Talya Davidoff’s Tips to Getting Back to Depth

“I’m a firm believer in train like you dive, and dive like you train.” - Talya Davidoff

By Jeremy Storton &
Contributions by Talya Davidoff
Editor Deena Lynch

It is completely normal to take months off from freediving, healthy even. After all, you have to live your life. However, after months of not being in the water, going back to depth can be intimidating, even for a professional and world-champion freediver like Talya Davidoff. We have to be careful about how we restart depth training, especially while keeping safety and adaptation in mind. Davidoff recommends the following ways to prepare you to get back to depth after your long break.

Training Without Access to Depth

If you live somewhere without easy access to depth, it pays to cross-train with weights, cardio and pool training. Regaining flexibility is also very important. About two weeks before attempting depth, Davidoff does a lot of lung stretching, focusing on both positive (inhale) and negative (exhale) stretches. These can be helpful in managing your contractions.

Training for depth is a process without shortcuts. © Photo of Talya Davidoff

Arrival

When you arrive at your destination, where you will attempt depth training after a long break, Davidoff avoids getting into the water right away. It is better to let yourself acclimatize. She recommends spending time resting, getting over jet lag, and to hydrate, hydrate, and hydrate. Make sure you are well rested before you even think about approaching the water.

Day 1

The first day of actual diving, Davidoff begins with stretching and equalization (EQ) training. When you start diving, go to your comfortable depth, Davidoff suggests no more than 40% of your personal best (PB) as a guideline, and not to push yourself. Davidoff is a 100m diver, so she starts no deeper than 40m. Do some full lung dives to a comfortable depth to practice your EQ training. Once you are comfortable with that and are trained as a Wave 3 freediver or equivalent, you can then switch to a few Functional Residual Capacity (FRC - passive exhale) dives to a comfortable depth while practicing mouthfill EQ. Then, get out of the water and rest.

Day 2

Davidoff repeats Day 1, but with fewer dive repetitions. She adds several Residual Volume (RV - maximum exhalation) dives, (again only do this if you are trained and qualified to perform these sorts of drills or under the guidance of a W3i Instructor or Coach), which will simulate the pressure you’ll feel at depth. Ensure you have an adequate safety diver in place and proceed to a comfortable depth. Do not do more than three RV dives. Then, get out of the water and rest.

Day 3

Davidoff takes another rest day to relax and hydrate. She recommends supplementing your hydration with electrolytes as necessary.

While training for depth, push your comfort, not your maximum effort. © Photo of Talya Davidoff

Day 4

With her first dive back to depth at 60% of her PB, her main goal is to relax, get comfortable, and figure out what she needs to work on first, which is usually EQ.

If competing is your goal, put yourself into a competition setting to start reacquainting yourself with that environment. Davidoff preps for competition by listening to music that gets her into the groove. This is an essential part of her pre-dive ritual. She relaxes by having fun and expressing gratitude. She then suits up and lies in the water, face down with a snorkel for approximately 10 minutes to attune with the water. It is crucial for her to maintain a positive and peaceful relationship with the ocean. Afterwards, she doesn’t do any warmups. She prefers to stimulate her Mammalian Dive Reflex (MDR) on her initial dive.

Davidoff will then go straight to her dive line and clip her lanyard to it. She will float on her back and do some gentle, unfocused breathing to relax. Sometimes she will chat with people and make jokes to lighten the mood and recenter herself, reminding herself that freediving is fun, and to keep life in perspective.

Once she hears the four-minute announcement, she begins to focus on her dive. She will do body scans and blow air out of her lips like she’s blowing bubbles to stimulate her vagus nerve, which slows her heart rate and calms her down. She then begins gentle, focused breathing. At one minute to go, she may do a couple of light purge breaths before her peak inhale. It is very important not to overpack the lungs as you reacquaint your body with depth. It will take at least a couple of days to get your body used to packing again.

Focus on the Process

Beware the temptation of getting back to your max depth quickly. This can easily lead to mistakes, hurting yourself or having a negative experience with freediving by focusing solely on your goal and forgetting to enjoy the sport. Davidoff likes to take the pressure off herself and progress slowly with a focus on comfort. Once she has completed her days of acclimatizing, she starts at 60% of her PB and adds 5 metres at a time.

Once Davidoff gets to approximately 80% of her PB, she then switches strategies and adds one or two metre increments at a time. Throughout the dive, she focuses on relaxation and the process to hone her ability to dive to depth.

Rest is Essential

It is also important to take breaks. Davidoff does not perform deep dives (80% or more of her PB) two days in a row. The deeper she goes, the more rest days she takes in between dive days. It’s essential to rest to regulate your nervous system and to get yourself to a place of comfort without overreaching. It’s very easy to push too hard and overtrain.

Focus on the process, not your end goal. © Photo of Talya Davidoff

Davidoff’s advice is to “Take it slow, take it easy, have fun, approach everything with curiosity, and just remember, you are you, and you happen to freedive,” she said. “We’re just big kids in the pool, don’t take it all too seriously. We all got into this to have fun, and it’s important to remember that.”

Watch Talya Davidoff, a 100m freediver, talk us through how she goes back into depth training after a break on the Molchanovs YouTube channel HERE.