How do you get the most "skill development" out of your freefall?

[CloudyHead 0]

I find it hard to learn only 1 minute at a time. Any suggestions on ways to get the most out of that one minute? Is it better to focus on repeating one task to perfection, or mixing it up?

[CloudyHead 0]

I'm also making it a goal to do at least one coached jump for every 5 solo. Is this enough, or should i get coached more often when I'm starting out? (I've got just over 20 jumps)

[grimmie 173]

You jump at Eden North, a DZ full of greatly skilled jumpers. Ask for some freefall pointers and join them in Eloy for the Canadian Invasion, mixing in some jumps with tunnel coaching.

Solo jumps don't add a lot to your freefall skill set. However it's great canopy control time. IMHO

[JohnMitchell 14]

Quote

I find it hard to learn only 1 minute at a time. Any suggestions on ways to get the most out of that one minute? Is it better to focus on repeating one task to perfection, or mixing it up?

Get all the coaching you can afford. Even better if they have video. One jump with video, well debriefed, is worth several without.

When you can't afford coaching in the air, preplan what skills you want to work on by yourself. Talk to your instructor if you need ideas. Skills that come to mind are backloops, turns, slow fall and especially tracking.

The ability to track well is one of the most neglected freefall survival skills I've seen. Develop a good track early. And remember, while your practicing you track, do it perpindicular to the jump run line so you don't move into other people's airspace. If you're not sure what I mean by this, please ask an instructor.
Enjoy your jumps.

[CloudyHead 0]

They've given me tonnes of amazing advice, but its the application of that advice that seems to be the tricky part. ;)

And yes i'd love to be part of the canadian invasion, but I do recall someone saying that its good to have some experience first so I can keep up with them, maybe even some wind tunnel experience before hand. Is that true?

[CloudyHead 0]

Quote

Quote

I find it hard to learn only 1 minute at a time. Any suggestions on ways to get the most out of that one minute? Is it better to focus on repeating one task to perfection, or mixing it up?

Get all the coaching you can afford. Even better if they have video. One jump with video, well debriefed, is worth several without.

When you can't afford coaching in the air, preplan what skills you want to work on by yourself. Talk to your instructor if you need ideas. Skills that come to mind are backloops, turns, slow fall and especially tracking.

The ability to track well is one of the most neglected freefall survival skills I've seen. Develop a good track early. And remember, while your practicing you track, do it perpindicular to the jump run line so you don't move into other people's airspace. If you're not sure what I mean by this, please ask an instructor.
Enjoy your jumps.

thanks for the advice, i'll definitely consider getting more coach jumps!

[grimmie 173]

Quote

They've given me tonnes of amazing advice, but its the application of that advice that seems to be the tricky part. ;)

And yes i'd love to be part of the canadian invasion, but I do recall someone saying that its good to have some experience first so I can keep up with them, maybe even some wind tunnel experience before hand. Is that true?

By the end of the season you should have about 50 or so jumps. Good enough for the Invasion I think.

[CloudyHead 0]

Quote

Quote

They've given me tonnes of amazing advice, but its the application of that advice that seems to be the tricky part. ;)

And yes i'd love to be part of the canadian invasion, but I do recall someone saying that its good to have some experience first so I can keep up with them, maybe even some wind tunnel experience before hand. Is that true?

By the end of the season you should have about 50 or so jumps. Good enough for the Invasion I think.

Perfect.. i'll have 50 jumps by the end of August. EASILY.

[DSE 3]

work on skills on the ground. That's where a coach can provide the most benefit; on the ground. A good coach can work with you on the ground and work on hand signals to help you achieve goals that you both set on the ground.

Ground time is cheaper than airtime, and that's a solid reason that good coaches cost a few $$.

[CloudyHead 0]

I think a good example to use here is my exit. I have had numerous coaches explain to me REPEATEDLY how to do a smooth exit (cessna caravan), and somehow i always find myself tumbling. After 23 jumps you would think i'd be able to keep my head pointed at the plane until i reach terminal velocity and level out.

How do you train on the ground for this? i know the basic concept: step out with no pushing, arch and keep your head up at the plane. This never seems to work for me

[NWFlyer 2]

Whenever you are at a dropzone where there are organizers who are working with people at your experience level, work with them. At the larger dropzones (especially during events) they'll have a variety of organizers working with different groups. Find the one that's appropriate to you and as long as they're doing jumps that are reasonably sized for your skill level so that you can learn and grow, jump with them. It kills me to see jumpers go to a big dropzone with great resources and not take advantage of them, and instead do the same jumps they do at home with the same people. A good organizer will teach you so much, and you'll have fun doing successful skydives to boot.

