Is there such a thing as training too much…I think it depends on what your goals are and how you implement them into your life. In the past six months I had quite a few questions coming to my mind about my goals, motivation and what I like to do in life. It occurred to me that I experience more joy in freedive training itself then participating in a freediving competition. Although it’s always a lot of fun to go to freediving competitions, it doesn’t bring me the joy a training can bring me. But don’t get me wrong that I’m going to set back in my participation in freediving competitions, I just like to highlight the fact of enjoying training.

Whilst training I can focus on my goals more easily, whilst keeping in mind that I’m doing it all to make progress in my freediving experience. When Jorg and I set goals for a certain period, these goals will keep my mind strong for a “down” period where I don’t have a strong motivation. When I go into the gym for my fitness-exercises, I won’t think about how big my arms will get after training them. My thoughts will be that I’m training for my overall body fitness and I’m trying to stay in shape so that I can elevate my freediving performances due to a fit body. I’ve found that to be a good motivational factor to get more from my training and myself.

So how come you never see it paying off in competitions? That’s the question… and not a odd question to ask. But if I look at my training and performances during the past freedive years, I’ve booked some serious progress over those years. For me knowing that I’m capable of doing a 7 minute static and actually doing it in a competition is a world apart. I’d rather do this in training and see Jorg smile about it*, then doing this in a competition where proving yourself means more than the performance itself (in my experience).

* An example actually caught on camera: at the end of this clip from my 13 project Jorg was just as pleased as I was with my 125m performance.

I enjoy my training and I will train as much as it takes to keep myself satisfied whilst relaxing at home.

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