Relaxing before dive

Hello.

A free diver from Okinawa.Like thisis.

This time, I wanted to talk about what I felt while continuing free diving.relaxI would like to talk about...

If you have ever learned to freedive, or wanted to improve your skin diving skills, you may have heard or seen this:Relax"

Relaxation is the key

Relaxation is a very important skill when holding your breath and diving underwater. That's why you often hear about it when freediving. However, this is actually surprisingly difficult,Relaxation is a tip in itselfI think it's fair to say that this is the case. I've come to think this way as I've continued freediving.

Not exerting unnecessary force makes it easier to breathe, makes holding your breath easier, makes it easier to equalize your ears, and helps prevent injury when underwater due to the stress of water pressure. If you can master the trick of relaxation, you will be able to reproduce these things more easily.

Relaxation Level

However, this relaxation is not just about relaxing.In fact, there are levels.

As I continued freediving and increased the depths I could dive to, there were three times when I felt that my level of relaxation had increased.

In my case, it was when I successfully dived to depths of 33m, 50m, and 63m.Before reaching each of these depths, I had failed many times. However, the reasons were not always the same. I felt short of breath, had problems equalizing my ears, got scared, felt uncomfortable during the dive, etc. However, these were indirect causes. The direct cause was that I was not able to relax, so after each successful dive, I realized that "I had not been able to relax to the extent that I needed to."

Physical relaxation

First of all, not being able to relax physically means that you are exerting unnecessary force on your body, which directly affects the time it takes to hold your breath. Also, if you are not able to maintain a proper posture, you may encounter a lot of resistance in the water, which can lead to a longer dive time.

Furthermore, excessive tension can inhibit the flexibility of the throat, lungs, diaphragm, etc. As a result, you may not be able to equalize your ears properly, and trying to equalize your ears too much can put you at risk of hurting your throat or lungs.

Physical relaxation can help minimize these risks.

In my case, when I want to relax my body, I focus on my breathing. I imagine my body as a tree or a flower, and the air as water. I focus on my breathing while imagining the roots that run throughout my body spreading water to every corner of my body.😌Some people try to breathe as if they were going to sleep, and although each method is different, it's a good idea to try different things to help you relax. While concentrating on your breathing, if there are any parts of your body that feel tense, try tensing them and then releasing the tension.

Mental relaxation

When I dive to a depth that I am not yet familiar with, I feel anxious about various things about the dive. If I cannot resolve these anxieties, I will not be able to take a proper final breath before diving, I will feel uncomfortable while diving, I will tense up strangely, and I will not be able to dive to my satisfaction.

So what we do is to clarify what we are feeling anxious about, one by one, and come up with measures to make sure that we are okay with each of them. If we no longer have the constant anxiety factors, we can become conscious of breathing calmly, and gradually relax mentally. If we can relax mentally, we will naturally relax physically as well.

Narrow down what you need to focus on

There are actually many things to worry about before diving, such as not being used to free diving itself, diving to an unfamiliar depth, multiple challenges during submersion and surfacing, etc. While being aware of what you need to do, you may also be concerned about other things, and if you try to do all of these things in one dive, you will often find that you are not able to relax.

I think that by focusing on one thing you want to tackle and letting go of everything else, you will be able to have more relaxed dives. In my case, I have continued training by focusing on one problem each time I dive and one problem each time I surface.

If you can narrow down what you need to concentrate on and improve the reproducibility of relaxed dives, you should be able to make steady progress with each dive.

lastly

I myself will also be thinking, "Not yetI still wasn't relaxed enough." There will be times when you feel like this. Dive time and depth you can go to will vary depending on theI think this will be an easy-to-understand measuring stick.

I'm sure that if you read this post, you will be able to relax at a higher level than you are now. If you are still struggling to reach your desired depth, I think the next step would be to try out different ways to relax and find your own method and tricks for relaxation, rather than focusing on your skills.