So today was the freediving competition in Beverwijk near Amsterdam, with the boys from ATA. They’d set up a great pool freediving competition, unfortunately not as many entries as they’d hoped. Never the less a good pool to give the wet static and dynamic with fins a go again.

My last wet-static was with the competition of Wiesbaden (6 months ago), where I’d left of with a 5:11 static performance. Today’s static performance went very good actually, since I had only done some dry-statics. My warming up was a 2:30 easy static and after that going straight into the competition performance. During the warm-up I already felt quite at ease and relaxed, so no doubt I would set a 5+. The static performance during the competition got me up to a point where my mind started questioning myself, but that was just before the 3:30 tap on the shoulder… After that it was straight to the end and no doubts anymore, re-surfacing after 5:33 slightly more than I thought I’d do. So I’m very satisfied with the result, which actually is a personal best in competition!

The dynamic is a whole other story, although it went as planned, it didn’t quite feel as I’d planned it… Already during a 50m slow warm-up lap I felt my legs burn and that kind of caught my attention as this was not normal. Also during my performance my legs started burning on 75m which would normally occur at the 110m point. So my mind slightly out of focus and trying to control the burning legs, I turned at 100m and decided not to over do this run and set a solid performance of 108m. After telling Jorg about my dynamic performanceover the phone  and the burning legs, he told that was exactly what should happen during this phase of my training. Jorg will explain a little bit more about why this had occurred and how this all fits in the schedule.

So bringing this competition in a 3rd place in both DYN and STA and then of course also with the overall ranking 3rd place with 120,6 points, does make the training worthwhile and makes me confident for the future of my 13 project.

Wednesday’s, Thursday’s training
My training during the week  came along very good, no decline in the freediving specific training and my drywalks constant above the 2 minutes. Also the DNF training to regain my comfort and confidence in this discipline is coming along as well, I should have done about 70m easy, but instead I came up at 75m very easy and no decline noticable.

Actually I’m curious where this will take me, but that’s on next week’s schedule

Links:
AAAC Official Results 
Shark-freediving’s story

As I’ve inscribed to the Apnea Academy Amsterdam Club pool-freedive competition, the schedule for this weeks training had to be changed a little bit.

Monday: Drywalk, Fitness & Cardio
Tuesday: Freediving specific
Wednesday: Drywalk, Fitness & Cardio
Thursday: Freediving specific
Friday: Drywalk
Saturday: Relax
Sunday: Competition AAAC: Static & Dynamic

So I had to plan my schedule with almost the same amount of exercises, but planned it all within a shorter amount of time. Leaving only Saturday as a relax day before the competition, which should be time enough.

Monday’s and Tuesday’s training
My drywalks are making it’s way to where I left off at the end of last season, not performance-wise, but mentally. Whilst doing a drywalk I reach a certain point where the mind fakes me into believing that I can’t make it any further, but when I ignore that impulse I can still walk the last 40% of the drywalk. Making monday’s 2 minute drywalk mentally different than last week’s drywalk.

The 1300m freediving specific training so far is progressing it’s way to the point where no decline is noticeable. Beforehand I did a planned 70m DNF, where my technique was improved already since the last training. The improvement was mainly because I put the weight back around my neck. I could instantly notice that I had more glide, due to my position being better. I tried to focus on the technique part as well, but altering to many things at once is never good. So there still remain enough improvement points on this one…

Now that we enter week 4 of the 13 week long schedule for Sanne to break all his pool records, it’s time to take a look back at week 3. The first two weeks was about setting up and a try out. Week 3 was the first week that everything was already done once, so that the intensity could go up a notch or two. If you read Sanne’s account on last week, you see that he was pretty pleased with how things ran. That being said, there is still major room for improvement, especially in dynamic technique.

For the regular readers of the site, you may remember that pool training was off for a few months during the winter period. Just focusing on regular physical training instead of specific skill training. Well, it seems those few months of no-pool-work degraded the freediving techniques a little. Nothing to be worried about, but for sure very interesting for us and I think the readers in what you will see now, and what you will see after week 13.

So to be specific, during last Fridays training session I took my underwater camera with me and made some shots underwater to analyze the technique afterwards. Normally I’ll do this almost every training session, and if you have an eye for the athlete you can spot small details that are worth mentioning afterwards. This time I’ll do this online, so you get to see and read what we’re looking for.

