I have a love-hate relationship with static.
3 years ago when I started training again, I had little access to a proper pool, so coach Bub from hell made me do a truckload of dry statics: co2 tables, max attempts, FRC sets, O2 sets, high HR statics, and all sorts of combinations of the above.
The first 5 months were not fun, but then my mind gave up resisting and I finally started enjoying it, to the point that my contractions were showing up later and later on every single session, and then eventually I stopped being bothered by them. The few times I had the chance to do wet statics they were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, I thoroughly enjoyed bobbing on the surface, and the lack of weight, and I would drift a million miles away but be “here and now” at the same time. It was bliss.
Then I was finally able to get access to a proper pool and Bub abruptly ended my romance with static as he only prescribed dynamic workouts from that point on. That sure enough improved my dynamic, but my static breath hold deteriorated slowly but steadily until I got back to medium-sucky level: earlier contractions, zero spacing out, hard contraction phase, despair, deeper despair, suicide ideation etc.
Bub wouldn’t hear my complaints, as according to him training static has no positive effect on both deep diving and dynamic training, which are the things I want to be better at, hence to use the limited time I have in the most efficient way, static was unceremoniously thrown out the window. But I really missed that feeling so now and again I have been secretly doing some dry statics, only to realize that play around isn’t enough and that you have to do it with meaning and some dedication. So now I’m here being very conflicted as I have a pool competition coming up and I kinda want to do static but I also don’t wanna suck, and I don’t think I can have both things.
You know how they say that aging makes you more grounded and better at making less emotional decisions and all of that? Yeah, doesn’t really apply to me, maybe I need another decade of hitting my head against a wall before I can learn that.
Are you ready to start a love affair with static?
When a new trainee signs up for coaching I usually give them this static table within the first 1 or 2 week to check where their CO2 tolerance is at, and also to gauge the state of their relationship with static. Try it and write down times and feelings (did you love it, did you hate it, did you enjoy parts of it? Did the contractions freak you out, or was it the short recoveries?)
Here you go
15-30 minutes (depending on experience) of: Inhale and hold until 1-10 contractions (depending on experience), do 1-3 recovery breaths (depending on experience) and hold again, for the length of the table. Always same number of contractions every time and same n. of recovery breaths every time. If you are new at this hold fewer contractions and take more recovery breaths, and do the opposite if you are already experienced. In short it should be challenging but doable.
Something else to work on when you do repetitions of mid-difficulty statics (especially repetitions): you know all those things that bother you when you do static? Like your buddy moving you too fast, or saying the wrong thing, or someone screaming nearby, or children jumping next to you, or too much or too little noise, etc. Pick one of these things and deliberately expose yourself to it, instead of fighting against it or try to ignore it, you want to embrace it, explore it, ask yourself what exaclty bother you so much and try to change your mental approach to it by coming up with a verbal positive response to counteract the negative feeling you have towards it.
Example:
-Buddy moving you abruptly = tell yourself to explore and enjoy this nice feeling of water moving along your face
-Kids splashing around you = listen to the sounds they create, feel your body gently bobbing along with the small waves they make ( I personally really enjoy this, external sounds especially reminds me of the fact that life is carrying on and everything is where and how it is supposed to be, which give me peace).
There is a positive attitude to anything you can possibly come up with, there are also many negative ones, but you can teach yourself to CHOOSE which one you want to see and go with.
Don’t forget that freediving is mostly a mental exercise.
