Having Trouble with IAD progression... Thinking of Switching to AFF???

[lookatmeimchris 0]

So I have 24 jumps in so far.
2 Tandem (first 2 jumps)

3-12 Simple Arch. Mistakes - would look out instead of up, de-arch after leaving plane, legs uneven result in twist (must get 2 good consecutive arch to progress)

13-21 PRCP (newspaper) Mistakes - would de-arch when practice pull, would kick right leg when practice pull. (Must get 3 good Practice Pulls to move foward.

22-23 Pop and Pull. By this stage I had worked out most of these bad habits I developed and done 2 good Pop and Pulls in a row. Mistakes, still had a slight de-arch while pulling chute or kick with right leg.

24 5 second Free Fall. First Cut Away although I could have just pulled Reserve. On my first 5 sec free fall all my bad habits just kicked my butt. Looked down as soon as I left the plane, de-arched, went on back so I arched again as soon as I went belly to earth I tried to pull and kicked my right leg tumbled couldnt find chute, tumbled till i could get head down (off back) Cut away and pulled reserve. canopy fully opened at about 900-1k. so it was close.

I know these mistakes are habits I have developed from the beginning and the 2 that kill me is the leg kick and de-arch while going for the pilot chute. I have spent 4 mins in a wind tunnel to practice arch and belly to earth which went great.

Do you think jumping with 2 instructors guiding me (AFF) would help vs the baby steps (IAD) method?

ANY GUIDANCE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

[gowlerk 1,911]

My 2 cents. And that's all it is because I don't know you.

First, skydiving is not for everyone. Like I said I don't know you so I don't know if this is the case. With the number of jumps you have and the problems you are having it is possible. But on the other hand you probably have a fair amount of determination.

Quick question, what period of time did these jumps happen in? Sometimes people accumulate student jumps at the rate of a few over many years. Is that you?

After those things are ruled out I would say yes. You probably would benefit greatly from AFF jumps. But you should only need one instructor. If the instructors at your dz are not willing to jump one on one with you I'd say you have a very serious problem. You are scaring them.

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[lookatmeimchris 0]

Les Brown - "It's Possible" :) Yes I am willing to die for this. Literally. It's my new passion and joy in life.. I do have really bad addictive tendencies tho. But I also have a mind set that I can achieve anything I put my mind to and continue to work on.

1st question. I put these jumps in about a month. From 7/23 to 8/26, jumping 3 to 5 jumps per day only on the weekends, Saturday and Sunday.

2nd the place I jump doesnt provide AFF only the IAD if I do AFF I will have to goes somewhere else. not a big problem tho considering I drive 2 1/2 hours to that DZ.

[gowlerk 1,911]

Judging from that I would say that if you settle down and relax a little you will probably get it. Changing DZs while still a student is not usually a good idea. But in your case you may benefit. Welcome to the sport.

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[faulknerwn 36]

AFF may or may not help but definitely keep at it! I was a pretty lousy beginner but now have world records, instructor ratings, and over 10,000 jumps. You can see my student logbook here:

http://crwdog.servebeer.com/CRWdog/HowCRW.html

[Mitchell603 0]

You should also consider taking a trip to the wind tunnel. The tunnel benefitted me greatly as a student. I had a lazy right leg that would put me into a slight spin, worked on some leg awareness while at the tunnel and I've never had the issue since. When you meet your instructor, let them know about the issues you had and tell them know you would like to do practice pulls and basic belly skills to keep you stable

[sammielu 3]

1. Do mental practice and physical practice on the ground. Have your instructor help show you the best way to practice where you can tell what's going on with your body while you practice, and then go practice at least 100x. At least. Practice slow, practice real time, practice the entire dive flow from climb out to landing, practice mentally calming your body before you jump. If you do tons and tons of (free!) practice on the ground and still have trouble in the air, then you know the problem is in your head not your body and you should do zone work on focus and look onward to why you are letting your body freak out in the air and not on the ground.

2. After 3 jumps in a day as a student you're going to get diminishing returns due to fatigue. 3 is max for you, (per me), 2 is ideal.

3. You're doing fine for a student. Slow down, calm down, keep at it. I licensed plenty of folks who had to repeat jumps to build the necessary skills. Thank your instructor for making you learn - They're making you a better skydiver by not signing you off before you earn it.

4. The benefit to all the extra jumps you're getting is the extra canopy time with your instructor around to help you. Get your canopy skills signed off, work on accuracy every jump, and debrief your landing plan, pattern, and accuracy on every jump.

[evh 22]

You don't sound worse than me as a student ;-)
On the other hand, you would seriously scare me if I was your jumpmaster.

When I was in your situation I made 1 AFF jump. And completely messed it up. It caused even more stress for me, resulting in mayor tunnel vision, bad body position and a no-pull.

I went back to basics; simple staticline jumps, 3 a day, until I got more relaxed and in control. Then back to DRCP's until I was confident I could pull stable.
Then a 10 sec freefall.

This worked for me, but everyone is different so it might not work for you. Whatever you do, discuss it with you instructors first.

Some tunnel time might also work. Part of the fear comes from not really knowing what "stable" feels like. Couple of minutes in the tunnel might fix that.

[dthames 0]

I had issues de-arching in AFF. Mostly I was old, stiff, and had to work really hard to arch much at all. The work was something I could not maintain throughout the dive.

How you feel mentally about the process is very important. For me, I had to "own" the process and really take control of what I was doing before I started progressing. Hoping things would get better was not enough. I spent a lot of time trying to understand what I was missing and how to implement what I was being taught.

Skydiving has a learning curve (for me) that I did not in any way understand at first. One specific thing, is that the air is what you are working with, or against. Imagine the person that can't swim, but thrashes about in deep water, compared to the person that calmly treads the same water. Freefall is similar in that the air is a tool that you must learn to use.

Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

[lookatmeimchris 0]

Thank you all for your info and support. Since the DZ will be down for nationals this week and next, im looking to do some more tunnel time.

yes when the incident happened that day i did 5 jumps, it may or may not have had an effect on my performance idk. I didnt seem tiered but i was really pumped to do my first 5 sec FF.

Relaxing could be key here. I just really want to get there b4 season ends so thats why i push myself to do more than i prolly should.