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(Amanda Tran, wearing Molchanovs, captured by Curtis Tredway)
Freediving isn’t just about physical endurance; it’s a complex blend of physical, technical, and mental skills. While many freedivers focus on training their bodies, the mental side of the sport is equally important. Properly managing the urge to breathe, especially during contractions, can lead to more relaxed and enjoyable dives.
In this blog, we’ll break down how to systematically train for delayed contractions and develop mental resilience to improve your freediving experience.
What Are Contractions and Why Do They Matter?
Contractions are your body’s natural response to rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels during a breath hold. These involuntary muscle spasms are your brain's way of signalling that it's time to breathe. Although they can be uncomfortable, learning to delay and manage them is essential for better freediving.
Think of training contractions in zones, as stated by Molchanovs:
Zone 1: No discomfort; diving feels easy.
Zone 2: Mild urge to breathe, with slight contractions for a few seconds.
Zone 3: More intense contractions for up to 30 seconds, requiring focus to stay relaxed.
Zone 4: Stronger urge to breathe lasting 40-50 seconds.
Zone 5: Sustained contractions for about a minute, challenging your mental endurance.
Zone 6: Prolonged contractions over 70 seconds, pushing you to your limits.
Delaying the onset of contractions helps extend your dive time while maintaining a calm state of mind. If you’re struggling to improve on your own, our online coaching program offers personalised training plans to help you build your CO2 tolerance and manage contractions effectively.
The Key to Mental Preparedness: Train Specifically for Freediving
Mental preparation is often misunderstood in freediving. While techniques like meditation or visualisation are useful, they aren’t a substitute for training in the water. To build mental strength that directly benefits your dives, your training needs to mirror the actual demands of freediving.
Defining Mental Preparedness for Freediving Mental preparedness means staying calm, confident, and focused during a dive. It’s the ability to maintain your composure and execute your skills efficiently, even as discomfort or anxiety sets in. Being mentally prepared reduces pre-dive nerves and helps you manage challenging sensations underwater.
Why Most Freedivers Struggle with Mental Preparation
Freedivers often look outside the sport for mental training, relying on methods like mindfulness or positive affirmations. While these can help develop general mental resilience, they don't provide the specific skills needed to handle the unique demands of freediving.
For true mental training, you need to build your capacity in the water by simulating the conditions of your goal dives. Just as a runner would train by running rather than visualising the finish line, a freediver should train by diving to develop relaxation, focus, and resilience.
Effective Methods for Delaying Contractions
To delay the urge to breathe, focus on these practical strategies:
1. CO2 Tolerance Training
Improving your CO2 tolerance is crucial for managing the urge to breathe. By gradually increasing your exposure to higher CO2 levels, you can adapt your body to handle the discomfort of contractions more efficiently.
Begin with CO2 Tables: This involves performing breath-holds with progressively shorter recovery times. For example, start with 1:30 rest, and then reduce it by 10 seconds for each successive breath-hold. The shorter recovery times build your tolerance gradually.
Avoid Going Too Far, Too Fast: Stay just below your contraction threshold during these exercises to build tolerance safely without overwhelming your body.
Beginners: Stick with zone 1-3
Intermediate: 80% zone 1-4, occasional performance beyond.
Advanced: 80% zone 2-5, occasional push to zone 6
2. Breath Holds with Mild Discomfort
Train yourself to get comfortable with the feeling of an urge to breathe by ending your breath-holds just as you start to feel the first signs of discomfort. The goal is to become familiar with that sensation without pushing into a stressful state.
Zone Training: Use a structured approach to get used to different levels of CO2 buildup. For example:
Zone 1-2: Stay relaxed and stop before contractions.
Zone 3-4: Hold through mild contractions, training your mind to stay calm.
Zone 5-6: Gradually expose yourself to longer contractions to build mental resilience.
Note: 80% of your training should be done between zones 1 - 4. This is the trick to being able to delay your contractions and reduce pre-dive tension.
3. Simulate Real Dive Demands
Create training scenarios that closely resemble your target dives. If you’re aiming for a long breath-hold or distance swim, practice combinations of shorter static breath-holds followed by swims. This approach mimics the mental and physical demands of your goal, helping you build confidence and endurance.
For example, if your target dive is 100 meters, you might perform a 30-second static breath-hold, followed by a 70-meter swim. This technique helps condition both the body and mind for the experience of the full dive.
For example, If you're preparing for your SSI Freediving Instructor course and need to complete the 3x25m depth dives with a 1-minute recovery, consider training and simulating similar dives to boost your confidence. Start by working up to a 5x50m dynamic swim in the pool, with a 1-minute recovery between sets. Alternatively, you can begin with 3x50m swims, maintaining a 1-minute recovery, and then progressively reduce the recovery time—first to 55 seconds, then 50 seconds, 45 seconds, and so on. By simulating drills that closely match the performance requirements and making them slightly more challenging, you'll be mentally prepared going into the actual performance.
Creating a Balanced Training Plan
To truly optimise your freediving, incorporate a variety of exercises targeting physical, technical, and mental aspects:
Physical Conditioning: Build endurance and strength through regular cardiovascular and strength training exercises.
Technical Training: Focus on perfecting skills like equalization, finning, and streamlining.
Sport-Specific Mental Training: Use structured underwater exercises to develop the capacity to stay calm and focused under stress. This may include:
Repeated breath-holds with specific goals.
Gradual CO2 tolerance building.
Visualisation techniques after in-water training sessions to reinforce what you experienced.
Recognising When You’re Not Mentally Prepared
To determine if your mental training is working, watch for these signs of under-preparedness:
Trouble Sleeping Before a Dive: Feeling nervous or restless indicates a need for more mental conditioning.
Long Pre-Dive Breath-Ups: If you spend excessive time trying to mentally prepare just before a dive, it may be a sign you’re not ready.
Inconsistent Performance on Big Dives: If you find that you need to repeat personal best attempts to feel good about them, it suggests a lack of proper mental training.
If you’re noticing these signs, it’s time to get professional guidance. Our online coaching services offer expert support to help you overcome mental barriers and dive with confidence.
How Our Online Coaching Can Help You Master Mental Preparedness
At Deep Sensations Freediving, we specialize in helping divers at all levels build physical, technical, and mental skills. Our online coaching program offers:
Customised Training Plans: Tailored exercises designed specifically for you to optimise your mental, physical, and technical capabilities.
1-on-1 Coaching: Personal feedback and guidance from experienced instructors who understand your goals.
Comprehensive CO2 Training: Structured CO2 tolerance exercises that are progressively challenging, making it easier to delay contractions and extend dive times.
Ready to Take Your Freediving to the Next Level? Sign up for online coaching today and start working on personalized strategies to help you delay contractions and master your mental preparedness.
Freediving Is a Holistic Discipline
Mental training isn’t about doing more visualization or self-talk. It’s about systematically building mental, physical, and technical abilities through goal-specific freediving exercises. By training smarter and working with the right experts, you can dive deeper, stay underwater longer, and truly enjoy the freediving experience.
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