Category

Freediving Coaching

Mari-Ann Kucharek
In Freediving Coaching

Freedive Fundamentals (Beginner Level)

BEGINNER

Freedive Fundamentals

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.

We swim out from shore and stay in a comfortable, safe confined environment.

Prices for private and group sessions are available upon request.

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If a student excels in this first session and shows competence for more depth and feels they would like to explore further, they may purchase an additional day’s training session to be made from the boat. Kindly note that this option will only be offered subject to the MT’s availability and her discernment of the student’s competence.

Limited equipment rental options are available.

Group size for this class may be up to 6 people.

If you would like to complement your Freedive Fundamentals training with tailored Breathwork training sessions to better manage your emotions and psyche, please click here.

Duration: 1.5 days

1st Day (half day)

  • 3 hrs basic freedive theory
  • 1 hr practical dry exercises
2nd Day

  • Revision of the breathing and frenzel techniques
  • Extended confined water session
  • Static Apnea
  • Duckdive and entry techniques
Mari-Ann Kucharek
In Freediving Coaching

Equalisation Clinics

ALL LEVELS

Equalisation Clinics

Beginner Level Check

Duration: 75 minutes

Before beginning your freediving course this check, in person, by phone or on Zoom, will help resolve problem issues and will provide you with techniques and exercises to practise before your arrival. You will learn the frenzel technique and we’ll make sure you are able to perform it correctly for effective freediving before you even get in the water.

Coaching fees upon request.

Boat fees will be extra.

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Advanced Level

Duration: minimum one month over Zoom/call/Whatsapp

Using the nose clip, we will learn how to refine your mouthfill. Following that we will move into air retrieval while practising RV dives for enurement to pressure at depth.

For specific problem solving contact me for personal one-on-one coaching sessions.

Coaching fees upon request.

Boat fees will be extra.

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Mari-Ann Kucharek
In Freediving Coaching

RV Speciality Coaching (Advanced Level)

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.

Contact Me

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.

Download course plan

Duration 2 days

1st Day

  • 3 hrs basic freedive theory
  • 3hrs of practical dry exercises.
2nd Day

  • Revision of the breathing techniques.
  • Extended confined water session.
  • Static Apnea.
  • Duckdive and entry techniques.
Individual Course price: $320 USD

  • Optional extra freedive sessions from the boat with line and buoys
    $275 USD per day. (boat fees included)
Group Course price :$195.00 USD p/p.

  • Optional extra freedive sessions from the boat: $150 USD p/p per day. (boat fees included)
Equipment Rental per day

  • 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
Individual course price: $390.00 USD

  • Boat fee included
  • Extra freedive sessions from the boat with line and buoys
    $275 USD per day.(boat fees included)
2-4 students: $240.00 USDp/p

  • Boat fee included
  • Certification fee: included.(boat fees included)
Duration ½ day
Practical dry exercises
Individual course price: $150 USD;
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.

Duration: 3 days

  • 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.

Duration: 3 & 1/2 days

  • 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.

Duration: 5 days

  • 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

Email us for training opportunities and prices.

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.

Duration: 9-12 days and 40 hours of learning.

  • 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
Mari-Ann Kucharek
In Freediving Coaching

Transformational Breathwork Sessions

OPEN TO ALL

Transformational Breathwork Sessions

Freedive Performance Enhancement

I am a trained 9D Transformational Breathwork facilitator and offer full 75 – 90 minute Breathwork sessions adapted specifically to help freedivers up their game, as far as creating a safe space for releasing any pent up performance anxiety nerves or for down regulating the nervous system to realign with a parasympathetic rather than sympathetic response during pre-competition training and/or the competition day itself.

I’ve integrated some short Breathwork and breath hold training sessions into the courses and training, to set the stage for your experience with breath as gateway to your mind.

In addition to the benefits outlined here, I also offer shorter versions adapted for children and adolescents to become more aware of the power that breathwork is, especially when dealing with emotions and psychology.

You can choose to recharge the day with the shorter practices, or choose as an extra option, to explore one or several of the 9D Transformational Breathwork modules, developed to take you deeper into yourself, during your freedive stay here with me.

Please contact me for more information including upcoming dates.

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9D Breathwork

9D Breathwork is a groundbreaking approach to wellness and healing that leverages the most advanced aspects of Breathwork, enriched with a multi-dimensional sound experience.

9D Breathwork opens a pathway directly into the subconscious mind, the driver of 98% of all human behaviour, skillfully transmuting internal blocks into sources of immense personal power, all the while working with the body’s innate intelligence to release trapped energy from the nervous system, creating a clean slate. Through a combination of breath, sound, and guided visualisation, the method induces a hypnotic state. It slows brainwave frequencies to allow for an inward journey where the subconscious becomes more receptive to change.

9D Breathwork is structured to create a holistic experience that addresses and nurtures the individual’s physical, mental, and emotional aspects, making it a comprehensive tool for personal transformation and healing.

