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.

Tonights monofin training proved to be a very good one, as I got my technique pretty much the way it’s supposed to be. In a preparation we did some small statics, with only the normal swim-goggles. It’s an awkward feeling at first but after a few tries it was actually not annoying anymore to have the water up my nose. Jorg did a couple of statics as well and tried out the underwater MP3 player.

In the training pool we started of with some small fins to get the movement training started. At the end of the training we picked up the leaderfins monofin and did various exercises to trigger the right effect. As it’s my lowerback that’s getting strained when i try to swim faster, or make shorter amplitudes. We went back to a earlier exercise which did trigger the right movement. Arms alongside whilst swimming with the monofin, but this time focussing on making a smaller amplitude. As soon as Jorg spotted the technique was how it’s supposed to be, he signaled me and I brought my arms to the stretched out position. So doing it with the phases separated, it did trigger the motion we were looking for.

Next time it’s time to get it on film and analyze it to see what improvements I’ve made so far. I’m very excited to see that my body is capable of making the monofin movement. Now it’s time to tweak and train and perfectionize it…

Two weeks ago I started training for monofin again. I bought a great monofin from Leader fins last year, but did not get the time to actually practice with it. Now Jorg and I put it up in the schedule and I’m gonna train and practice for the monofin for a while.

I have to say that I can already see a difference since last year test-runs with the monofin and the runs I do now. I’m not ready to actually monofin my way through the water, but I’m getting used to the foot-pockets and the different way my legs are bound. I do about 4-6 times 50m with it and then get back to the proper exercises to get the monofin motion going.

Special monofin exercises and filming them are very great tools to achieving a proper technique. My technique was very bad and still isn’t a Peter Pederson-style by a long shot. But I’m making progress with my lower-back not being that stiff anymore. The exercise that got that fixed, is a standard item on the exercise list now. As my lower-back flexibility has to improve much more…but looking back at some of the earlier video’s and present time video’s it shows a little improvement. So as long as there is improvement I still have hope that I can go from very bad technique to reasonable technique.

We’ll see what the coming weeks will hold in store, but one things for sure I’m going for it. I’d like to see what a few weeks of technique training can do.

Our global training-philosophy includes that our training is not wide stretched in time, but it has more resemblance of a “Packed 30″-approach. What does this mean in terms of training? Well 30 minutes of high intensity training, wearing down your mental endurance to a point you’ll have to yield. This kind of training is only done with a safety in the water.

I’ve been doing this kind of training for a few weeks now, but in general we’ve always had significantly shorter training sessions then other approaches. On a level of focusing for training, my focus can be very dedicated. I prepare myself during the day, knowing what I should do during the Packed 30’s later that evening. Preparing in a way that it is something I think about during the day. No surprises, increased focus, set exercises and it will break me down mentally.

The yield point is a way of testing my endurance, it varies per day of training, but should on average be on a constant increasing rate. The yield-point can be a constant value, but the effort to reach the point should be increasing.

I think this approach may raise a few questions like:

• Why would you want to train that kind of mental endurance?
• Is there a relationship between O2- & CO2-schedules in combination to these packed 30’s ?
• Can you use this approach over an existing training, which results in a packed 30-variant of the exercise?
• Is this for approach usable for any freediver?

Jorg will try and answer this in his view on Packed 30’s later this week.