A Overvieuw of Free Diving Manuals

Written by Rik Rösken

Breath-hold diving is a ever increasing sports with more literature than most divers might imagine. On this page we will in short compare manuals which each other.

Revieuwed Manuals are:
Manual of Freediving, Underwater on a single breath (2004)
Apnoetauchen, Grundlagen, Trainingstipps, Praxis (2003
The Simple Guide to Snorkeling Fun (1999)
Freedive! A complete Guide to Breath-Hold Diving (1998)

(2004) Umberto Pelizzari, Stefano Tovaglieri; Manual of Freediving, Underwater on a single breath.

Postive Points
- A lot of into depth information on training, adaptation and the environment
- Giving ideas on Breath-hold dive training
- Depicting exercises with a lot of pictures

Negative Points
- No index, no glosary, no structure
- Fails when it gets really intresting (DCS, Packing, Periodisation)
- Not looking outside of the Italian border

Audience: Instructors and (Competitive) breath-hold divers who would like to be inspired on creating a training program and gaining a overvieuw on diving technique.

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(2003) Dagmar Andres-Brümmer; Apnoetauchen, Grundlagen, Trainingstipps, Praxis

Positive Points
- Structurised with detailed suggestions, accompanied by a Index
- Strong philosophy and explanation
- High level of scientific (medical background), but still including Yoga techniques

Negative Points
- Written in German (Can be a problem for those who do not read the language)
- Limited scope on trainingtechnique

Audience: Instructors of recreation diving programs, breath-hold divers who are intrested of reading a scientifically medical sound explaination.

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(1999) Steven M. Barsky; The Simple Guide to Snorkeling Fun

Positive Points
- Very structurised
- Readable with minium knowledge and experience
- Very motivating

Negative Points
- The pictures looks out-dated
- Limited explanation
- Much American East Coast information (wildelife)

Audience: Ideal for Snorkeling and Skindiver courses.

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(1998) Terry Maas, David Sniperly; Freedive! A complete Guide to Breath-Hold Diving

Positive Points
- Very broad presentation of breath-hold diving activities
- In depth on history and physiology
- Experienced based
- Index and Glossary

Negative Points
- Sometimes too much enthousiasm
- Conservative towards increasing performance

Audience: Intrested readers on Breath-hold diving in general. Inspiring for instructors and trainers

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