William Trubridge on the psychology of Freediving

In freediving, as in any sport, there is always going to be a day when every smallest event, from the moment you wake up, seems designed to throw you off by means of frustration or distraction.
Whether it’s negative incidents, or just your mood casting a dark shadow, the reaction is the same: that voice, that scared and lazy sluggard, who is normally regulated to a soundproof corner of our minds, escapes to niggle and gnaw at our resolve.
This even happened to me the day of a world record attempt.

I started the day in a foul mood, and it seemed everything conspired to keep me in it.  I was left without a ride to the dive site, then had equipment problems, and in the last minute I missed the timekeeper’s call, and swallowed some of my air as I rolled over to start the dive.
All these are reasons we might give ourselves for aborting a dive, and the lazy/scared voice will be standing on its pulpit ready to take command.
But at this point you must be able to turn off the conscious mind and operate completely on autopilot, confident in the actions and contingent decisions you have programmed into your unconscious mind.  If you cannot turn off the rational, analytical mind then neither will you be able to turn off the pestering, pessimistic voice that shadows it – he will follow you all the way, ‘blah-blah-blahing’ until you either give up early or perform poorly because of a lack of concentration.
We do however need to be able to distinguish between trivial detail (you cut your finger and the salt water makes it sting) and conditions that actually impact on performance (you have a bad knee and don’t have full power in the leg kick).

As I settled into the freefall on my way to 88m I felt the bad energy that had surrounded my preparation slip away – it was superficial and therefore stayed on the surface.  Beneath everything else I knew little had happened which would have impacted my physiological state, and that’s all that mattered.
After the turn at the bottom, both negative thoughts – “you’re not going to make it!” – and positive – “if you make it you’ll have a new world record!” – tried to clamber up into my attention, but the trick is to be bored with them before they even begin.
Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter now – the dive has already been decided long ago… â€¨The bonus is that I have never been so happy at the conclusion of a world record, precisely because I had to overcome adversary (the hardest kind – the internal adversary) in order to achieve it.
If you are able to get past bad initial circumstances and slip back into that passive and detached state (the zone) that accompanies a perfect dive or sporting performance, then the future effect is paramount: confidence blooms and your competition performance rises to meet your training results.  The reverse is also true.  Every time you succumb to that despairing voice you will fuel your own fussiness and superstition.
Learn to distinguish between instinct and anxiety.  The more often you get it right the deeper you will bury the sluggard, until his complaining voice will be shut off for good.  Confidence comes from beating the inner adversary.

Written by William Trubridge

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