The annual participant of the Moscow Dive Show, the Natalia Molchanova Freediving School, is offering its students a new experience this summer: a Watsu session, an aquatic relaxation technique based on the Japanese Shiatsu acupressure massage.

30 Jul 2024

What kind of beast is this Watsu and who needs it and why? We tried to figure it out with instructor Evgeniya Boyarskaya:

Where did this technique come from and what effect is supposed to be?

- American Harold Dall combined the Japanese Shiatsu point massage with water and called it water shiatsu, i.e. Watsu. The water effect gives a powerful boost to relaxation due to the state of weightlessness and constant sliding. Relaxation occurs from the nervous system through the effect on the skin. Physical relaxation occurs due to stretching, twisting and massage manipulations. The effect of relieving tension reaches the internal organs.

Can you describe a person's condition after a session?

- Clients share different sensations. Although Watsu has long been a well-known practice in Russia (for example, I have known about it for 8 years, Oleg Gavrilin, my first freediving instructor, introduced me to it), but those who come to me, all try it for the first time. When the session ends and a person opens their eyes, there is always such a thrill and gratitude! For everyone, these are new sensations and very deep meditative processes occur. Some people mentally switch off almost to the state of sleep, while others are inspired and desires and plans for development open up.

According to reviews, after such practices, it is much easier and faster to relax in the water. The shoulder blades, neck, and shoulders relax, the "arrow" improves, an understanding of the diving technique comes, and the body finds it easier to do the technique in dynamics.

One of the primary phases of relaxation is relaxing the mind. Not everyone succeeds in this during the first session. But by the 3rd or 4th session, you can already feel complete relaxation, with the head switched off. That is why we made subscriptions for 4 sessions so that people could calmly "make friends" with Watsu, and then come and enjoy it to the fullest.

How does it all happen?

- I do Watsu on the surface of the water and under water. The first session - getting to know the practice - is Watsu on the surface. For the human psyche, trusting the water and the master is a big and interesting job. Only after a person has cast aside worries and trusts the process, physical relaxation will begin. During the session, the body is stretched, twisted, and massaged. The endless sliding of water over the skin has a very cool and powerful effect on the nervous system; in this state, work on the body is softer and deeper, compared, for example, with dry stretching.

From the second or third session, I can already show the client the underwater part of Watsu. To do this, the client needs to put on a nose clip, take a normal breath, hold their breath, meanwhile I will immerse the person under water and circle there in constant dynamics. For a start, 20-30 seconds. The rest is individual. I myself did not like the underwater type of Watsu the first time, but now it is what I dream about constantly. It is a space flight, infinity, the feeling of time and space is lost, thoughts are completely washed away, in my head there is only a message to the master: "No, no, do not take me out of the water yet! Leave me there, I want to fly and not hold my neck yet!"

Who and with what requests come to the sessions?

So far, mainly novice freedivers come. After basic courses. From experienced freedivers, those who are interested in relaxation, who like experiments come. A little more girls come to me, but this gender imbalance is small. Some people ask: can I cope with a big man? I can answer this: water does everything for me, I only give the body direction, the necessary impulse to give relaxation to a specific area of ??the body.

I regularly assist at freediving courses, observe the state of the body of different students and I can say with absolute certainty that for many, the first steps in freediving are stressful. What does this strange instructor want when he says: "Relax, let go of your head, let go of your neck, etc., etc...”? At this time, the brain of a beginner freediver: "What? What is he talking about? I don’t have time for that at all... I have water here, I don’t breathe here, I have depth here... What do you mean "relax”?

And Watsu allows our body to catch this feeling of a relaxed state in a new (once native, but now forgotten, and therefore new) environment, in water. There comes an understanding that in the water you can not just relax, not just not breathe there, but completely trust it and even enjoy and have fun!

You can find details on participation in Watsu sessions on the website of the Natalia Molchanova Freediving School https://molchanova.school/tpost/754b0dnk11-seans-rasslableniya-v-teploi-vode-vatsu

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The annual participant of the Moscow Dive Show, the Natalia Molchanova Freediving School, is offering its students a new experience this summer: a Watsu session, an aquatic relaxation technique based on the Japanese Shiatsu acupressure massage.