In recent times Scuba diving has made significant advances in both education and technology. In contrast Freediving has been somewhat neglected, and is often performed with old and outdated methods. In 1995 Umberto Pelizzari and Renzo Mazzarri (three times world champion spearfisher) decided to fill this gap with the creation of a school called the APNEA ACADEMY.

The first step was to create a teaching body that covered the technical aspects (Pelizzari, Mazzarri and Mardollo) and the scientific aspects (Prof. Odone, Prof. Magno and Dr. Sponsiello). In 1996 the first Apnea Academy Instructors course was held on the island of Elba. The Academy has now established a teaching structure throughout Italy.

Meanwhile freediving was changing. Umberto Pelizzari dominated the world record scene with incredible dives that threw down the gauntlet to the formerly undisputed champion Pipin Ferreras.

" Pelo," as his friends call him, drew on the experience of Maiorca, who prepared for his records with vigorous and indefatigable physical training, and Mayol, who instead prepared himself with yoga and pursuit of the highest concentration through meditation, breath control and relaxation.

Pelizzari wisely collated the best of his predecessors' techniques and integrated them into a new methodology that enabled him to become the undisputed king of the abyss.

From his experience was born the hypothesis of a new mode of performing apnea. An interpretation founded more on relaxation than on the forcing of apnea, but which also included physical preparation. A gentle apnea, based on precise techniques of relaxation and respiration. This new system was in perfect contraposition with traditional methods.

As Umberto Pelizzari recounts, "in the many pools that I frequented this discipline was taught without adequate preparation. I remember an evening several years ago, in a swimming pool close to Milan, where an instructor was repeatedly telling his student to "Relax!" The aspiring apneist, standing in the shallow end of the pool, couldn't do anything but stretch his arms downwards and lower his shoulders (.as if this was the way to relax!). The instructor didn't understand certain techniques of relaxation and concentration relative to apnea, simply because nobody had ever explained them to him. At the command of "Don't hyperventilate!" the student looked at him with a demoralised expression that seemed to ask, "Well what can I do then?"

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