PRIVATE Coaching
Discover Your Depths offers you totally personalised and intuitive coaching. Your personalised programme will help you develop your understanding of your freediving, how your thought patterns may be holding you back, and how you can transform them, for both your freediving, and life. We go beyond technique and help our clients explore their mental patterns and belief structures, as these lie behind all of our successes and failure
The content of each course will be tailored to your level, and your needs, from beginner to world record attempt, or yoga and meditation for freediving or freediving as life coaching.
Every time we dive with a student we are both embarking on a new journey together. We treat each person we work with as an individual, working to understand what makes you tick, and what holds you back, and designing each day specifically for you, to help you relax and enjoy the ocean, at the same time as learning and developing your skills.
Freedivers ask to work with us for all sorts of reasons; because you recognise that our integrative approach, including yoga and meditation as the foundation to our teaching, is unique and you want to learn how yoga can support your freediving development; because you want personal attention to get ready for a competition, be it your first or your hundredth, or for a national record attempt; because there is no criteria of reaching a specific depth or distance or time to ‘succeed’; because you want to dive with someone who works intuitively, and spends a great deal of time getting to know and understand you, not just how you dive, but how you live and how these two things interrelate.
Freedivers choose to dive with us because, our approach, created out of Sara’s unique experiences as one of the top freedivers in the world, we can offer unique insights to your technique, approach and development. Sara’s fifteen plus years of yoga teaching and our own personal experiences and passion for life means that we are constantly investigating how life, freediving and yoga intersect. We feel blessed that when a freediver comes to us, we are able to help them with issues beyond mouthfill and metres, but can help them see deeper within themselves, to release unsupportive beliefs and thought patterns, to live life more richly, freely and deeply.
All programme coaches have been certified by Sara as a DYD Intuitive Freediving Coach, integrating yoga, meditation and mental training practices into their coaching. Their skills in coaching, both in and out of the water, and their unique life experiences bring a richness and diversity to our programmes, to help you gain maximum insight and benefit.
We offer private one to one coaching, or small groups of up to four people. This way we can work personally with each of you. Just as in life, there is no success or failure criteria – there is only learning, understanding and transformation.
Sara has an amazing talent for seeing what is holding you back - even if you can't, or don't want to, see it yourself. Invariably this is the same stuff that holds us back in life, so although I went to Sara for freediving coaching, I got so much more out of it - a truly life-changing and worthwhile experience.
How Does a Typical Day Look?
Get Personal
Each day starts at 10am, allowing you time for a light, healthy breakfast before we head to Lighthouse or Blue Hole. We spend the first morning getting to know each other – we will ask you detailed questions about your diving career, your goals, and any challenges you are facing. On subsequent days, we will discuss your performance, and will analyse what we have seen so far and use this to help us define the next steps. Honesty is a really important part of this work together!
Dry Preparation - the Start of Your Dives
We then move on to some dry preparation exercises, tailored to the level of your diving. We use yoga and meditation to offer each student new concepts and exercises to practice and integrate in their diving. This section includes ‘classic’ freediving exercises, as well as yogic techniques which we have adapted specifically for freediving.
Let's Get Wet!
The water section of the day is about putting it all into practice, walking the talk. This is where we are able to see if you are really relaxed in the water, or are struggling with either technique issues, or more fundamental issues of trust and self-belief. Whatever reveals itself in the water is simply information for both of us to work with. Each dive session is an opportunity to learn, so even if things don’t go according to your plan, you are learning exactly what you need to learn on each session.
Sometimes we need to learn patience, or to let go of harsh self-criticism. Maybe we need to learn to believe in ourselves, or to let go of the need to control every element of our lives. These are often core themes that hold divers back from progress, and so without addressing these, those big numbers that you might be chasing will remain illusive, and the journey will become increasingly painful and frustrating.
Analysing the Dive
Learning to understand your dive and to see it more clearly puts you in the coaching seat – you learn to coach yourself. Your body gives you constant feedback on each dive, and when you learn how to read this, you also understand what your next steps are for your training and development.
Many students are impatient for depth, and want to rush ahead before they are physically or mentally ready for this step. Our mission is to create competent, confident, safe freedivers, who dive and live with fun and awareness.
We aim not to leave it there - what you learn about yourself through your freediving, we strongly encourage you to translate into areas of your life that you might find challenging, to draw the parallels, in order to make our coaching meaningful way beyond the water.
I was initially attracted by Sara's teaching style and positive energy. Over five days training her mouthfill technique got me safely 15 metres deeper, but her approach to the mental aspect of freediving and ability to motivate students really sets her apart. She takes a genuine interest in her student's progress and has a special ability to see their mental blocks. Her pre-dive yoga visualisation and relaxation helped immensely - I highly recommend anybody interested in exploring their potential or trying to break through a training plateau to get in touch with Sara - or, as I like to call her, my 'Yoda'.
Coaching fees
Personalised coaching programmes and prices are available on request. Personalised coaching can be from two days upwards (normal duration, and one we recommend is two weeks), in Dahab or at a location or your preference. We look forward to discussing your needs, vision and desires in working with us.