After Sanne’s original post about his new training we got quite some response. For sure the method we use is different than what freedivers are used to do. But that makes it interesting as well! Everybody is always in search of the holy grail on how to achieve best performances in sport and in the Sharkbait philosophy we have chosen to use a work-ethic approach with a get-in get-out mission mentality that is working very well.I’ve written already many articles about our way of training so it’s no use to repeat the general idea behind the whole philosophy. In this article I will focus only on the packed 30’s approach we’re currently using.

So in short, to recap Sanne’s post, packed 30’s is nothing else then a near-maximum physical and maximum mental training schedule which lasts for 30 minutes, if you can finish the schedule. Let’s just start with answering the questions Sanne put in his post.

Why would you want to train that kind of mental endurance?

After the first project 13 I learned a lot about Sanne his physics, but this was more a confirmation on what I already knew for some time. What was completely new during that project is the mental picture I got from him. For the the first time it really came out how big of a mind game this whole freediving thing was for Sanne. It was perfectly clear that his body was ready for some big performances, like I already told you in earlier articles, but the actual performances during competition were not even near his maximum performance he could do every week in training.

So of course we started discussing and talking about how we could solve this. And if you start talking about mental barriers and overcoming them you start to poke in some deep personal stuff very fast! Every top athlete is not only a master with his body, but even more with his mind!

The natural thing of course happened after some failed performances. Outsiders said Sanne did too much work and hard training and now his body was over trained. Well, that’s of course the easiest thing to say. But if you know what you’re talking about and have all the data, you know that that wasn’t true. Far from it! His training results were improving week after week. Even after the project 13 and with some big resting time in between.

Where the first project 13 was the ultimate program to train every cell in Sanne his body how to cope with low o2 and high co2 grades, the second project 13 would be completed molded around Sanne his brain and to slowly elevate stress level and tension to get him used to freediving competition stress, but even more to grow mental power in general.

As both Sanne and I have pretty busy personal and work lifes, our few sport hours we can spend each week have to be filled with efficiency. The only way to do this is to know what to do in a set time. We don’t have time to hang around the pool for 3 hours at a time. Talk with everybody and then do some laps underwater. 19:00 we start the show and 19:30 we stop the show. Which doesn’t mean we get out of the water immediately after that. We buddy some new freedivers who are also there, and help them with training. But in those 30 minutes… If there was a fire, we would still continue (we are in a pool anyway!

Those 30 minutes are filled with a grueling schedule that will give your body a kick so that the physique is triggered to respond and improve itself. But besides that I set up the schedule in such a pace that every lap or exercise Sanne does makes it more difficult to relax and to keep at ease. Bringing a sensation were he knows he can make it with his body, but were his mind is just so tired that his body wants to quit. To simplify, every end of an exercise will feel mentally as if he has to turn at 125 meters. Questions in his head for example; why should I continue, what am I doing, if I go up everything will be easy and painfree again. If I quit here it’s enough for today. Stuff like that. If you’re a freediver you probably recognize some of the questions.
By bringing him sensations like that during training and by bringing him the sensation of living up to a training from which he knows it will be heavy again, he learns how to deal with this kind of stuff. And from what I already saw, it’s working big time!

Is there a relationship between O2- & CO2-schedules in combination to these packed 30’s ?

Good question. Not really if you compare it to the regular o2 and co2 cycles we know from Apnea Academy. Of course we repeat and keep a certain resting period between each set. But it’s not like the normal stuff were you say; we’re going to do 8 laps of 50 meter underwater and between each set we make the resting period shorter each time (co2). Or we keep the resting period the same but increase the distance (o2).

With the normal schedules for freediving the whole thing is geared into reaching a certain time or distance, where as our schedules are optimized to reach mental exhaustion and still keeping technique okay.

In the last year we’ve developed around 15 exercises we use cross wise to keep each training interesting. So maybe 2 sets of exercise number 8, then 4 laps of exercise number 3, etc. Keep in mind that we in general never do any of the known freediving disciplines in the pool. Only special developed surface work that can be easily done alone, or for some serious schedules with the help of a buddy.

Can you use this approach over an existing training, which results in a packed 30-variant of the exercise?

No! This kind of training only works if you use the complete philosophy we use. This is not for wussies! This asks for complete dedication and faith in yourself that you can reach the end of a schedule. It’s just hard work! It has nothing to do with meditation, relaxation, etc. It only has to do in training your body and mind with these high levels of stress. And that’s why we don’t train in the water for more then 1 hour a week.Is this approach usable for any freediver?For sure not! We tried with other people this approach and for them it just didn’t work out. You just have to find people who are willing to train, suffer, and enjoy a hard time in the pool. You can’t improve without some pain at a certain moment. Ever seen those housewives using the stairmaster year in year out without sweating and puffing, just reading a book and still being fat? Well, no pain no gain!

As Sanne also reported earlier, we found some other people willing to do what it takes. If you see what kind of progression they are making with our beginner schedule it’s just amazing! We never tried a maximum in one of the known freediving disciplines yet, but it’s very clear that they can do triple digit dynamics already.

Want to join us?

If you’re interested in our methods and want to join us we are going to offer two options to you. Only to the really dedicated! We talk about that next week and we’re going to start with this program January 1st!

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