Reserve drills and body memory

[darrenspooner 0]

I was just reflecting on a mal I had a few months ago, and realised that my reserve drill was not what I had practiced 1000s of times. I was trained to grab one handle in each hand, peel, punch then pull. I've practiced it over and over and over and thought I'd trained my body to do it without thinking about it. Then I had a high speed spinning mal and both hands went, without thinking, to my cutaway. I cutaway and my rsl did the rest. This seems to be contrary to what I would have expected. Any comments, because now I'm at a point of thinking about training myself to do the two hands on each handle approach.

[Tonto 1]

That sounds odd.

I have... err.. 17 or 18 chops.
I use one hand per handle and am NEVER superquick on no 2. I tend to rush the decision and never do in-air rigging.

My drill works for me. I'm changing nothing.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[phoenixlpr 0]

First of all why in Gear and Rigging and not in S & T ?

[darrenspooner 0]

good point, how to I move the post?

[badlock 0]

Darren, you are a psychologist, in my opinion *you* should be able to tell *us* what had happened

Don't be a Lutz!

[Andy9o8 0]

There was a thread on this issue – the debate over “two hands at a time per handle”, versus “one hand on each handle” a couple of weeks ago. Excellent debate with thoughtful pros and cons of each side given by many up-time jumpers. Definitely worth doing a search for that thread & reading it through.

[mjosparky 3]

How were you first trained when you went through FJC. Most people will revert to what they were first taught when in a stress situation.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[wmw999 2,117]

Actually, I had exactly the same thing happen when I cut away in Cali last month. It'd been 20+ years since my previous cutaway. The malfunction was spinning, and I think that somewhere in my brain I was wanting to be very sure that I had the handle and nothing else, and that I had a good sure pull on it.

And I was trained in a completely different way. Look at the capewells, uncover, thumbs in rings, pull, cover the hardware with left arm while I pull the reserve handle with the right hand and then punch.

Nope, not a lot of similarity.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Spizzzarko 0]

In hi stress situations people will revert back to the very first thing tought to them, if they do not calm down and think.

[darrenspooner 0]

I think you are partly right. I was taught one hand on each handle and I practiced that over and over, but did it dfferent. In high stress/panic situations the amygdala sends a message to the pre-frontal cortex (parts of the brain) and we lose the ability for rational thought, clear reasoning and good decision making. I think it is under panic situations that we do what we're taught, automatically. However, if we're not panicking we can think more clearly and evaluate the situation, and then respond, rather than doing it automatically. In my situation I was pretty calm and clear headed and I knew I needed some strength to get to the handles because I was spinning so wildly. So I must have consciously decided to go both hands on the cutaway to be sure and to have more strength or something.

There, answered my own question! Interesting to hear that someone else did the same.

Moral of the story - don't panic