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malooper

18 jumps and regressing?!

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I just did my 17th and 18th jump yesterday and boy it was a bit discouraging. The only improvement I recognized was that I'm slowly but surely becoming more aware in freefall. I'm actually remembering what's happening up there! Other than that, I continued doing my slow turns and couldn't track. The good news is that I realized in freefall that I wasn't tracking towards one point and attempted to correct…The coach I had for my first jump of the day recognized, along with myself, that I wasn't mentally prepared for the jump. I left too soon on the exit and bumped him, disorienting me a bit. Felt terrible after the jump since I realized how dangerous that could've been. I had a hard time relaxing too. It had been 35 days in between jumps and the last was a hop and pop so I know that was a factor. Although, the last jump I had freefall time in was after a break that long as well and I nailed my turns and had an awesome jump.

One coach advised me to do tunnel time but money is limited and not sure it'd be the best choice for me right now. It's hard to put money towards tunnel time when it could be going towards the real thing, the way I see things. However, I realize that if I can't maintain my heading, I'm not going to advance and maybe tunnel time would help in that for me.

I'm really just venting here but I'd appreciate any tips on relaxing or advice on tunnel time or anything you more experienced skydivers may have to say to a student like me!
Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
-Raymond Lindquist

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"... It had been 35 days in between jumps ..."

......................................................................................

Skydiving skills are perishable, so the longer between jumps, the more you will have to re-learn.
At a minimum, ask an instructor to do a full review before your next jump.
If you live in a snowy climate, you would be better off saving your money over the winter, then doing a whole hockey-sock worth of jumps in the spring-time.
Please add more detail to your personal profile.

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I thought maybe it would help to get the perspective of someone that is in your shoes. I just did my 17th and 18th jump last weekend as well. The weekend before I had done a very successful coach tracking jump and a very unsuccessful first group dive (got together, just didn't complete all the objectives we had set).

A) I got my instructor to do video of the jumps, which helped me greatly on identifying what fundamental problems I needed to work on. It also confirmed what skills I did have down correctly and was fun to watch!

B) As everyone else I am sure will mention, the longer I go between jumps, the more I struggle. Even though it has put me tight on money, the longest I have been going between jumps is two weeks, usually every week. Also when I jump, I start out with a simple jump and go more complex the more jumps I do that day. I have found it helps with my focus, getting the overexcitement I tend to have out of my system on the first jump of the day, usually going solo, and knocking out A card canopy skills and my landing position. Also a good time to work on spotting, packing, other ground skills, etc.

C) After seeing my fundamental "flaws" in the videos my instructor did, I took last weekend and just did two solo jumps working on the basic problems I had. For me, it was practicing forward and backward movement, tracking a short distance and going into a controlled arch to prepare for swoop and docks, and freefall turns. Also working on always being aware of where my legs are. 25 jumps is the minimum to get an A license, you don't have to make it in 25. Take it at your own pace to get a good solid base to your skydiving skills.

Anyway, these are the things that I have tried that are working for me. After those two solo jumps last weekend, I have gained a lot of confidence to move forward. Hopefully this helps you out, and also knocking out some fun jumps helps keep it fun. I am sure you can burn out fairly easily if you keep pushing forward getting frustrated because you can't keep up with the pace you set.

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Rule 1, talk to YOUR instructor.

This is what I do. 3, 6, 9000ft, I go through my jump in the plane. After 9, I focus on relaxing. I breathe slow constant breaths, and count with it, doing my final gear check while doing my breathing.

As I exit, I always always always think -- Smile. This makes you breathe, it relaxes you, but yet you can focus better. It also breakes tension in someone else when they see you smile. They always smile back.

Simple things that could make your jump better....but thats just an opinion, and you need to find your own way of doing.
You have the right to your opinion, and I have the right to tell you how Fu***** stupid it is.
Davelepka - "This isn't an x-box, or a Chevy truck forum"
Whatever you do, don't listen to ChrisD.

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I did tunnel time between AFFs 2 and 3 and I think two more sessions before I got my A license. It really does wonders for the sort of problems you're describing. It forces you to keep your sliding under control and it's much easier to tell if you have a slight turn. You can target those specific problems and talk to your tunnel instructor about fixing them. It's a lot nicer to do tunnel time in the winter when it's freaking miserable out than it is to go do a jump. Should be less expensive per minute of freefall, too. You don't need to do an awful lot of time in there, even 6 minutes will do you some good.

