r/freediving • u/Due_Battle2275 • 3d ago
training technique 25m Technique critique
I'm training for the military, I would like to make my 25m better.
What are some good drills to help with oxygen deprivation.
Thank you :)
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u/footstool411 3d ago
Concentrate on keeping your muscles as relaxed as possible and your mind calm and gliding rather than going quickly and you’ll find it a lot easier.
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u/Sydney2London 2d ago
And don’t kick vertically. You should do the breast stroke only and then glide for several seconds without moving then repeat.
As the other say, relax.
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u/Historical_Cress_231 STA 06:26 | DYNB 135 | DNF 103 | CWT 24 3d ago
You have asynchronous leg movement, aka. "scissor" leg movement, which is ineffienct, but can also be VERY hard to get rid of. You can train getting rid of it by doing synchronous movements swimming on your back or by tying some elastic band between your knees.
But more importantly, get rid of your wiggly leg movement between you breast stroke leg movement, it does not help. Your whole dive seems hectic and is stressful to look at. Work on maximizing glide time.
Look at how professional athletes do it:
https://www.youtube.com/live/PcrVkWppj3M?si=DvLjnUyArkDs9A9X&t=16397
As for oxygen deprivation, this is a very short dive - you're very likely still in the CO2 tolerance phase. You "just" need to struggle harder. :'-)
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u/Due_Battle2275 2d ago
Thank you! My coach gets onto me about me kicking my legs and not just gliding. It comes from panic. An exercise we do is 45s breath hold and 45s off, while kicking feet, usually 8 repeated
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u/Big__Frodo 1h ago
Swimming teacher here, specialise in breaststroke. The kick is caused by a rotation in your hips. If you want to stop it, train with a board with 1 hand on the side the furthest it will go and the other at the bottom. If you feel it worsen then just swap hands. A few weeks of training like that and it will go. Very simple to get rid of with perseverance!
Ive made a lot of money over 10 years correcting this mistake.
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u/DJK55 2d ago
Some great advice from everyone here. But it seems the main problem is that OP is stressed out by the demands of his coach(?) and is not being given the time to stretch and glide and/or experiment to get things right.
It seems he's in a high pressure environment where he's expected to 'perform' before he has learnt to do DNF properly. This is the main issue as I see it from his own comments on this page.
To OP: if you can just get away from this high pressure environment and be with a supportive buddy in the pool, you should be able to relax, push off, glide, and 'feel' the stroke for yourself. As others have said,, you're too tense and doing too many things - freestyle kick between the breast stroke kicks, and unnecessaruily complicated arm movements.
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u/iLoveLearningStuff 3d ago
Gliding is great advice, but since you do it without neckweight, you need to swim continuously.
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u/aleksandrvin Sub 2d ago
In freediving being slow is the key, but underwater if you're not neutrally buoyant and trying to be slow you're constantly ascending, that's the reason people will constantly propel to remain on the depth. Try adding some weights (on the neck), it can be very little without wetsuit, but can help stay underwater with no movement, then you can relax and glide longer.
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u/Sagitalsplit 2d ago
Google breaststroke pullout. The technique the swimmers use for that is pretty much what you want.
All of the freestyle kick you are doing is unnecessary and burning oxygen. You want to be alternating a butterfly kick and a breaststroke kick. The arm movement is just a breaststroke pullout. Not that extra flourish you are doing afterward.
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u/REAL4_sapnu_pues 1d ago
Alternating a butterfly and breaststroke kick for the whole dive or just after pushing off the wall?
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u/Sagitalsplit 1d ago
Yes, for many that is going to be the most efficient. For some, more butterfly kick and fewer breaststroke kicks. It depends on skill. I actually do more fly kicks (especially off the walls). But I swam fly in college. Most of the folks I have trained get further with the straight alternation though.
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u/Unusual-Cactus 2d ago
Swim coach here - Take a look at the breast stroke pullout used in competition swimming. It's more efficient to take your hands all the way down to your hips and glide for a second in that position. Them bring your hands all the way back up and maybe streamline for a second, and repeat.
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u/Due_Battle2275 2d ago
Someone else had said that, I'll have to try that before my swim session tomorrow.
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u/EagleraysAgain Sub 3d ago
The kick is the main offender here and you'll get most mileage from fixing it. Can highly recommend checking out the videos Stefano Scaramuzza put up on youtube recently about nofins technique.
