Dealing with Diving Demons in Constant Weight

You know a seminar’s going to be interesting when it begins by asking the participants whether or not any of them ever hear voices! Mark’s seminar sought to address the negative thoughts that can sabotage your dives; he called them “Diving Demons”. Diving demons can take many forms and are quite personal; mine are a voice in my head telling me to turn and give up on the dive, or a feeling of “I don’t like this, I don’t feel good”, which creeps in half-way through a dive. Someone recently described a dive to me in which they said their “mind was in ‘let's get the hell out of here NOW you idiot’ mode”.

The thing that all diving demons have in common is that they are manifestations of an internal dialogue. One of the more tongue-in-cheek comparisons Mark made, obviously playing to the two ladies in the room, was the debate you have with yourself when you’re about to spend a substantial share of your week’s wages on a pair of shoes!

I’m pretty sure my own diving demons are the only thing stopping me from making better progress in constant weight. It’s not my breath-hold that’s the problem, nor even my scrappy monofin technique. It’s simply that I’m *whispers* scared.

The negative thoughts always occur in the first part of the dive, during the time that I’m expending energy counteracting the positive buoyancy. Sometimes I can dismiss them and relax, but occasionally they’ll follow me all the way down to the plate, or make me turn before it. The strange thing is that as soon as I’ve taken the first few kicks toward the surface, all my negative thoughts vanish and I feel like I could have stayed down there forever! I’ve tried several things which have helped to some extent:
1. static hangs at gradually increasing depths; and
2. turning at the plate and then coming up very slowly, hand over hand.

Mark encouraged us to be receptive to any negative thoughts during warm-up dives. More often than not, these thoughts tend to be a bit diffuse but sometimes it is possible to identify a concrete anxiety or fear. In both cases, Mark suggested that it is helpful to try to counteract the negative thoughts with positive thoughts: for example, by recalling positive experiences and by reasoning that the depth is achievable, that your training has prepared you thoroughly and that you have great support. Resolving the internal dialogue during warm-up dives allows you to approach the “final” dive with a clear head and positive mindset.

He also mentioned that listening to your inner voice may also help you to identify situations where you’re attempting something beyond your limits, for example a 40m dive when you’ve only ever done 25m.

Mark then turned to visualisation of constant weight dives, which can be used as another method of dealing with diving demons. He shared with us his own constant weight dive, breaking it down step-by-step. I picked up a few things that would be useful for me to try, for example, setting alarms to know when to switch into the glide phase and how to make more efficient turns. Mark encouraged us to do a deconstruction of our own constant weight dive, numbering each stage. He advised that we then use visualisation to memorise it. We can draw on the memorised dive to prepare for a good performance in our actual dives since it can contribute to improving our confidence, helping to control anxiety and making the dive seem as though it is one that we have already successfully completed.

He noted that we can also use visualisation during the dive itself by focusing on the next step to be taken, even if that step is to “let go and relax”. Using visualisation during constant weight dives can have the following benefits:
1. You’re less likely to make a mistake during the dive;
2. You’re less likely to have a problem with surface protocol;
3. If your mind is occupied with visualising the next stage of the dive, there is less room for the Diving Demon to distract you!

As always, Mark emphasised that what works for one person may not work for another. He also asked us to try these techniques out during practice, rather than taking them straight to a competition! He then opened the floor to questions. My question for Mark was: “Which part of the dive do you find most stressful?” He finds the time two minutes before the dive most stressful, when there is a lot of activity around him, he can feel the tension in the atmosphere and he is being ushered toward the line. He said that when it gets to one minute before the dive, you have to mentally commit to the dive and it gets less stressful from that moment on.

I asked one of the experienced freedivers for his take on the seminar and he said that he found it really interesting to listen to Mark’s point of view. He observed that freediving is often seen as a “dark art” sport, where you have to learn something that makes you super-human. He felt that we don’t share the simplicity of the sport enough and that talking about it helps.

I have to say, I now feel ready to get back in the water and slay those diving demons Buffy-The-Vampire-Slayer-style. Bring on freediving at Salfree this weekend!

After the lecture we had a great pool session. It was particularly nice to have Harry, who lives in Birmingham, come and play! His DNF is pretty amazing. Congratulations go out to Tom, who made a personal best of 30m CWT last weekend, during possibly the rainiest weekend of freediving ever seen! For those of you who don’t remember or aren’t regular readers, Harry and Tom were on my AIDA** and are now my regular diving buddies.

Lastly, I thought I’d post my spirometry results. I haven’t had time to make much sense of them yet, but maybe someone out there can shed some light on them.