Last Thursday I already took my new Speedo Breast Stroke fins for a test run. I was actually surprised by the amount of propulsion it produced. I did a few 25 meters DNF to see how propelling with my legs was exaggerated to a level I became aware of the way it should feel.

As I’m still finding my way through the proper technique and the helpful tools to get rid of my scissor-like leg movement, Kostas joined me last night with another helpful tool; the video-camera. Looking back at the footage right after I did the 25 meter test runs, made it more obvious I needed to lower my right leg even more.

As a comparison we made a few clips where I did a run with:

1. initial technique without the speedo fins
2. corrected technique without the speedo fins
3. initial technique with the speedo fins
4. corrected technique with the speedo fins
5. corrected technique after use of speedo fins

When reviewing the footage some interesting facts grabbed my attention. In relation to how it felt whilst doing the different test runs, I can say that even though you wear the fins, I still need to be paying attention to the lifting of the right leg. When applying the force with the legs, the moment of ultimate propulsion at first seems to be short. But after re-capping the things William said in his course you can keep the propulsion going by scooping more water, by pointing the toes inwards at the end.

My scissor isn’t gone by long, but getting aware of the fact by reviewing the footage is very helpful. Another thing which makes me aware is by looking down at my legs whilst swimming… it’s not the most elegant way, but then I seem to see the errors and correct them instantly.

The next few weeks I’ll be swopping between my DNF-technique and the DYN monofin technique.

As announced this weekend William Trubridge visited the Netherlands for a Constant No Fins (CNF) clinic at Apnea Academy Amsterdam’s pool in Beverwijk. Check out pictures, videos and Glenn’s forum topic with pictures.

First day
It started with a introduction of technique used during the CNF, which he’d broke down into the arm- and legstroke. It’s good to see him explaining all this theory out of his own experience, like where he applies certain corrections and i.e. accidentally finding out why certain stuff is working by looking back through videos.

A lot of other theory explained about lung capacity, certain different thesis’ and practical experience led William to finding a kind of formula to calculate how many air to use for a dive. Although it’s unproven by science it did make sense when he explained it.

After the theory he taught some of his stretching exercises, through which he could stretch his overall body in preparation of CNF or CW dives. In combination with breathing exercises with purpose to stretch the lungs and the rib-cage a preparation for depth training seems to make sense. In some of the stretching exercises or maybe most, I found out that my body wasn’t really all that capable of bending. I do believe that with a little dedication to these stretching exercises, it will be increasing flexibility and thus a better preparation for going into the blue.

With the body stretched up and ready to go we were dropped in the pool to show our technique to the careful eye of the world champ. With pin-pointed accuracy he spotted technique imperfections and showed a way to get rid of these imperfections. For myself my scissor-like movement with my right leg still is one the major imperfections, but by hanging on the side of the pool and slowly making the movement I could get rid of the imperfection. As for the other participants they could also benefit of the observations and comments by William.

Second day
This day started of with theory again, more specific to total lung capacity versus residual volume. He explained an other theory which he worked out for himself and he combined with exhale statics. This approach seems to make sens when you are training for depth, as you’re in this kind of static whilst your falling down by negative buoyancy.

Glenn setup his heart rate monitor through which William was able to show a heart rate drop from 60 to 38 within a minute, which proves his way of using certain pranayama locks. Later that day all participants would be  hooked up and check if they were able to pull of these locks…as for my own heart rate… sigh… I don’t know why but my heart rate starts of at about 100 rest state after 4 minutes of slow breathing and after performing a lock…it would only drop to let’s say 83, but all in a time of 2 minutes for which this is a normal drop in heart rate for me. so for me it’s unproven, but the others were able to get the sensations William was talking about.

After the heart rate monitoring everybody made a maximum attempt in the pool without any preparation, for most of the freedivers this was a first and they all performed really well by down no warm up.

To round up the day we were to execute one of the tables explained earlier in the theory. A certain amount  of 25m laps and decreasing rest times made a perfect training for 30 minutes. Quite tiring and an interesting way of training, although I do see resemblance with my own training schedule’s which Jorg puts me through.

