I am a relatively new freediver, it’s only 3 years since I started training depth with an intention, and I have had most of my depth progression in the first 16 months.
Depth came quickly, and in a fun way and PBs motivated me to stick to the sport, start competing, and finally slowly I started not to feel the impostor syndrome when people referred to me as an athlete. I started freediving with intent in June 2020 when I was diving at 30m and in October 2021 I reached 86m.
But then something happened, I squeezed, and maybe I got scared at the subconscious level, and my progression curve flattened.. my progression for the following 11 months was only 5m.
It was a hit in my ego, but I love being in the water so much that I stuck to the sport regardless.
I often refer to freediving as a tool to get past states of mind, a test to my impulsive and impatient tendencies to want everything and all at once.
The longer freediving tests my patience, the more I am getting tiny, but very sweet gains.
God is in the details they say, and only now that I have repeated 80m about 80 times, I finally start to understand, feel and change some subtle details that I are making a huge difference in my confidence with depth.
So I have written a new depth recipe which I am now using every time, and every time it works so well.
I also understood that relaxation is not a generic mind induced state, but is the result of a mindful cooperation between body and mind, with the mind specifically instructing the body very gentle and simple orders and the body following those orders without delay.
And as I finally understood how to relax deeper, I look forward to explore new depths!