Skydiving Discipline Progression Question

[Stearny 1]

Hello all!

I recently got my A license a couple of weeks ago. I was curious as to how you all progressed through the different disciplines (RW, freefly, etc) and at what jump #'s you began trying them. My goal is to excel at all disciplines as opposed to be amazing at FF and crummy at RW. Currently I am still trying to master 4way exits from a C-182 (one shitty one under my belt). Any and all advice regarding your improvements and progressions would be greatly appreciated! I understand the learning curve is different for every skydiver, I am trying to set a baseline of goals to achieve in the coming months and years.


Thanks!

Andrew

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[artard 0]

If you just got your A license and are already working on 4way exits you are way ahead of the curve. Just keep working on belly and take a canopy course or two.

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[voilsb 1]

I did 10 minutes of backfly in the tunnel when I had about 50 jumps. Then I did about an hour of freefly attempt in the tunnel when I had about 200 jumps. In that time, I did maybe 10 actual free-try jumps, and the rest belly with a handful of hop and pops or altitude clear and pulls thrown in. Then I did mostly belly for the next 100 jumps. At 300 jumps I started wingsuiting, and have done about 1:50:80 ratio of hop and pops to belly to wingsuiting for the last 400 or so jumps. Currently I have about 10 freefly jumps, 50 hop and pops, 300 wingsuit jumps, and 400 belly jumps (all a rough estimate).

I stopped trying to freefly as I learned that RW/FS can be quite fun when you give it an honest shot and find people to jump with, and wingsuiting is like nylon crack.

Brian

[labrys 0]

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My goal is to excel at all disciplines as opposed to be amazing at FF and crummy at RW

Not trying to be captain obvious here, but the only way to excel at all disciplines is to practice hard at all disciplines.

If you are really dynamic in both physical skills and mental focus you might be able to switch back and forth between styles and make forward progress.

If you're a normal human being you might be better off making an adult commitment to focus on one thing at a time.

Owned by Remi #?

[mjosparky 3]

Any time you have 2 or more people on the jump you are attempting RW (relative work) no matter if you are sitting, on your back or upside down.
For you first 100 or so jumps concentrate on belly flying. It’s a good idea to be pretty good at it because everybody is a belly flyer at pull time. Plus it will help you while you are learning the other disciplines.
Pulling a 4 way out of a Cesena is a lot harder than most of the turbine babies realize. While you are working hard to become good at all forms of skydiving don’t forget it is recreation. Have fun.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[Joellercoaster 6]

Depends on what you mean by 'excel'.

Example: I started doing 4-way at about 100 jumps, and 8-way about 400 jumps later.

I have a bit less than 800 now, plus about 50 hours of tunnel in those disciplines, compete in AAA (what would be Advanced in the US), and I'm not happy enough with them yet to start trying to 'excel' at other things.

Don't get me wrong, I want to freefly. I've tried it, and CReW, and bigway, and I like them very much. I'll get to those when I stop sucking at small-way flat.

I'm not saying you should be like me, probably the opposite, but you need to decide how good you mean to become, because each of the disciplines will eat as much of your time and energy as you let it - you can always get better, and you might always want to.

But! "The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself."

[edit: Sparky is right - but for some of us, working hard on improving something is recreation!]

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[airtwardo 6]

I am trying to set a baseline of goals to achieve in the coming months and years.

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I don't think there is a hard number or time limit you can put on any of it.


It took me 50 jumps to close last on a simple 4way, but I've seen others do it in less than 1/2 that number.

Keep a conservative mindset and advance on to the next thing when you feel comfortable and confident in your skills to do so.

When it becomes 'natural' to succeed in completing the dive plan, when everything goes well and you don't find yourself concentrating on, and constantly adjusting the little things, then start adding more to that base of knowledge and experience.

To be the best of the best is hard and lots of work, to be better than you were your last jump is easy and it's fun...

...Mom was right, take small bites and chew thoroughly!



When you & the people around you are comfortable with your skills, that's usually a good indicator you are ready for the next step.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[JohnRich 4]

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My goal is to excel at all disciplines

There are few people who achieve this, and even if you do, it would take a decade and thousands of jumps. It takes hundreds of jumps just to get good at any particular discipline, and I wouldn't even call that an "excel" level of skill. And then to do that for RW, Freefly, CRW, Accuracy, Swooping, Wingsuiting, etc., and stay good at all of them - it's not likely. People spend years mastering just a single discipline. It's a nice goal there that you've come up with, but reality is going to set in when you find out how difficult it is to excel at each one. So for just starting out, you would be better off to give yourself a more limited goal to achieve, like becoming good at RW first.

[Stearny 1]

Thank you for all the advice thus far. Didn't mean to sound over confident or arrogant. Every jump is a learning experience for sure. Every jump I land safely is good enough for me.

Stearny

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

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My goal is to excel at all disciplines as opposed to be amazing at FF and crummy at RW.

That is not likely going to happen.

In addition to the good reasons cited above, most skydivers find that only a couple of disciplines match their interests and personality. There are a few generalizations that can be made about the corners of this sport. (Like all generalizations, they are inaccurate in specific cases, but hopefully accurate enough overall to have some use in understanding the situation.) For example, it is not very often that a freeflyer from the facial piercings crowd crosses over to the CReW dogs with their pocket protectors. Equally it isn’t too likely that a high-speed wingsuiter is going to find slow-speed classic accuracy to be appealing.

Some folks like group work, such as any of the relative work disciplines (RW, CReW, VRW), others like more solitary pursuits such as classic accuracy or swooping (Yes, there are team variants of these disciplines… but they are essentially solitary endeavors).

Also the gear needed for various disciplines is often not compatible with other disciplines. Buying several different canopies or rigs for various disciplines gets expensive. For example a classic accuracy canopy is not suitable for swooping. The typical RW rig is going to be a poor choice for CReW.

Also, how people perceive risk affects what disciplines they choose. There are some of us who are terrified of swooping… but who think that CReW is great! Other folks see the risk the exact opposite way.

So, after you become competent at RW…. Shop around and taste other disciplines. You will find something that feels best for you. Get good at a few disciplines. It is far better to be competent at a few disciplines, than to be dangerous at many.

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

[kkeenan 13]

It is good to be as "rounded" as possible, with a bit of knowledge in all areas. As far as "excelling" at all of them, that is really hard. As has been said, the equipment issue alone is daunting. Swooping and CRW have specialized gear, as do wingsuiting and accuracy. Operating several different sets of gear, along with the EPs that differ in some disciplines can be a safety issue. This is certainly not to discourage you. Go for all you can.

I've managed to be somewhat competent at RW and CRW. That's about the limit of my gear budget and brainpower.

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Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?