Concluding
Overall a succesful weekend and lot’s of new things learned also about an amazing athlete doing 3 days of trianing and one day of rest in a really awesome blue hole in the Bahamas. Thanks William Trubridge and Glenn Venghaus and Peter Wurschy from Apnea Academy Amsterdam for setting up this oppertunity.

This weekend Apnea Academy Amsterdam are organizing a Constant Weight Without Fins (CNF) training weekend with world record freediver William Trubridge.

The announced schedule for this weekend (roughly):

Saturday
16:00 arrive in pool Beverwijk
16:30 - 17:00   Introductions
17:00 - 18:30  Theory (technique & dive strategy)
18:30 - 19:30  Stretching (body & lungs)
19:30 - 21:30  Pool (technique & drills)
21:30 - End (estimated)

Sunday
12:00 arrival pool beverwijk
12:30 - 15:00   Theory (training program, diet, psychology)
15:00 - 16:00   Stretching (body & lungs)
16:00 - 18:30   Pool (max attempt, pyramid training table)
18:30 - 19:30   Videos, diploma, question time
20:00 -  End (estimated)

Just to let you know what William Trubridge is all about, check out this great performance:

Other information about William Trubridge is posted on Vertical Blue.

Looking back on the past few days of competition and training I must say I’ve learned quite a lot about the freediving to depth, techniques and about my approach. The depth part is a new and undiscovered area which I really like to explore more.

Besides that I also liked the competition and to meet all competitors and enthusiasts. Good to see there a lot more people out there having the same thing with freediving. All freedivers were very open to each other, helping with technique and helping out with anything.

For me I think the best for future training and depth-options in the Netherlands I’d best be of with doing FRC-dives, which give me the possibility to train for deeper dives within shallow waters.

The stretching which Jorg already told me was very important for deep dives, has proven it’s point and this should be in my preparation for future deep freediving.

Coming here I think my body was well prepared and my ears have seen multiple depth’s without tiring out on me. In my opinion the pool exercises and training from the past weeks/months really paid of in this event.

Putting it all together this whole event was about training, getting into depth’s again and totally for exploration. But in the results ending up with a reasonable 100+ points and respectable depth’s (CNF: 35m, FIM: 33m & CWT: 40m & All PB’s) on a 13th place overall is good inspiration for the future. I really like to compete in more depth competitions and explore the capabilities and moving the boundries for my body in depth.

Overall feeling I have with competitions is still that it brings a certain structure and planning which really suits me…For the Bizzy Blue hole depth-competition I liked the fact of choosing my own time of entrance to the water, which makes it like the approach Jorg and I always use for pool competitions.

Today we agreed to meet up at 9:30 to do the relay freedive where 2 teams head up against each other in a speed relay session. the dives should have all the 3 styles; free immersion, constant weight with fins and without fins to a depth of 20, 30 and 40 meter. The team can decide which style to go with which depth.

I teamed up with David and Muir and we were up against a danish team, Muir got his first 20m without fins properly and David did his 30 meters with fins and with hang-over, after which I headed down for the free immersion to 40 meters. But at 33 meters the equalization proved to be a bit harder, which must have been the stress of time related competition. So I returned to the surface without a tag and we were disqualified :). Actually we didn’t really stand a chance against the first danish team. They got all depth within 2 minute and 30 seconds. Good fun to participate in!

For the second part of the day we set out to the canyon, which is a dive area nearby the Blue hole. David, Marieke and I went in the water with a buoy and got out to the point where the entrance to the fish bowl was. Prepared the buoy for easier descent. The entrance of the fish bowl is at about 16,5 meters, which we descent to with a free immersion style to save energy. First David showed me where the entrance was and after that we took a few minutes of rest and prepared for a dive through the first part of the canyon.

We dove down and got into the fish bowl, which was a kind of underwater underground cave in the shape of a bowl, at the end of the bowl the path bended down to about 23 meters to end up underneath a massive crack through which we ascended to the surface again. Breath-taking to do this and really got imprinted in my mind. We mad e a second dive down there and I filmed David going through this cave…awesome pictures and never to forget, this is what freediving is about!

At around 16:00 we headed out to sharm el sheikh to have the rest of the holiday in the Reef Oasis Beach Resort.