Not many people realise that the issues they struggle with can actually get better through finding the right coaches.
Coaching costs money, so some people may hesitate to give it a try.
But one would not need continuous coaching.
The time you need a coach most is when you have a goal but you’re stuck – at a certain depth or with a certain issue – that’s the time when a coach can help you over your hurdle.
A student once asked me whether coaching is easy for me because I only go to shallow depths when I coach beginners, after all I am a 50m diver. I told him not at all. Coaching takes as much out of me as my own dives for myself, in fact way more.
When I dive for myself, I close my eyes and only care about myself, blocking out everything around me. But when I am coaching, I am fully engaging all of my senses to observe someone, to think for that person, to strategize ways to help the person overcome his or her issues and at the same time I am creating an atmosphere that the person needs to feel comfortable to make changes to his or her dive. I am plotting which is the most important feedback I must give to make the maximum improvement to the person’s next dive. I cannot be superfluous with my feedback as a student can only absorb and apply so much. Sometimes, I intentionally hide certain information so that my student won’t know what I am trying to do so that my student can achieve what I am intending him or her to do.
On top of these, I am watching out for dangers – strong currents, exhausted students, any hard objects at the bottom that my students may potentially knock their heads into. Or a discouraged student who may no longer be in the curious or playful mood that is often so needed for learning something new.
To me, doing all these, are carbon dioxide producing. They are more effortful than me closing my eyes and doing my own thing, only caring for myself and my safety.
When I tried to explain this to the student, he understood and gave me a beautiful analogy. He told me it was like a tour guide taking a group of tourists out compared to the tour guide being a tourist himself. Exactly! As a coach or instructor, one is looking out for many things, relying upon his or her years of experience, years of studying and thinking, to create an experience that is rewarding and enjoyable for another person. There is a certain responsibility upon that coach. This is different from when you are a student and you trust that the coach will take care of most things for you, including your safety and progress.
This is perhaps what you pay your coach for. To carry that responsibility for you for that dive session, someone to partner with you to help you do the thinking, diagnose your problems, provide solutions to them, and give you guidance to learn new things.
I had many coaches and instructors over the course of my freediving journey. I learned different things from each one. Each one helped me with different issues. Over time, I also learned to self-coach myself. I learned to use each dive to collect information to analyze between dives so that I can use the subsequent dive to diagnose issues or solve problems. I am grateful for my coaches who dedicated their dive sessions towards my progress, safety and enjoyment.
As a new coach, I am learning and the multi-tasking involved is still effortful and not yet second nature as it appears to be for seasoned coaches. But my wish is that with more practice and experience, I will develop greater calm, confidence and capability to guide others towards their personal goals.
To all students who had chosen me as their coach at Apnea 42, thank you for giving me that chance and honour to have been your guide. 🙂
And thank you Mark for trusting and entrusting me with your students.
Therapy Stop 
“I am creating an atmosphere that the person needs to feel comfortable to make changes to his or her dive. I am plotting which is the most important feedback I must give to make the maximum improvement to the person’s next dive”
This snippet really resonates with some of my current interests.
I can’t really comment on coaching itself – my experience as a learner in a teacher-student relationship has never quite, to this day, blossomed into something which nourished me as much as other forms of learning experiences ( with the notable exception of a certain doublebass teacher who led me to ask myself the questions I needed to ask myself, just at a time it was essential for me to do so…), and I came out of my rare coaching experiences with a feeling that what I had experienced wasn’t actually coaching, but more of a broadly sweeping commercial endeavour marketed as such – as an educator myself, I always try to keep this aspect in mind and keep adapting.
I can, however, imagine how it would all fall in place much better in a practical, sport focused environment, which is after all where the concept originated before it expanded to other areas previously covered by mentorship and other related approaches.
You mention the importance of feedback, which is truly an essential tool – I really like the fact that you introduce the notion of comfort in this regard. This reminds me of Gareth Lock’s notion of developing a “Just culture” where constructive feedback could be given “safely”.
Are you familiar with the “DEBRIEF” model? It’s a very interesting approach, derived from human factors training, that can be applied to education, but also interpersonal relationships and effective cooperation.
You can look into it here: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debrief
take care,
ben
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