I’m on the bicycle, still breathing heavily. I have a four minute break. It seems big enough. 16 months have passed since my last competition and I’m thinking. Five months of systematic training on apnea have passed and from the first to the last so many things have changed in me and the programs I follow. Maturity, realization, knowledge, circumstances, all of the above. The only sure thing is that everything changes in our lives and with it, so do we.

This article is my tale towards maturity. My apneistic and not only realization. And that is because those who think that a man who tries to become better at something at the end of his effort has gone forward are simply wrong.

I began holding my breath in chloral water without wanting to do so. It just happened out of need while I was training as a swimming athlete. I can’t say I was attracted to the water as a child, or to any sport for that manner. An uptight, eccentric (according to my father), untrained young man. At about 9 an orthopedic told us that I had scoliosis and that I had to do special exercises if I wanted to avoid a serious orthopedic problem. Truly, these exercises had an immediate positive affect but where not the least interesting. Looking for alternative ways to exercise myself, my interest turned to swimming. I remember the water attracting my attention from early on together with fear. Floating over dark seaweed was by itself enough to break my concentration and forget I ever wanted to swim. On the other hand, you could not swim in the sea all year around and my problem needed devotion and systematic exercise. That is how I became involved with the sport of swimming. Swimming in the pool quickly became an essential part of my everyday life for a decade. Originally for medical reasons and later on as a mean of blowing off steam and communication, training in the water, for about 6 years was the best time of the day for me. I knew very well that in order to go to practice, I had to finish all of my homework and generally do well at school. What I can surely say now, is that swimming contributed importantly in my school years and my life in general, boosting my confidence, making me more determined, self aware, organized and systematic in my juvenile life.

Training periods in the water gradually got bigger in time, reaching 2.5 hours per day, 5 to 6 times a week. I on my behalf, set very high performance standards on each training day trying to get the best out of everything. Each training period was for me a challenge for the mind and body. My competition career could be referred to by others as pretty satisfactory, but for me was nothing compared to the effort I was putting. Of course the time I spend practicing could not be judged by the final outcome. This outcome derives from the fact that in the beginning the progress one seas is relevant to the time he practices. As time goes by the only difference he might see after many hours of practice or exercise will be small “flashes” of progress, that demand a much greater effort from the mind and body. So, when the performance stabilizes, maturity and realization come at hand to help the athlete continue, getting satisfaction from every practice. In the beginning, we have the enthusiasm coming from the obvious progress our body is making and by the way it is reacting to the exercise, but as time goes by the only thing that can keep us close to the activity, is true satisfaction every time we hold our breath. The way our relation with apnea evolves seems very familiar with a relationship between two people. It will either last for just a little, or forever.

2 BIG MISTAKES

If little practice does any good, a lot of practice does a greater good.

After occupying myself with athletics for 19 years, I can finally come to the conclusion that the above theory is wrong. What makes a difference are the proper figuration, organization and system one will have in his training. For example, we have an athlete of apnea with a training and competitive experience of one year, who has been training in a qualitative and serious manner based on his diet and rest he may have every day. On the other hand, we have an athlete with two years of experience who trains and stresses his body from the first year more than he should, not taking in consideration the figuration of his training, his diet the rest he may achieve and generally his way of living. The excessive stress affects his psychology, making him eager, psychologically and bodily unstable. Some days his performance is good, raising his spirits but most of the days his performance is unreasonably bad affecting his confidence in the worst manner. Finally, the athlete not being pushed to his limits ends up being more stable, showing greater progress and desire to go to practice in comparison with the more experienced and trained athlete.

The competitor

At the end, does an athlete contend himself or the other athletes?

For more than 14 years, the answer I would have given without even blinking would have been that he is competing against the other athletes. Occupying myself with the sport of swimming in my first years and with the sport of apnea in my later years, in a competition whether we like it or not, one has to overcome barriers of the body and souls, so as to get as high in the ranking as possible. I remember myself many times being in the top three positions but being unhappy by my performance. This was a sign that for me it was always my satisfaction that came first and not the final ranking. Nevertheless, the feeling that you had overcome many of the other athletes was always pretty strong. What makes a difference is standing out among many good athletes that managed to produce their best. I can now say that what matters to me is my progress from competition to competition and from year to year. The progress not only of my performance but also of my behavior. The other athletes should urge one to do his best not working as a red cloth that will reveal personal selfish needs of prominence. An athlete can achieve greater goals if his motivation is the correct one.

The training

The training I did the first 2 years I got involved with apnea was based on fitness and technique, surely affected from the training I used to do as a swimmer. Every practice would average at about two hours. I would cover a distance of 6 kilometers of which 4 were with long fins, five times a week. The first 7 to 8 months of my training I would avoid holding my breath except when I went to the sea. This period was dedicated to general and special fitness and also to power. Two to three months before a competition the quantity and quality of my practice changed, focusing on apnea exercises. The first two-three months of this apnea preparation, my goal was to achieve great dynamic and static performances with semi-full apneas. As the competition got closer, the quantity got less and the tension was increased.  The same thing would apply when preparing for a depth competition. After three years of being obsessed with this manner of training, I finally started thinking like an apnea athlete and not a swimmer. This had an immediate, positive affect in special technique and apnea ability. Of course every great change comes from an important incident and rarely by luck. What made me change was meeting my first and current coach in the magical journey of apnea. My negative opinion concerning swimming coaches and my studies on how the body reacts to specialized exercises as a student in university, made me very cautious when hearing advice from others, if not accepting someone as your mentor. Thankfully, a correct combination of circumstances brought to my life that which all serious athletes and generally people need to progress in life. A coach, mentor and friend who devoted and devotes time, thought and life experiences without ever asking anything in return.

Instead of an epilogue

And that is how we went back to the beginning, doubting everything concerning technique and training on land and water. These changes continue as we speak and are those I will try to transfer to everyone through the first interactive magazine for the sea, product of my beloved friend Giannis….