Freediving Training
Lesson 1: Breathing and Equalization
This lesson can get done after the 200 meter swim. As long as participants can’t swim 200 meter yet, we recommend to train in chest deep water to add to safety and comfort.
Dry Briefing
Optimized Breath Hold Mask & Snorkel use Equalizing Dive protocol & blackout respons Rules of Rotation (optional for bigger groups) The Duck dive
Followed by the In Water Exercises
Dive protocol & black out response Mask, snorkel and fin use (Optional) Attempt to Equalizing Attempt to duck diving Dive tour (optional sight seeing)
The students can collect the following personal best performances in time or in depth.
Static Apnea (STA) maximum breath hold while lain Free Immersion (FIM) Pulling down on a rope Constant weight (CWT) Swimming down using fins Constant weight no fins (CNF) Swimming down with no fins Variable weight (VWT) Allowing a heavy weight to pull you down Dynamic with fins (DYN) Swimming with fins horizontally Dynamic No fins (DNF) Swimming with no fins horizontally
By keeping record of your personal best performances, you can keep track of your progress
The bare minimum requirement for members to request a certificate of attendance of this lesson is that they have been introduced to all the topics in get started with freediving. It can and should all get done in shallow water if members are not yet cleared for deeper water. Repetition of skills in deeper water is optional. They don’t need to have mastered any of the skills, but they should have an understanding on how to further practice those skills in the future dives.
The Survival Float
Introduction to Freediving" : How to Increase Your Breath Hold Time
Water Work
THE SPIROMETER (A simple tool to measure and understand exhale volume)
As participants arrive you could do the spirometer measurement with them. It’s a great ice breaker and it assures that no one is just sitting and waiting for the official class to start. The spirometer is goofy, nerdy and it makes participants giggle. At the same time it touches Archimedes and Boyls law in a very playful and visual way.
After they exhaled into the spirometer, let them push down the spirometer so they can actually feel the buoyant force.
- Tell them they get 1kg of flotation out of every liter.
- Tell them that an average complete exhale is ¾ of the lung volume. Ask them to calculate their lung volume.
- Tell them that a dive to ten meter will compress their lungs to half the size, ask them how much heavier that will make them.
Arm Span Measurement
For participants to know how deep they are, they could count their armspans on the way up. Measuring armspans could be another time filler while participants are still arriving. If you choose to not spend time to actually measuring armspans then the average armspan for man and woman can just be stated. Most man have an armspan of around 150 cm. You could ask them how deep they were if they pulled up 4 times (It’s 6 meter). Most woman have an armspan of around 133 cm. You could ask them how deep they were if they pulled up 3 times (It’s 4 meter)
Getting to Know Each Other
Once the group is complete an introduction round is a good way to bond with the group. The usual questions being, What’s your name, Where you from and what is diving to you. Depending on group size and time available you could either ask more or less.
THE MISSION STATEMENT ( 1 to 2 minutes)
Introduce the FCOA program, and ask participants to read 3 missions out of their logbook, shortly elaborate on each mission.
OPTIMIZED BREATHHOLD ( 5 to 10 minutes)
You could say: “I’ll take you buy surprise, hold your breath RIGHT NOW!
The surprise breath hold is a great way to kick-start your briefing. It should be unannounced and with no explanations otherwise it would not be a surprise. Call out the 10 second marks. Once they are done, tell them they did great, no matter how short or long they did hold. Tell them “the surprise breath hold is the time you have to escape a sudden boat capsize”
Show them where to write ✍️ down their surprise breath hold in their logbooks.
Breath Hold and Relaxation
- The breath up: Make them copy your breathing: 2 full inhales and exhales, to assure having the freshest air in the lungs.
- Relaxation: Tell them: “You have billions of cells in your body, they all need oxygen, if you slow them down they will need less oxygen. Let’s measure how relaxed we are right now by measuring our hearth rate”. Then let them lay down and relax for 2 minutes. After that measure the heart rate again. Followed by the breath up and again a breathhold.
❤ Measure the heartrates for 15 seconds and multiply it by 4. Help those that can’t find their heartrates. Make them write ✍️ it down in their logbook
Demonstrate how to relax, mention:
- To keep the body relaxed and as flat as possible to reduce the hearts workload.
- To keep the arms straight to have the least obstruction in the blood vessels.
- To keep the eyes closed since the eyes also use oxygen.
- To relax the mind with sleepy thoughts or through meditation.
During the 2 minutes relaxation don’t talk and try to keep the environment as quite as possible.
After 2 minutes with an easy voice tell them to remain relaxed but to gentle find the ❤ heart rate again. Tell them if they cannot find it that they should not worry about it, since we want them to remain calm. After the 15 second measurement tell them to remember the number and relax again.
Let them follow and copy the sounds of your breath up. Then on the count of 3 tell them to breath in as deep as possible and to hold as long as they can. Let it be quite for the first 30 seconds, then call out the 10 second marks. Tell those that finished to sit up and encourage those still holding to keep going and push for their limits.
