Depth Requires A High Level Of Control

05/04/2022

Harry Chamas is a professional freediver and one of the top coaches in our sport.
Here's what he told us about self-control in freediving.

"The thing that's kept me going deeper has changed over the years. But I think it’s always been about a level of self-control that you need. Because even to freedive in the first place, from the first time you go down until now, there's a lot of natural instincts that say “this is wrong, don't do this”! First, you learn to control yourself in the way that you do the right thing, even if you're not feeling the right thing, like faking it till you make it sort of thing. And then you'll do the right thing and feel the right way until a point.

But then always when you're doing PBs, when you're pushing those limits, there's gonna be a level of stress. And I'm not saying everybody that goes deep has s**t in the pants, but they do need to handle this stress. There needs to be some sort of stress management. The subconscious knows, the subconscious just wants you to stay alive, have babies, you know...So it's like developing ourselves physically to use the technique, use the right power, right speed, equalize. Then also mentally to stay in the right state of mind. And train in a way where it's possible for you to stay in the right state of mind.

So just the depth alone already requires a high level of control. And then if you are having to do this thing while under influence of narcosis, then it's just a more extreme level of control that you need. It's just the extra little thing that you get once you start going really deep. But you know, you spent the whole time learning how to control your mind, learning how to control the body, not letting external things affect what you do or how you feel. And then, once you start going deep enough, you just get this extra thing. Boom. How do you handle that"?

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