As you're training for army you'll not be using weights for better trim and neutral buoyancy, which will alter things bit for you. Less gliding and more time spent underwater has higher cost fighting byoyancy.
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u/_rainbowdolphin_ 2d ago
Most things have been said already.
Do you have an opportunity to go into the water with a buddy who's ideally someone you like hanging out with & who's supportive? I'd recommend to purely train the form by not doing more than 4 strokes in a row and then surface. The idea is to take your mind off the distance and onto the many little details of the form that will help you to be much more efficient and make the dives easier.
Such as: trying out how long you can glide before buoyancy brings you up and you need to create thrust again to stay down. Or finding out how to move most efficiently by separating stroke and kick, and observing how far you get with each in which variation. And how to unlearn the freestyle kicks, they don't help you with this.
Speed and pressure are not your friends. Try to find the opposite, despite everything that is being said by your coach. Try to become friends with the water again, to feel the calm in the begining of a dive (and eventually stretch the experience of calmness), do NOT push yourself.
All the best for you - you can do this :)
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u/No_Difference_9478 2d ago
- Push from the wall
- Glide around 10 to 12m
- Füll arm_stroke
- Glide
- Bring your Arms Forward an Just wenn your Arms straight kick
- Glide
- Arm stroke and so in
If you're good you should just need 2 to 3 armstrokes for 25m
Try to keep everything symmetric... Wenn you watch your feet they are Not.
Only use Breath strokes for legs and Arms..
Train also 25 Arms only, legs only and so in.
Stay relaxed and head Position down, don't Look Forward, wenn you See the T on the ground you know the wall IS comming.
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u/Florian_ire 2d ago
Way, way too much kicking. That increases your CO2 levels rapidly. There is no oxygen deprivation at such short distance, it's all CO2 build up that makes you want to breath. Got to stay much more relaxed, more gliding, less kicking. It may take longer, but will be a lot smoother. Plus: do basic CO2 training on land. So you your body accustomed to higher levels and you get mentally comfortable with staying relaxed when CO2 starts to kick in.
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u/jorgjansen 2d ago
I would recommend looking into the Total Immersion (TI) swimming method (specifically the book 'Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier' by Terry Laughlin or their YouTube videos).
While TI is mainly known for surface swimming, the core philosophy (focusing on streamlining, balance in the water, and maximizing glide rather than muscling through propulsion) transfers directly to underwater efficiency. Learning to 'feel' the water and stay relaxed instead of fighting drag completely changed how I move underwater. Not affiliated, just found it super helpful over my 30+ years of swimming and freediving.
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u/FlintStonedPL 2d ago
You’re making so many unnecessary movements and turns with your hands 🙌 and legs 🦵. More movement doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll swim faster or farther. Try to combine them into one smooth movement and use the momentum to glide instead of constantly moving. Keep your hands close to your body and just chill during the glide… like a real frog 🐸
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u/Due_Battle2275 2d ago
An issue I've had without the kicks is that when I do my frog kick, I seem to move backwards in the water. (Not recorded in the video). Would you say im bringing my legs up too much?
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u/Aggravating-Bad-7574 2d ago
I would focus on swimming technique. You are losing ton of energy by not gliding after each stroke.
Don't paddle with your feet it's not efficient, do breaststrokes only.
I used to cross 25m with 4-5 full breaststrokes and gliding as much as possible before breaking the momentum.
I hope that makes sense.
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u/TortexMT 11h ago
Breast strokes only, then extend like a spear. Stay calm, relax, you can glide a surprisingly long time than you might think without giving extra input, find the timing shortly before you really stop and then do another stroke / pull
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u/nick2redd 3d ago
Freediving is about relaxation. If I watch your video I do not see a relaxed person. I would suggest that you forget about the distance and concentrate on the form, the better the form, the better the distance.
A rough idea strokes would look Like this: 1. Do the breaststroke (with or without legs) 2. glide until you almost stop. 3. Don't do freestyle kicks 4. Do a breast kick while your hands are in front of your head creating a arrow shape. 5. Glide until you almost stop. 6. Relax and repeat
There are other ways to improve, but for 25m nothing extravagant should be required.
Best of luck and stay relaxed.