If your own dropzone is having local organizers on the weekend, ask if there will be jumps appropriate to your skill level. If so, be there and jump! If they're bringing in an outside organizer, same thing. You may find that if your dropzone brings in a big outside name, that person will be organizing more advanced dives for those with more advanced skills and experience, but it's always worth it to ask.

Always be honest about your experience when you're asking to jump with someone, and stay small for quite a while - you'll learn more and have more likelihood of success on smaller dives, and you'll be able to stay safer as well.

By the way, I still follow all of those suggestions. I'm not above an occasional zoo dive for a friend's milestone jump, but in general I try to make all of my skydives quality skydives that help me meet my own goals, or that help bring someone else up in the sport. I try to take advantage of all the local organizing that my dropzone has, and to jump with the big names either when they're visiting or I'm at a larger dropzone.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[JohnMitchell 14]

Quote

work on skills on the ground. That's where a coach can provide the most benefit; on the ground. A good coach can work with you on the ground and work on hand signals to help you achieve goals that you both set on the ground.

Ground time is cheaper than airtime, and that's a solid reason that good coaches cost a few $$.

Thanks for the excellent point. Teaching and learning begin on the ground, before the jump. Also, make sure your coach gives a thorough debrief. If not, you're missing a valuable chance to learn.

[davelepka 4]

Quote

Any suggestions on ways to get the most out of that one minute?

Set and work toward goals. Have something specific in mind, consult with a coach/instructor/senior jumper as to how to persue that goal, then allpy the advice given. That goes for solos or 2-ways with other jumpers (you should be able to do those soon).

Remember, that being stable, tracking, and remaining altitude aware are the only freefall skills that save your life. Everything else is secondary, just games you play to pass the time in freefall. You should be spending an equal (or greater) amount of time planning, preparring and then debriefing the canopy ride, pattern work and landing.

You might even find a coach or instructor not on your load willing to watch or film your pattern and landing, then debreif you afterwards. You could also enlist the help of a less qualified jumper to simply run the video camera, then you can use the footage to debreif yourself, or possibly catch a more qualified jumper after sunset to take a look at your performance, and see what they think.

Opening a parachute saves your life the first time, and landing it saves your life the second time. Everything else is secondary to those two things, proceed accordingly.

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

1.  A more important question is how to get the most out of your canopy flight.  Death in freefall (above pull altitude) is uncommon, death under a good canopy is all too common. 

2. Re freefall:

Advice above is good. 

Don't jump solo. It is like masturbation, it feels good but doesn't accomplish much. 

Always have a plan for the jump, jump the plan, and debrief the jump. 

Get video as much as you can. 

Jump with skilled folks, rather than other newbies. 

Tunnel is a great tool for getting more than one minute at a time of training. (usually cheaper than freefall too!)

At ~ 100 jumps I was fortunate to get on a novice 4-way FS (RW) team with a very experienced player-coach. Every jump was briefed, practiced on the ground (usually on those evil creepers), videoed, and debriefed.  I learned more that season than I can describe. I think that season of training moved me from novice to competent skydiver. It was a HARD season... But I learned SO much!

Good luck!

The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

[CloudyHead 0]

Quote

Don't jump solo. It is like masturbation, it feels good but doesn't accomplish much. 

Thanks to everyone for the great advice, but this one takes the cake! I will pass this one on!

[JohnMitchell 14]

Quote

Don't jump solo. It is like masturbation, it feels good but doesn't accomplish much. 

That's funny but I have to disagree some. I know a lot of people who could benefit by going up and practicing their tracking for a few solo jumps.

BTW, don't go on tracking jumps to learn how to track. They rarely go fast and flat, which is what you need to learn to do.

[mjosparky 3]

Quote

Quote

Don't jump solo. It is like masturbation, it feels good but doesn't accomplish much. 

That's funny but I have to disagree some. I know a lot of people who could benefit by going up and practicing their tracking for a few solo jumps.

BTW, don't go on tracking jumps to learn how to track. They rarely go fast and flat, which is what you need to learn to do.

I used to go up with newer jumpers for 2 or 3 jumps and do nothing but track. I would watch them and have them watch me. Like has been said before, tracking is one of the basic life saving skills which has fallen out of favor for some reason.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[CloudyHead 0]

Quote

Quote

Don't jump solo. It is like masturbation, it feels good but doesn't accomplish much. 

That's funny but I have to disagree some. I know a lot of people who could benefit by going up and practicing their tracking for a few solo jumps.

