ADVANCED
RV Speciality Coaching: Adaptive Coaching - the safest, most effective, practical way to depth
Adaptive ‘RV’ (Residual Volume) dive training, or ‘Empty Lung’ diving, championed by Aharon Solomons, is the key to depth in freediving, if that’s what you are looking for. It is the way to train the human physiological response to pressure and to instill the most powerful reflex we have, as freedivers. However, this exclusive and intense but beautiful period of training isn’t for the faint hearted, meaning that it isn’t for anyone who isn’t prepared to sacrifice all other freediving on full lungs, for a certain amount of time, to just that, emptying the lungs. That statement alone might seem a contradiction to those desiring the deep but with the right coaching, precision and feedback, it is the safest, most powerful, effective, and practical way to adapt the lungs and ears with the refined equalisation that it requires, to pressure at depth.
The prevailing approach to advanced freedive training to depth, is obviously based on full lung dives. It’s what most coaches are likely to suggest and although the meter by meter advance offers a safe progression, session by session this takes time, is less effective, and leads to fatigue, eventually limiting how many times you can effectively train.
RV training, as simple and as safe as it is, has been totally misunderstood and underestimated and as a result, overlooked probably because from the outset, adapting to extreme pressure at the surface, might feel brutal and so by default, can only start shallow. RV dives are initially, mentally much more challenging, because of the discomfort of the lungs being exposed to immediately higher pressure, and because, even with experienced freedivers, equalisation typically fails in the first few meters. As a result, in the first few sessions most dives won’t be more than a few meters and in a game where numbers count, the perceived results are that the training isn’t advancing fast enough or deep enough, interest wanes and the freediver drops out. With this training and the techniques involved in training the dive reflex, empty lung dives cannot be interspersed with full lung dives, so returning to what’s familiar, i.e. full lung or passive exhale, (FRC / Functional Residual Capacity) dives, might apparently feel more productive .
How wrong could that be!
If you are a freediver with a serious interest in human physiology and enough curiosity to want to understand how the human dive reflex is best triggered and why once it’s there it stays, then RV training is the most effective way to do it. With collaborative efforts, both Aharon and I have developed a revolutionary RV coaching program which has already gained accolades with the Chinese male and female freediving depth record holders as well as with other impressive achievements on the world competition circuit. When I was able to dedicate a few weeks exclusively to RV training, I achieved in a few deep sessions an unofficial Free Immersion world record dive to 72.5m in a 5mm suit with 4kgs of weight. It took a comfortable 3 minutes and I still had the equalisation and time for more.
I invite you to sign up to come and learn with me. With my help you will encounter probably the deepest connection to the ocean and to yourself that you could ever have imagined, and depth will come with the least struggle. For me, it has been the most incredible journey and where magic happens.
You can read more about enhancing your performance through tailored Breathwork training sessions here.
A pre-discussion is essential for this program.
This non certification introductory course is perfect for anyone interested in gaining more confidence in and under the water. It will provide you with a deeper understanding of how to breathe, and the power of different breathing exercises, the details of how to equalise effectively and how to perform a fluid duck-dive to enter into your first freedive experience.
Duration 2 days
- 3 hrs basic freedive theory
- 3hrs of practical dry exercises.
- Revision of the breathing techniques.
- Extended confined water session.
- Static Apnea.
- Duckdive and entry techniques.
- Optional extra freedive sessions from the boat with line and buoys
$275 USD per day. (boat fees included)
- Optional extra freedive sessions from the boat: $150 USD p/p per day. (boat fees included)
- Wetsuit, $8 USD
- Weight belt and weights: $8 USD
- Freedive fins: $10 USD
- Mask & Snorkel: $8 USD
An introduction to freediving skills that will prepare you for depth. Designed to provide practical techniques for safe freediving and increase your confidence underwater.
You will learn how to breathe correctly before you freedive and on surfacing, the importance of relaxation for improving your breath-hold and to understand the differences in equalization techniques. You will also be introduced to duck dive, better finning, and basic partnerwork and safety techniques.
