dive. Assess how you feel and at what point you get the feelings, ie. when you get the urge to breath, the lactic feeling in your legs, at what point your head says "just give up", that sort of thing. Isolate these feelings in your head and try to address them one by one.

Physically, do a max attempt and have a think about what felt good and what felt bad. Count your kicks per lap, and then later do 1 lap at a time and try to improve 1 thing at a time. Doing 15 kicks per 25m with a monofin? Try to do 13 or 12 kicks by doing multiples of 1 lap and just work on technique.

And then there's training tables and other techniques that are taught in the AIDA 3* course, there's tons of stuff you can do to improve everything.

Keep checking in and letting us know how you go - hopefully next year you'll be competing in the British Championships (looking at your PB's you would have fared pretty decently against the opposition this year). I think your attitude of competing against yourself only is fantastic, that's what it's all about at the end of the day.

Cheers,
Ben

Hi BennyB !! hehe yepp its me .... And im still chewing tobacco but its not good for freediving it will raise the pulse with atleast 10 strokes extra/min. But my body is probably so used because i have done it for 25 years..
Nice to hear from you again. :inlove:inlove:inloveHope your Pooling doing well :inlove:inlove:inlove

 

[WetBoy]

I put up a blury movie of 1 dive where i think its possible to see the pushturn and some of my other lousy technique

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rfl1-06z_c"]YouTube - 200m DYN in 25m Pool[/ame][ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHye9K6hAQQ"][/ame]