Would you say the breathing techniques are more effective for helping stay calm or maximizing workouts?
Breathing techniques are for increasing breath hold, learning to breathe properly, reducing anxiety, eliciting calm, and using oxygen more efficiently.
I was wondering if you have any info on water confidence courses you can take?
There is water confidence included in all of my workout programs. But if you want a pure breath holding course, you might be able to do a performance free diving course.
I don’t have a pool anywhere close to where I live and was wondering if there was a substitute for training for that?
Look up co2 tables to practice breath holds. But honestly there is not a substitute for the pool.