First of all, here is the video clip of an easy 70 meter dynamic no fins freedive. First take a look and afterwards I go though some of the points.

http://www.shark-eye.com/flv/tsb/20070420-dnf-sanne.flv

So what did YOU see? Think a bit about and if you’re done then read further to read my analysis.
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At the end of last week, I was almost unable to properly finish my specific freediving session. But as my body seems to adapt to the circumstances quite fast, I could do this weeks freediving sessions without any signs of decline.

So starting the week with a static session, after that going to the gym and stepping up the cycle for 20 minutes of cardio, I was ready to do a freediving specific session on Tuesday. The training consists of 2 dynamic without fins runs, followed by a combination specific freediving training spread over 1300 meters in the pool. I have to say that it’s an intense training, but afterwards I’m satisfied with a good training session.

Middle part of the week I decided to focus more on the dry-walks, which are important in my specific training on Tuesday and Friday. Getting my mind back on track and doing a solid 2 minute drywalk is intense, but pays off in the end. There is always the part where my mind thinks I should bail out, but breaching that thought is what it’s all about. After the drywalk I headed for the gym to train my legs, I postponed the cardio to Saturday as there’s no use for cardio after a legs work-out.

It’s Thursday and the thought of doing a dry-walk while my legs are still burning and aching from the day before is rushing through my mind during my work. “So let’s get it over with!” I thought when returning home… Starting off normal, but my legs started to wear down very fast in the end, so a 1:45 drywalk was satisfying. Normally I would do my fitness work-out on Thursday as well, but it seems more wise to postpone that to Saturday as well, making the Saturdays work-out more balanced and I could focus optimal for Friday.

Yet another freediving specific training was due on Friday and starting with the 2 DNF runs was the first part I had to accomplish. Both runs were confident and it didn’t feel all to difficult during the runs. But then the 1300 meter specific training was still to come… In the first part of the 1300m my legs felt like porridge, luckily I regained strength and worked my way through the training.

Today I visited the gym again for my postponed exercises, both my cardio- and shoulder-training. I could still feel the specific 1300m from Friday, but the best is to finish my shoulder-training in a solid and controlled way where technique counts.

Somewhere in the middle or at the end of week 4 I’ll update again !

So, today is already the start of week 3 of 13. The first week was really setting up the schedule, looking at what was possible, setting priorities. Things have changed a lot for Sanne’s lifestyle since the last time we did a serious training schedule. Since beginning of the year I have to take into consideration the ‘family’ factor that was of course always there but now that he’s living together that factor becomes even more bigger. Which is no problem what so ever, as long as you can make a decent planning and set the priorities straight.

After week one I had a pretty good idea what was possible so I setup a schedule for Sanne, optimized to his goals and existing work/family schedule. We had week 2 to test it and see if it would fit. I’m happy to see that it fits perfectly and still leaves enough time to refuel mind and body. Just take a look at the schedule that Sanne posted in his last post.

Monday: Fitness, Cardio & Static
Tuesday: Dynamic Freedive Training
Wednesday: Fitness, Cardio & Static
Thursday: Fitness & Static
Friday: Dynamic Freedive Training
Saturday: Dry-walk, Cardio
Sunday: Relax & Backup

First reaction of some people I heard was about the amount of training and that it was so much. Well, if we go in further detail of the schedule and the philosophy how we train you may come to notice that with Sharkbait it’s not about duration and making long hours, it’s about intensity. For example, you see 3 fitness sessions in the week. Those are not the normal fitness sessions you see people do in the gym. Those are the short intesity burst that will do the job that needs to be done. So I’m talking about 35-40 minutes max! That’s it!

Two times dynamic freedive training can take a long time! But with Sharkbait that means a made to measure schedule optimized to get the best result for an athlete, in this case Sanne. Maximum duration of the dynamic freedive training in the pool: 45 minutes!

Cardio training is more of the same thing. No long half marathon training schedule. Just high intensity interval training of around 20-30 minutes.

Dry static and dry walk sessions are still based on our philosophy that a freediver should be able to perform near maximum results with a minimum amount of warming up. So both sessions maximum 20 minutes.

Now if we do a calculation here you can see that total amount of training time in a week is 5 hours and 40 minutes. Don’t get me wrong: That’s 5 hours and 40 minutes of high intesity activity! So no time for wimps with this schedule. All sessions are in and out missions that get the job done.

I’ll try to write a short article every week about a different aspect of the training schedule that Sanne is now using. And if you have any questions… let’s hear ‘em!