Breaking news from the MS Society!

It's been a brilliant 3 days, with news of a huge clinical trial into a potential treatment for MS (and two personal bests)!


Today, I left work and got on the Tube. It was quite late, so there were plenty of free seats and spare copies of the newspaper lying about. I put the 'Manual of Freediving' in my satchel and picked up the Evening Standard to see this story on the front page...





You can click on the picture for a link to the full article.


The MS Society and the UK Stem Cell Foundation are jointly funding a number of studies to investigate whether the use of stem cells can help to slow, stop, or even reverse the damage caused by MS to the brain and spinal cord.


My heart always skips a beat whenever a story like this appears. They appear surprisingly frequently but it's a long and difficult road from clinical trials to an effective and affordable treatment.

When someone you love has MS, you feel so helpless watching as they get progressively more disabled. They can get much worse almost overnight, as in a relapse or attack, or it can be a gradual process. Maybe one day out shopping you notice that their leg is dragging much more than usual, or you see their hands shaking while they try to hold a mug, or you start "hugging" by linking your little fingers, because proper hugs hurt too much. Mum doesn't really open up to me about her feelings about the future of her health (she's intensely private, and that's why I haven't mentioned her more on the blog). I imagine that for Mum, as for the poet Colette Waller who I featured in my last post, it ultimately comes down to being terrified of getting worse.


So the search for better treatments or a cure for MS feels like a race against time for my family. It's fantastic to see charities collaborating to fund international clinical trials into cutting-edge treatments for MS. If there is hope that by the end of these trials a treatment is in sight that might help my Mum, then I have all the motivation I need to get me to 100ft.

To learn more about this particular research, please see the video below:



Yesterday, I managed a PB in Static of 4mins 45sec!

The day before yesterday I managed a PB in Dynamic of 120m!

Sports Coaching and Static :)

It struck me a couple of weeks ago that the 100ft Freedive Challenge is approaching alarmingly quickly! My head was spinning with questions; whether I was training enough, how best to structure my training, where to find information on new techniques, whether anyone was likely to sign up to a meet in October so that the challenge could go ahead, how to budget for some equipment I needed, what safety support would be required...

Fortunately, I received an extremely well-timed email from Mark, suggesting that we set up a few sports coaching sessions in the run-up to the 100ft Freedive Challenge. As you might imagine, I jumped at the chance to talk through some of my questions.

Mark explained to me at our first session that I would be leading the discussion, and emphasised that his role as coach was to help me explore the options open to me, rather than prescribing a particular course of action. At first I was slightly disappointed; a small part of me had hoped that I'd be handed a fail-safe training plan to follow, which would ensure success for the 100ft Freedive Challenge and lots of donations for the MS Society! However, I soon realised that part of what makes freediving so exciting is that it is, in many ways, an individual journey of discovery. I'm wary that I might be straying into "wanky" territory here, so I'll try and explain what I mean:

1. You're on your own at the plate, that's for sure;
2. I would imagine that in such a 'mental' sport, each person's unique psychology would have a significant effect; and
3. There's still lots of scope for experimenting with different approaches to training.

By the end of our first discussion, we'd assessed the current situation, explored the options available and created a plan of action. I left feeling really positive about the progress we'd made. Over the next couple of weeks I drew up a budget, investigated different training options, and eventually drafted a training plan. I then asked for Mark's suggestions, opinions and advice. Mark suggested a number of diffferent approaches for training, including setting up a yoga and meditation session with Mariette and organising the 'Dealing with Diving Demons in Constant Weight' seminar. We're still working on the logistics side of things but there are rumours of an exciting competition setting for the 100ft Freeedive Challenge...

In our second session, we focussed specifically on determining my limiting factor on depth. We discussed the progress I'd made a a result of the 'Dealing with Diving Demons' seminar, considered adjusting my weighting, and decided that I'd experiment with a "no warm-up" or "one warm-up" approach during my next CWT training session. This led to some interesting results...more on this to come.


At training with London Freedivers last week I was paired up for static with Georgina Miller (George). I have to admit to being a bit intimidated at first, since she holds a UK record in this discipline. However, she was really friendly and quickly put me at ease. We decided to do a CO2 table each and I discovered that they're even more relaxing when done in the pool :). Except when the blokes in the next lane are trying to make you laugh during a 30 second breathe-up, of course! George's expert eye was able to see that I held tension in the back of my neck and shoulders and she gently reminded me to relax these parts.

Toward the end of the session, George suggested we try an exercise she had come across on a course run by Umberto Pelizzari. I lay on the surface, breathing gently and tried to completely relax all my muscles. George occasionally asked my to hold my breath and moved me around in the water by applying pressure to different parts of my body. By doing so she was able to identify areas of tension. When she told me to relax my arms, my first thought was that they were already relaxed! By as soon as I turned my mind toward them, I realised that I had bunched up my shoulders and was holding my upper arms stiffly away from my body. She said that I would enjoy my statics more if I consciously relaxed each part of my body, particularly those parts where I tend to hold tension. I'll definitely be trying this next session. I just wish that someone would agree to drag me gently through the water by my arms and legs during static; it's the best relaxation method I've yet come across!

Next time, 'Mandy Mermaid and the Fluffy Contraction Bunnies'!

If only they were this cute!