It incorporates the following 9 Dimensions:

  1. *Immersive 9-dimensional breathwork experience* enhanced by surround sound
  2. *Binaural beats* are expansive sounds that calm, relax and awaken our consciousness.
  3. *Solfeggio frequencies* help maintain the body’s energy centers open.
  4. *Isochronic beats* are single tone beats that improve our mental ability.
  5. *432 Hertz* sounds reduce anxiety, lower heart rate and blood pressure, improve our perception and mental clarity, and develop our intuition.
  6. *Somatic breathwork* increases our awareness to our body.
  7. *Subliminal subconscious messages* enhance our awareness by deep concentration and focused listening.
  8. *Vocal guidance* provides support and safety throughout the journey.
  9. *Acoustic sound effects* reduce stress and anxiety levels, enhance well-being, concentration and productivity, improve the learning ability and interpersonal communication, as well as decrease BP.

Whether your goal is stress reduction, self-healing, or simply seeking relaxation, breathwork offers something for you.

Engaging in breathwork on a regular basis has proven to offer numerous benefits across various aspects of our well-being. Here’s a look at some of the key advantages:

  • Stress and Anxiety Reduction: Facilitates relaxation and soothes the nervous system.
  • Physical Health Boost: Enhances blood circulation and oxygen levels, supports detox processes, aids in digestion, and bolsters immune system health.
  • Mental Health Improvement: Elevates mood, and sharpens concentration, memory, creativity, focus, and energy.
  • Spiritual Awareness Growth: Deepens the connection with one’s body, mind, emotions, and spirit.

For beginners, guided breathwork sessions are highly recommended due to the numerous advantages of having a seasoned guide. These sessions eliminate the guesswork of navigating the practice, allowing for quicker learning and deeper understanding.

Guided breathwork not only enhances focus, particularly for those seeking to clear their minds of distractions, but it also suits individuals apprehensive about remaining still for extended periods. Through these sessions, participants engage in deep breathing exercises while following along with an audio guide, which meticulously leads them through each step, enabling a distraction-free focus on breathing. This aspect makes guided breathwork a valuable tool for those who find traditional meditation or mindfulness practices challenging.

During a guided breathwork session, participants follow instructions from an audio guide, detailing when to breathe in and out, maintaining focus throughout the exercise. The instructor provides clear directions for each stage, offering feedback to enhance the practice. Designed for relaxation and enjoyment, these sessions are brief, typically ranging from 15 to 30 minutes.

No special equipment is necessary for participating in guided breathwork. A comfortable spot to sit or lie down and a pen or pencil for taking notes post-session may be beneficial. Headphones are provided for an immersive experience.

The frequency of guided breathwork practice is flexible and tailored to individual preference. While some find daily sessions beneficial, others opt for less frequent practice. Choosing a guided breathwork routine that best suits your needs is crucial.

9D Breathwork provides guidance on integrating breathwork into daily life, offering guided sessions as an accessible tool for incorporating this practice.

Please contact me for more information including upcoming dates.

 

CONTACT ME
Mari-Ann Kucharek
In Freediving Coaching

AIDA Courses and certifications

ALL LEVELS

AIDA Courses and certifications

I offer group and private courses, as well as certifications & crossovers with the freediving organisation AIDA, training students from basic through to instructor level. I also offer personal training and coaching. My main focus  is to help you achieve comfort and freedom in the water, so you stay safe, inspired and capable of independently developing your skills further. 

If you decide that you’d like to dedicate more time and energy to your personal training just get in touch to discuss the time-frame that suits you best.

I normally begin with a casual interview by email followed by a video-call to assess your overall goals, the course level you need and to discuss the more specific problem, training technique or depth you want to pursue. Whether you’re taking a formal course, or personalised training, the focus for each session is to define and work on the techniques you most need, and to encourage you in your progress.

You can use my specialised Breathwork training sessions at any level of the AIDA training journey to take yourself deeper psychologically and emotionally. Read more about them here.

Prices for private or group sessions are based on your level of experience.

AIDA 1 Introduction to Freediving

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 equalisation techniques. You will also be introduced to duck dive, better finning, and basic partner work and safety techniques.

Duration: 1 & ½ days

  • 4 hours of theory
  • 2 hours of dry practice
  • 1 Open water day
  • Practical dry exercises
  • Certification fee included

AIDA 2 Beginner

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.

Duration: 3 days

  • 2 theory sessions and exam
  • 2 days on the open water, (depth, static and dynamic training).
  • Comfortable progress to 20m
  • Certification fee included
  • Boat fees not included

AIDA 3 Intermediate

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.

Duration: 3 & 1/2 days

  • 2 theory sessions and exam
  • 2 days open water
  • 1 confined water session
  • Comfortable progress to 28m
  • Certification fee included
  • Boat fees not included

AIDA 4 Advanced

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 familiarisation 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’ll 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.

Duration: 5 days

  • 1 day Theory & exam
  • 4 days Open Water
  • Comfortable progress to 40m
  • Certification fee included
  • Boat fees not included

AIDA STAGE Instructor Assistant

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 on completing the requirements.

Please contact me for more detailed information.

AIDA IT Instructor Training

The Instructor Training 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.

Duration: 9-12 days and 40 hours of learning

  • 3-days minimum Open Water
  • Req. Depth: 50m
  • Certification fee included
  • Boat Fees not included
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Get In Touch

Maria-Teresa Solomons
La Paz, B.C.S.
Mexico
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +52 612 157 2004