Freediving Technique 101 how to improve your diving and enjoy longer dives

Hello freediving family! Sorry, I haven't posted any videos for the last few weeks But I was over in Bali running a freediving course and then a freediving instructor course, so I was busy. The next one is going to be in early November So if you want the information for that put your email in the comments And I'll send it out to you Or I'm also going to put my email down in the description So you can check that out and ask me some questions. Probably should have shaved before shooting today as well But there are so many more important things than looking pretty. There are a few small things that you can do that will have a Huge impact on your diving. Things like your duck dive, your streamlining as in your body's position in the water And of course the way that you fin. One of you guys actually requested this video in the comments and so here it is. An example of a perfect dive. A dive that will give you a lot of time at the bottom. A dive that will get you down to the Depth you want to be at and have you feeling fresh down there. So the first thing I want to start with is the duck dive. How do we duck dive? Well, there's a simple answer to this and a complex answer. So we're going to start with a simple one first So to duck dive you simply bend from the hips at a 90 degree angle And then you do a few things that can help you get down You can choose to throw one or two of your legs up in the air to help use your body weight to push you down You can do an arm stroke with your hands where you can like pull yourself down with your arms Or you can flick your bum forward and use that momentum to help push you forward or help push you down So that was the simple answer now for the more complex answer What are the forces that propel a person downward when they duck dive? The first is the conversion of horizontal momentum into vertical Momentum. This is the exact same thing that happens to a gymnast when they're doing a back somersault They run, build some speed, they do a round off and land at a 45 degree angle and by doing that they convert their Horizontal momentum into a vertical momentum and they get height to somersault or to flip or whatever they want to do after that They convert horizontal momentum to vertical momentum and we're doing the same thing But instead of going up we're going down. Now we can do this usually in one or two ways We can kick a few times at the surface to build up a little bit of speed which will help us go down Or we can flick our bums forward which also creates a lot of forward momentum Which we then turn into vertical momentum by bending 90 degrees from the hips, but in both cases we are converting Horizontal momentum into vertical momentum. Another force that can help pull us down is by using the weight of our body But I did already touch on that before just like I already touched on how you can do an arm stroke to help pull Yourself down. We also have the effect of our fins Pressing up against the surface of the water which helps push us down This is also why it's really important not to bend your knees when you duck dive Because then you don't get the effect of your fins pressing up against the surface So the truth is is that there are a dozen different ways to duck dive You can throw a leg up into the air. You can fin a little bit onto the surface You can do an arm stroke You can flick your bum forward. The important thing for you to understand is what each of these individual components are Actually doing so that you can find a duck dive that works for you. The next thing is Streamlining. This is the thing Your body will always follow the direction of your head. If you stick your neck out like this When you're finning through the water It means that your back will almost certainly banana and that is a really inefficient way to be moving through the water Alternatively if you keep your head straight not tucked in like this not stuck out like this But just straight You'll allow yourself to be streamlined and cut easily through the water. The issue with this is that you can't see where you're going So I don't recommend that you stay in this position for your entire dive unless you are diving up and down a line So instead you should keep your body in a streamlined position for the first five or ten meters And then after you're down below all that initial positive buoyancy from the surface Then you start to open up and look around. Quick interlude I've just announced on my other social media that in my next course in Bali in November I'm offering one person a free master freediver course and freediving instructor course This person needs to be in a financial situation in which they genuinely could never afford the costs of these Courses and I would love it If this person could continue the good work Teaching other people the essentials of freediving for cheap or reduced or free rates depending on what part of the world they're in and what works For them. The details on how to apply for that are in the description below So what about your finning? The way that long freediving fins are designed to be used or they're designed to be kicked with is from the hip. You drive With the hip. You keep your toes pointed like a ballerina and you keep just enough tension in your knees So that your feet are always the furthest point in front and behind you as you're finning. Your feet always Lead your legs. What we're really trying to avoid here is Bending from our knees in a way that will force us to use our quads and our quadriceps to drive our finning now for anybody That's spearfishing out there this Type of finning where we drive from the hip this will create quite a lot of turbulence in the water and scare away all the fish So it's not going to be something that you're gonna want to do all of the time But if you're spearfishing in some deeper water then you will want to actually kick from the hips to allow you to get down without using so much energy and Then when you're actually hunting or close by to the fish that you're stalking you shift back to your bicycle finning Because that's not going to create turbulence in the water. Because there are so many different muscle groups Involved with finning and it's quite a complex movement It usually takes people quite a bit of time to change or adjust technique. This is usually best done in the pool as well So the best thing that you can do is hop into a pool and just work on your finning technique as you're doing your dynamic Practice or co2 tables or whatever else you like to do in the pool so with a smooth duck dive a Streamlined body position and good finning you'll arrive at the bottom of your dive feeling fresh I hope you found this video helpful. Don't forget to subscribe and share these videos around We are making a strong worldwide free diving community together This is not a one-man job to see some of my previous free diving adventures Click or tap here to see some other tutorials and instructional videos click or tap here Otherwise, I'll see you in the water somewhere. I'm Adam Stern. I hold my breath and dive really deep