2024-02-17 21:00:34
Freediving is a sport in which you dive without using an underwater respirator. You have to keep diving into the deep sea with your bare body.
As a professional, I followed freediving athlete Jihoon Jang’s day in the life. Jang is Korea’s first and currently only person to hold the official record for diving 103 meters. In terms of the number of apartment floors, it is said to be higher than the 20th floor. Jang is called a ‘legend’ as he has broken the domestic record more than 40 times. What kind of training does the No. 1 player in Korea do? The conditions were somewhat poor. Let’s follow along.
◇Deep dive with your bare body
In the morning, Jang visited the freediving range for ‘deep diving’ training, which involves diving into deep water. The maximum water depth is 35m.
Although they do not basically use diving equipment, freedivers still have some tools. Representative examples include a suit that protects body temperature in the cold sea, a monofin that ties both feet together to help swim like a dolphin’s tail, a nose clip that helps prevent air from escaping from the nose, and a neck weight that puts weight on the head.
I need to breathe. Is there anything else? This is it. Other than that, there are no respirators to supply oxygen, goggles, or equipment to gain propulsion.
Monofin used by Jihoon Jang. /Capture their moments
It was impressive to see him put on a hat and watch on the back of his head before entering the water. Jang said, “It’s a diving computer that checks the depth of the water and sounds an alarm when you reach the target point. It’s originally worn like a watch, but when you wear it on your wrist underwater, you don’t hear the alarm, so you wear it on the back of your head.”
Another important thing when freediving is a colleague called a ‘buddy’. This is a person who goes down into deep water with the athlete and is responsible for their safety. This person is trained to quickly detect signs and respond when an athlete’s body is in a state of hypoxia. He is indispensable to a player.
Song Byeong-jun, Jang’s buddy and manager, said, “Jang Ji-hoon is like the Park Tae-hwan of the freediving world. He is taking a path that no one has taken in Korea,” and then added, “No, Jang Ji-hoon is Jang Ji-hoon himself.”
◇Even if you sweep the championship, you can’t make a living.
Jang Ji-hoon makes a living by teaching freediving lessons. /Capture their moments
Freediving is an unpopular sport. Jang said, “I originally did it as a hobby, but I started competing as an athlete in 2015 when I started trying to set records.”
Unlike other sports, the prize money for winning is very small, so even if you sweep the championship in several competitions, you will not receive much income. Jang makes a living by teaching freediving classes and participates in domestic and international competitions.
◇Training site is on the rooftop of the building
Jang Ji-hoon explains what training is like on land instead of in the water. /Capture their moments
After spending the morning at the freediving range, Jang went up to the roof of the building. It was for breathing practice and weight training. Jang said, “It is important to hold your breath for a long time under water, but as the water depth approaches 100m, it is also important to have the mentality to withstand the water pressure. If you are not careful, you can injure your internal organs, so you must also pay attention to mental training.” I did.
Jang ran around the rooftop several times. It turned out that he was running without breathing. Jang explained the training method as “training to develop tolerance to hypoxia” and “training yourself to breathe so that you can recover quickly while resisting the urge to breathe.”
Jang Ji-hoon doing equalizing training while lying on the roof of a building. /Capture their moments
Even after a person exhales, air remains in the lungs. In order to reduce this residual volume as much as possible, Jang repeatedly practiced massaging the diaphragm. He said, “If you do this training, you will be more comfortable when going into deep water.” All of this training continued on the rooftop.
Manager Song Byeong-jun, who joins Buddy in rooftop training, said, “Many people know what running and swimming are without having learned them, but they don’t know what freediving is until they learn it. Since not many people do it, companies will judge it to be ineffective in promoting it.” We explained the reality of freediving, an unpopular sport. However, he expressed his determination not to give up, saying, “If things don’t work out, I will train (Jang) at my own expense.”
Jihoon Jang when he set a new Korean record of 103m. /Capture their moments
After finishing his afternoon training, Jang quickly packed his bags for freediving lessons. He said, “I have to work hard to raise money for accommodation and training expenses for upcoming competitions.”
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