Comments you could make between the 10 second marks are:
- Dream away, you could actually try to fall asleep
- Push for it, there is nothing unhealthy about pushing for it
- Keep your eyes closed so they don’t use oxygen
- If you feel your tummy move, that’s your diaphragm, it’s normal
- Try to take control of your diaphragm, try to keep it still
Once they all finish, help them to fill out✍️ their post relaxation heart rate and the dry breath hold.
Explain the term Dry Breath hold in comparison to a wet breath hold being easier due to the mammalian dive reflex.
Now take some time to also fill out ✍️ the Lung volume and the arm span.
Mask Fitting, Clearing, and Snorkeling (2 to 10 minutes)
This is an ideal topic to be presented by a coach in training. Off course they should only present it, if they are prepared for it trough a three-part roleplay. The participants should copy the demonstration (monkey see monkey do). Give participants the time they need to fix their hair and figure out how to tighten the mask. The demonstration should include:
- The vacuum test by inhaling through the nose and listening for air leaks.
- Strap placement above the ears and tightening/loosening the strap.
- The hair check with 2 hands, one to pull the mask skirt forward, the other to swipe the forehead free of hair.
- Mask clearing by exhaling through the nose.
- Snorkel blasting: twice with a slow inhale in-between.
- When not using the mask, keep it around the neck.
- Different ways to defog
Equalization (2 minutes)
This is another topic that easily can get presented by a coach in training provided he gets prepared trough a three part roleplay.
Keep it simple. It’s a huge and never ending topic but right now it should get explained in less then 2 minutes. The briefing should include minimally:
- Valsalva
- Jaw movements
- Swallowing
- Bad ear up
- You should never feel pain. If you feel pain, you are too deep already.
Video 1C: Protocol
Diving Protocol & Black Out Response (1 to 3 minutes)
This should include:
1. Diver signing to the safety diver: You look at me, the safety diver confirms with an ok sign.
2. As the diver dives the safety starts counting
3. Checking if the diver is conscious trough: Tapping, Rope tugs or the use of the grouper call.
4. As the diver comes up he should attempt to recover trough the snorkel. This is a skill that takes time to learn. Ironically most freediving programs don’t teach it while scuba diving programs consider it a mandatory and valuable skill. Participants that don’t get taught how to recover trough the snorkel will miss out on proper airway development. Once the skill is mastered participants can choose to either recover trough the snorkel or with the head out of the water.
5. After the divers first breath, the diver and the safety buddy have a combined responsibility to make eye contact.
6. The safety buddy asks if the diver is ok with an OK sign. The diver replies with an OK sign. The safety buddy now counts 5 seconds on his fingers in front of the face of the diver. Then he once again asks if the diver is still ok.
7. The diver pretends to black out. The safety buddy should turn him around by the shoulders without making the common mistake of trying to get behind the unconscious diver. This should get done gently but without delay.
(At this stage we let students recover from their breath holds with their subconscious natural breathing. Some trainers teach the “recovery breath” or ‘Hook breath”. Be aware that this method doesn’t have much scientific backing. It’s a discussion and a method we will discuss in detail in lesson 6 with more advanced students. For introduction students this topic could lead to confusion, time loss and information overload)
Faking Unannounced Emergencies
Encourage participants to fake unannounced emergencies when ever they like, especially if they feel their safety buddy is not focused. Before faking emergencies make sure that you:
1. Only fake emergencies that fit in the scope of the so far covered lesson. In lesson one by example we only deal with service emergencies so don’t pretend to be blacked out under water.
2. Only fake emergencies if it will build the confidence of the safety buddy. If the safety buddy is already exhausted or stressed, then adding a fake emergency to it could potentially be traumatizing and it would reduce their confidence.
3. After the executed rescue first state everything that was done right and good and then add how it can even be better and faster and more gentle next time.
Rules of Rotation (Optional for groups)(10 to 15 minutes)
The rules of rotation assure that the most amount of dives can get made in the least amount of time and that with minimum talking. All participants get an equal amount of practice dives and safety duties. The participants should practice it on land first. Ideal group size 4 to 6. Make sure all participants understand that:
1. They need to personally call out their diver numbers in a clockwise direction.
2. They need to know who their safety will be. (Second last diver to the right)
3. They need to know what their GO TIME is.
4. They need to know who they will provide safety to.
5. They need to understand that after their dive and after getting checked, they need to get ready to become a safety diver them selves. They need to make eye contact with their diver so that the diver can continue his meditation without having to demand his safety buddies attention.
Do two rounds with them. The first round is to get used to the flow. For the second round add the concept of escorting and add a blackout during the 5 second check. The safety buddies should learn to focus on their divers especially when other dive buddies are conducting blackout responses. Encourage participants to fake blackouts unannounced. Especially if their safety buddies are not paying attention.
The Duck Dive (2 minutes)
It’s another stand up topic where you make the participants move. As with all topics, Don’t just talk to about it, make participants move. We first practice duck dives in chest deep water by making hand stands. This briefing should include.
• Hand stand attempts in chest deep water
• Tumbling
• In deeper water, face the rope and stay near it.
• Don’t forget to equalize
• Tumble turn
• Ascend along the rope since that’s where your safety buddy is waiting for you. And it protects you against boat traffic.
• Surface next to your safety buddy
