TRAINING OFFICIAL SAFEGUARD FOR FREEDIVING

Lately, a freediving water sport - breath-holding diving (apnea) - has become widespread. Freediving is an extreme sport by its nature. Nowadays, there is a need to have specially trained assistants - official safeguard - to help free-divers during training sessions and competitions. The purpose of the study is to determine the role of the official safeguard in ensuring the safety of the athlete during the freediving competitions in the pool; develop a model of a training course for official safeguards for freediving. The paper presents a brief history of freediving development, defines the tasks of the official safeguard during the competition in the pool, and proposes a model of the course to train official safeguards. It includes two stages: “Fundamentals of freediving theory and practice” and “Life Safety”. There is a brief description of the physical basics of breath-holding diving, description of breathing techniques, a description of the physiological characteristics of free-diver’s body adaptation to long diving. The author indicates the factors determining the distance length and the time of static. The list of equipment of the official safeguard is offered. The Rules of the competition in dynamics are presented, including long diving in monofin / long diving in bi-fins / long diving without fins, and the Rules of the competition for holding the breath in static. The paper describes the procedure for checking the safety of an athlete by an official safeguard, determines the procedure for the interaction of official safeguards with judges and the procedure for providing first aid to an athlete with hypoxia. The ethics of the behavior of the official safeguard is considered.