BTW, don't go on tracking jumps to learn how to track. They rarely go fast and flat, which is what you need to learn to do.

Can you elaborate on that last comment? Don't go on tracking jumps to learn how to track? I've only learned the forward movement involving bringing my elbows back, and locking my legs straight. Is that considered "fast and flat"?

[mjosparky 3]

Quote

Can you elaborate on that last comment? Don't go on tracking jumps to learn how to track? I've only learned the forward movement involving bringing my elbows back, and locking my legs straight. Is that considered "fast and flat"?

On tracking dives you can only go as fast as the leader and a group dive is not the place to learn to track. Try to grab one of the graybeards at your dz and talk to him about tracking. It will take a while to get it down but it is worth it.

Sparky


http://flic.kr/p/a4zfVz

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[davelepka 4]

Quote

I've only learned the forward movement involving bringing my elbows back, and locking my legs straight. Is that considered "fast and flat

Overall, no. For you with 23 jumps, it's probably pretty good. Tracking is a skill that you refine of the course of many, many jumps. Some of those might be dedicated to tracking, and some of those might just be 5 seconds of tracking after a group freefall jump.

Either way, what they taught you during your training was just a 'fast' forward motion technique, which can be used to seperate you from others for opening, but is probably about half as fast or efficient as you'll end up tracking once you have 100 jumps or so.

Tracking for group seperation is often done at a 'max track' which means you go as fast and as far as you can in the given time. This is different than most tracking dives, where the base will give up some of the 'fast' and 'far' in order to give others the chance to catch up, and then be able to fly around the dive. If the base was going at 100%, only those who are better trackers could ever catch him and get in the group, everyone else would be struggling just to maintain position.

It's similar to RW, in that the fall rate is not 'max arch', it's a relaxed, middle ground speed. If you need to speed up to catch the formation, you could punch out your arch and catch them. If you go low, you can flatten out and get back up to them. The middle-ground speed makes going faster or slower (aka manuvering) easy to achieve. Likewise, if you were going to practice falling at 'max arch', a group RW jump would not be the place for you.

[JohnMitchell 14]

I'm glad you're asking about tracking. It takes a lot of "push" on the air to do a good track. Most jumpers are pretty lazy and don't track as well as they could/should. Just today I watched another AFF instructor doing a crap track away from the student. Of course, we have a ton of time to get away, but still. . .

If your knees are bent, if your torso is arched, if you hands are behind your back, if you're nice and relaxed, if you're rocking like a porpoise, you're not doing a good track. There's some stuff to start with.

[skinnay 0]

I go to the tunnel

[Stearny 1]

When I first started jumping I had your exact same feeling. In free fall the most important step to improvement is coached jumps, coached jumps, coached jumps. Especially with video and a good debrief. Some of my favorite jumps were where a coach would simply lay base and I would "try" to simply fly docks around. When you are the one doing all the work (fall rate adjustment, body control, etc) you truly learn how to fly your body. Keeping current helps to maintain this gained knowledge.

As others have stated canopy control is extremely important to safe skydiving. I frequently talk to riggers, fun jumpers, coaches, etc about all the issues associated with canopy control (wing loading, patterns, emergency procedures, etc). Brian Germain has a great book focused on these issues (Parachute and it's Pilot).

Also I have recently been reading the SIM quite frequently as to be fresh on emergencies procedures and best practices not only to stay safe in freefall and under canopy, but in the plane, gearing up, and maintaining gear.

In regards to repeating tasks until they are perfected or mixing it up, it depends. There are certainly things you will HAVE to master to safely skydive. As stated, an on heading flat track with horizontal separation is priority #1. I decided I wanted to become proficient in Belly RW before I started anything else. Once I was consistently completing solid exits and objectives of a dive (2,3,4 ways) I moved to other disciplines. Recently I've started working on tracking RW jumps, backflying, and short sit flys. Make sure to consult your DZO, rigger, S&TA, or experienced jumper before performing any new type of discipline.

While my time in this sport is short, it is easy to see that you are always a student and always learning.

Blue Skies,

Cheers

(Sorry for the book response)

Stearny

[JohnMitchell 14]

That's a great reply. Sounds like you have a lot of fun, safe years ahead of you. Skydiving is a journey, not a destination.

[Scrumpot 1]

Quote

While my time in this sport is short...

Is your profile up-to-date? It also sounds like you certainly have more than just 45 total jumps by now, accumulated too.

I'll +1 to John's reply to you as well... great response/post!

coitus non circum - Moab Stone