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What makes freediving such a special sport? We usually hear that freediving is 80% mental and 20% physical. If psychology is now acknowledged to be a major success parameter in all sports at a high level, within the realm of freediving psychology is involved right from the beginning and in several different aspects. Thibault Guignes shows us why.
In freediving, you voluntarily stop using one of your vital functions: breathing. Just this part involves a lot of psychology. For most people, it is scary even on dry land. With no proper education, if you try to hold your breath as long as possible, you usually end up with this feeling of suffocating and thinking that if you don’t start breathing again straight away, you are going to die. Now, through a course, with just a description of the symptoms of the urge to breathe and the knowledge that this urge to breathe is not directly connected (at this stage) with our level of oxygen, coupled with a soft exploring approach, people end up achieving great breath holds from the start.
Once we get past the psychological aspect of the urge to breathe, we can add the depth parameter. Most freedivers practice this panicky feeling of suddenly realizing how deep they are and anticipating the long way up. A conservative progression with increasing the depth slowly and only when you feel very comfortable is usually very efficient if you don’t want to experience this feeling. Actually, the more experience you have, the less you should get this feeling as you know your limits better.
In addition, you can add the environment parameter, depending on where you practice. Being in the middle of a vast body of water such as the sea or the ocean can be stressful in itself. Add the luminosity getting lower as you go down (and depending on where you dive, you can be in the dark quickly or with very low visibility). The feeling of not controlling the environment can lead to additional stress. Just a new environment, even when you go towards better conditions, usually takes a few dives or sessions to get used to it, especially if the setup is new to you and your buddies are different from usual. With visualization, you can prepare for it.
These are for me the psychological parameters that are specific to freediving. If you practice freediving as a hobby, those are the ones you will be the most confronted with. Through the diving reflexes, our body is already equipped for quite a few challenges underwater. That’s why if you go past these psychological parameters, you can progress very fast in freediving, whichever your level of fitness. Now, if you are training with objectives of performance, you need to add all the psychological parameters linked to a performance, that you would find in other sports as well. Motivation, self-confidence, objectives setting, being in the moment, and stress management, are some of the things you might want to work on, whether you are looking for personal improvement or if you are planning to compete. And of course, past a certain point, if you want to perform, you cannot neglect the physical preparation. Even if freediving is 80% mental, why not help yourself working also on the 20% left. Everything is easier when you are flexible, fit and your equalization is working.