Feb

4

Writing has always been a challenge for me and inevitably gets postpone until it becomes irrelevant. However, two weeks ago Harry Chamas did me the great honour of coming up from Dahab to meet me. I was already predisposed to like Harry, from his writings, and from what Alina told me about him from her visit in Dahab last March. And from what I knew of his history as a Royal Marine, and also from his youtube channel.

We discussed RV versus FRC training at length and found our positions were not all that far apart. The worst of it is there is a dearth of scientific information to support any proposition. It must be, today, an exchange of observations and supported at best by a very few relevant scientific articles. Our discussion began by defining the separate objectives of RV and FRC training – and they are not identical. We talked about how a lot of this training is misunderstood and performed in a fashion that has little to do with its objectives and is often unsafe. Resulting in either disappointing results or even an accident. If the objectives are clear, and common sense, and not competitiveness are applied – they are both very effective training tools, not by any means the only ones by they have their place. It was, at least for me, a very interesting and worthwhile conversation. Thank you, Harry, for your patience. I hope this is a beginning of a dialogue - not the end.

RV training trains bloodshift, is excellent hypoxic training, provides an opportunity to train very deep water equalisation techniques, inures the body and mind to pressure. And all in shallow water, with short dives, thereby avoiding any danger of DCS.

We agreed the training style/technique is vital before undertaking any serious depth training, and that depth training is a waste of time and a potential danger if a style is not mastered. It conserves energy massively and thus enhances your O2 reserves, avoids an excessive accumulation of CO2, therefore, minimising narcosis on very deep dives and reduces dive times. We agreed that taking apart the separate elements of a dive and training them separately is a very effective way to train, and sometimes the only alternative. And, therefore, an essential area for polishing and research.
Also, we both agreed that pleasure has to be the dominant motivation, beating oneself into quick achievements is a short term strategy.
I was extremely impressed with Harry both as a person and as a thinking trainer.
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