Training Delainya Kazarian

By Aharon Solomons

Oct

22

In January 2011 I received an application from a young US woman Delainya Kazarian for a freediving course. One of the first things I do with a new student is explore their personal objectives and expectations and their aquatic history. Delainya was a surfer and was interested in improving her breathold in case she was held down by a big one.

But when we discussed her history it emerged that she had been a synchronised swimmer and also a competitive swimmer an excellent pedigree for a freediver !

I had just finished training a young Mexican girl Estrella Navarro Holm, also a Continued…

Belief and Freediving competition

By Aharon Solomons

Oct

19

Just a thought that occurred to me while thinking about athletes I trained for the recent International competition in Greece. Belief is an essential element in mental preparation. Belief is distinct from faith.

I remember in one of the first Competitions, in either Sardinia or Nice, an Israeli competitor had a Blackout in a CWT (Constant Weight) dive. When we were analysing together what went wrong, it emerged that during the warm ups before his dive which had been declared at 47mts, he did a warm up to over 40mts. This was an extraordinary lack of belief in himself, he needed to prove to himself NOW that he could do his dive. Two dives with a short interval close to his maximum were not likely to produce a good result!

First, lets distinguish between what I mean by faith and belief. Faith is when

Continued…