5 Ways to Prepare for your Intermediate Freediving Course

By Kristina Zvaritch

The time has come! You’re a certified Lap/Wave 1 freediver (or equivalent from another agency) and ready to continue your freediving journey to become a Lap/Wave 2 student. You want to increase your chances of success and make sure you can absorb all of the new information, but you aren’t sure how to do it. Doing training sessions between courses with an instructor definitely helps - but not everyone has access to an instructor, a training buddy, or even open water. So how can you prepare for the Lap/Wave 2 course on your own?

Before your Lap/Wave 2 freediving course, there are five specific things you can work on to prepare yourself and improve your likelihood of success. You can work on breathing techniques (3-section breathing control, visualization, and lung exercises), CO₂ tolerance, mobility, equalization, and dry exercises for technique. Luckily, Canadian National Record Holder and Molchanovs W4IT Matthieu Duvault covers all of these topics in his Base Training + program: Intermediate Freediving Preparation.

Breathing techniques

While freediving is all about the art of holding your breath, proper breathing techniques will make your breath-holds more effective! You can work on 3-section breathing (belly, upper abdominals, and chest), learn about and understand how to perform visualizations of your dives, and work on full lung and empty lung stretches. All these exercises can be completed in the dry, on your own time, and at your own pace with Intermediate Freediving Preparation, and they will have a BIG impact on your freediving!

CO₂ Tolerance

As annoying as the effects of CO₂ build-up and contractions are on your dives, they are entirely natural! To stop letting CO₂ keep you from longer dives, you must have a better understanding of the urge to breathe and learn to control it without discomfort. Building CO₂ tolerance is a never-ending adventure, and Matt’s guided static can help you overcome those fears and perceived limitations.

Mobility

Mobility is essential for freediving - luckily, it must be worked on in the dry and doesn’t require a buddy! In freediving, you need a lot of shoulder mobility for the arrow position and no-fins dives, along with ankle, hip, spine, and pelvis mobility for bifin and monofin technique. Stretches and exercises need to be approached in a slow and progressive manner to avoid injuries, which is something Matt focuses on in his program.

Equalization

Frenzel equalization doesn’t come easy for everyone! Clean technique is essential, and with that comes the need to have control over your glottis, larynx, and soft palate. Matt goes over all these, explaining the T, K, and P locks and giving you exercises to practice them. This would also be the perfect time to invest in the EQ Trainer, a helpful equalization tool for beginners learning and training Frenzel and for advanced divers working on their mouthfill technique.

Dry Exercises for Technique

Come to class as prepared as you can be by mastering diving techniques beforehand! Matt includes plenty of videos with helpful analysis to understand what you need to focus on doing with your body during your dive. While you might not be able to work on these techniques in the water yet, you can prepare for your Lap/Wave 2 course by practicing exercises on dry that help you with your flutter kick, monofin technique, arrow position, no-fins arm and leg pulls (and their timing), and Free Immersion technique.

Invest in Success

If you have limited time to complete the Lap/Wave 2 course or have to travel far to reach the water, it’s a must to prepare yourself as best as you beforehand. Invest in yourself and your success by purchasing Matt’s Intermediate Freediving Preparation course, which is priced at 100USD. Molchanovs Movement Members with access to Base Training, as well as Molchanovs instructors, get a 20% discount and can purchase his program for 80USD. If you would like more access to Base Training programs and deals on Base Training + programs, consider completing Base Training Induction Online (BTIO) to take advantage of the knowledge of the top freedivers in the world. Train like a pro by approaching progress in a structured and guided manner and take pleasure in rediscovering your limits!

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