Sometimes in training for personal bests and competition, we find ourselves performing far below our potential. It’s frustrating. What makes it even more confusing is that often, we are in perfect shape—our breath-hold is strong, our technique is sharp—yet something holds us back.
But what is it?!
This phenomenon tends to appear in moments of internal pressure or stress. The conditions are ideal, the pool is quiet, the water is perfect—but still, we struggle to push through. We are not fully in the zone. Not fully committed. Appearently not fully believing in ourselves. But why is this so , when we think we are? We want it so badly. So what is stopping us?
How do I know I am not being present enough?
Its not always too obvious to identify wether we are fully present. Sometimes it is the smallest mistakes—a missed turn, losing count - all little signs that we’re not fully present. Even when we think we are focused, our minds subtly drift to the outcome. And in this moments we are not where we should be. And this is exactly when mistakes creep in. When they add up, they keep us from reaching our true potential. Pressure and stress intensify this effect, especially in competition. But if it happens in training—that’s a good thing!
Every training session, good or bad, is valuable. Don’t blame yourself for a disappointing performance. Just by showing up, you are already ahead. If you do feel frustration, acknowledge it a little bit, but dont hold on to the negative thing for too long. Instead, shift your focus to the positive things from that session. That is where the work starts, we got to reinforce that positive things, so that this are the things we are likely to repeat in the future, not the negative things. We can only have one thought, its your decision if this thought is positive or negative! There is always something to learn, always something that went well. And that’s where your attention should go first.
Learning from the things that did not went well
Was it a technical issue? Do you need more training on specific elements, like turns? Or was it something deeper—stress, lack of focus, pressure? If you can normally execute a perfect turn, but in competition or during a PB attempt you keep missing it, then the mistake is likely not physical but mental. That’s when it’s time to dig deeper.
Understanding the Cause
Mistakes happen for various reasons, but understanding why is crucial for high-quality training. If your training (breath-hold and techique) is normally going really well, but you struggle with long dives, you need to find out, where that resitance is coming from. Without this understanding, your dives will be left to chance. For those who want consistent, predictable performance, it’s essential to understand your individual psyche behind it.
You can push yourself through countless hard workouts, but if your subconscious mind is not aligned with your goals, your body won’t execute what it already knows.
Freediving isn’t just about training the body; it’s about training the mind. You have to work on influencing your performance through mindset and self-image.
Coming closer to what it is
Sit down with yourself and ask yourself a question. It is important that you get super honest with yourself. What do you really believe you can do? And how does it feel? Resistance is any belief or thought that contradicts what we desire. So if you picture yourself in your desire, what you think you are capable of and you feel something holding you back, that is what you got to analyse. What is that feeling, where is it coming from? What were you thinking short before coming up early in your dive... We can visualize, train hard, meditate, diet—but ultimately, we get what we expect!
This is especially true in freediving, where the mental aspect is just as crucial as the physical. The moment contractions set in (especially true for performances in the pool), doubt and anxiety creep in stronger than in any other sport. Instincts kick in, adding another layer of challenge. It’s in that moment—when the dive gets hard—that you must decide: which voice will win? The voice of fear, or the voice of belief and courage?
Surrender vs. Resistance
The choice is ours. Surrendering to the dive instead of resisting it is a skill that can be trained—if we take the time to listen and reinforce what we learn after training, rather than cursing our mistakes or giving up. Next time you finish your pool training, take a moment to think about what went wrong and why. Changing your mindset takes time, but it’s worth it—not just for your sport, but for life too.
In the next article, I will talk about techniques to help you let go of that resistance. This article was about finding what’s holding you back
—
did you figure it out?
Commentaires