Duration 2 days
- 4 hours of theory
- 2 hours of dry practice
- 1 Open water day
- Boat fee included
- Extra freedive sessions from the boat with line and buoys
$275 USD per day.(boat fees included)
- Boat fee included
- Certification fee: included.(boat fees included)
Practical dry exercises
Group price: $ 75 USD pp;
The main objective of AIDA 2 is to become more familiar and less reactive to the unfamiliar sensations of the deeper pressure environment creates in us and to develop a set of mental skills that will allow us to approach depth with confidence. It deals more specifically with safety at depth, and will develop your skills in Static and Dynamic apnea.
- 2 theory sessions and exam
- 2 days on the open water, (depth, static and dynamic training).
- Comfortable progress to 20m
- Individual course price: $ 650.00 USD
- 2 – 4 students: $460.00 USD per person.
- Certification fee: included
- Boat Fees $150USD per day
This course, as well as teaching the principles of specific and non-specific training, CO2 & O2 tables, deep safety and rescue skills, will improve your confidence, teach you how to exploit the power of relaxation and increase your performance to enjoy longer, deeper dives.
At this level we establish a protocol for each freedive so progress to depth becomes a consistent, and instinctive mental and physical response.
“Project the game ahead of you, 3 seconds at a time!”
The purpose of sequencing each stage of the freedive is to help concentrate your mind on each moment and take your mind off of the goal of depth. This sequence of ‘building blocks’ sets up the freedive from the first part of the descent, culminating in the free-fall or ‘sink phase’ and then the return. This structure, trained to proficiency is the groundwork for progressing to the depth of your choice.
- 2 theory sessions and exam
- 2 days open water
- 1 confined water session
- Comfortable progress to 28m
- Individual course price: $ 690.00 USD
- 2 – 4 students: $490.00 USD per person.
- Certification fee: included
- Boat Fees $150 USD per day
If you choose to continue on to this course you would have committed more fully than at any other level, to both the mental and physical challenge to ‘dive into yourself’.
Included are the more highly skilled strategies for depth including ‘mouth-fill’, ‘RV’, Residual Volume’ dives, and Variable Weights for inurement to pressure at depth and continued familiarization with the ‘free-fall or ‘sink phase’ as the essential ingredient for energy efficiency. In addition to this, the course touches on certain more profound aspects of sports psychology and
discusses lifestyle, and the dietary and nutritional changes that are beneficial to freediving.
By this stage, you will have understood the principles of structure inherent in each freedive, its precise mechanical skills combined with the ‘no-mind concept of, ‘concentration – de-concentration’, first coined by the queen of freediving, Natalia Molchanova, dependent on total relaxation.
You will learn the rules that govern freediving, the discipline of the practice and finally, to relinquish form, ‘let go’ and fall into a state of flow.
- 1 day Theory & exam
- 4 days Open Water
- Comfortable progress to 40m
- Individual course price: $ 999.00 USD
- 2 – 4 students: $780.00 USD per person.
- Certification fee: included
- Boat Fees: $150 per day
As a result of the high performance levels required to become an instructor we recommend that after completing the advanced level an aspiring freedive instructor should take the time to develop the skills necessary to train for safety and comfort at depth as well as dedicating equally as much time to becoming a keen and strong observer and communicator to be able to qualify as a more than just competent teacher
The Instructor Assistant Stage course duration, is based on acquiring those skills, being assessed on them at intervals and in completing the requirements
The Instructor intensive course is to work towards the required minimum level of personal performance established by AIDA, in the determined number of days, to familiarise each instructor with all the levels of courses and procedures and promote an understanding of the ethics of instruction.
The course does not allow for specific depth training. Each applicant should arrive capable or close to the training depth of 50m required by AIDA. The purpose of this course is to teach how to improve your teaching skills and does not guarantee that the instructor in training achieves the depth required for completing the certification.
- 3-days minimum Open Water
- Req. Depth: 50m
- Individual Course price $2,800USD
- 2 – 4 students: $1,800.00 USD per person.
- Certification fee: included
- Boat Fees not included