I started my AFF July 7 of last year, and did my first tunnel minutes on July 7. I went back on July 16 and again in August. I'm still on coaching in August and still pretty shaky, but you can see I am getting a little better. There's a pretty significant difference in my control from my first one in July. By the time October rolls around, I have nearly 50 skydives and about 20 minutes in the tunnel and am starting to look like I know what I'm doing.

I've got about 3 hours of time in there now, nearly doubling my total freefall time. I'm a little wobbly when I went in November of this year, but you can see I have much better control over my fall rate, can do side slides without thinking about it, and he's showing me yet another way to back and forward slide. Every time I go in there it seems like he's showing me another one. I told him I didn't want to rush into freeflying because I wanted to be really solid on my belly first, and he's found more than enough to keep me busy with that. I feel like some of the stuff I've been learning in there (Mantis position and all the sliding techniques) probably would have been glossed over if I'd gone right to back-flying. I do practice flying on my back later in that video and you can see I still need more practice at it.

You can also tell that I'm still a total noob. That last video shows a pretty decent continuum of experience if you look at all three people in there. It's Sheila's (Yellow jumpsuit) first time, Livy has around 60 skydives and I think 10-20 minutes of tunnel time, I (ninja boots) have 200 skydives and 3 hours of tunnel time and my instructor's on a freefly team at the local DZ and has probably thousands of hours of tunnel time. If you want to fly like Peter Pan, moonlight as a tunnel instructor!

I think what I'm telling you is go get in the tunnel!
I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

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Think about it like this: You've spent less than 20 min in freefall and took over a month off between jumps. What other skill in life would you expect to be "perfect" at if you spent less than 20 minutes practicing it and then took a month off?

Bumping into someone on exit isn't really "dangerous". It's just a fact of life on RW jumps. I got literally karate-chopped in the face on exit recently, it happens... just deal with it and continue with the skydive (because you really have no choice in the matter once you leave the plane).

Doing tunnel isn't mandatory but it will reduce the performance pressure of freefall.
NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

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I think another part of this is self awareness. For me, the more I jump the more I become aware of minor mistakes (or happy little accidents as Bob Ross would say) and tend to beat myelf up about them.

You're recognizing some of your errors, which is good, but until you put more time in the air or in the tunnel its going to be difficult to fix them and commit them to muscle memory. as somone previously stated, less that 20 minutes in the air and taking a month off are not the best combination for confidence and flawless dives.

3 deep breaths and smiling before you approach the door and leave will physiologically force your body to relax. I like to shake my arms about to loosen up before i get in the door.

You can never go wrong with tunnel time. Its a great way to hone in those skills.

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melch

3 deep breaths and smiling before you approach the door



This! Take deep breaths and relax.

I know people with hundreds of jumps (myself included) who occasionally leave too early/late on an RW jump. If it happens, take a deep breath, get stable, and continue with the skydive. You're not going to be perfect every time. Even the world's top skydivers make mistakes sometimes. The fact that you have 18 jumps and are aware enough in freefall to notice any mistake you make is great.
"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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Our bodies are kind of kineticly assigned to the planet,, off world or just riding in a elevator can change a lot, jumping throws adrenaline in the mix that can realy alter our biochemical make up,, studying your mental state and what foods your eating, meditation, off airport stressors,, how you feel about yourself and you instructor or fellow jumpers,, were you are in the skydiving airport world,, like the ground,, gov buildings near by , and more,,. If you can get your eye open bigger on the ground, holding on to and remembering more in the air might get better as well.

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Think of it like this..... You have a total of 18 minutes of actual practice ( if you jump at a turbine DZ). Patience and practice! It take. Practice and only air time will get you there. Relax, breathe and enjoy.
"You don't get many warnings in this sport before you get damaged"

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I'm right there with you. I passed every level of my AFF the first time, did my solo and was feeling pretty good about everything. Yesterday, I started on my A License, and did ok (actually did one accuracy landing), but my exits were unstable, docking was good, tracking was ok, but not great, and I pulled late on all 3 jumps! I have never pulled late. If anything, I have always pulled early. I was feeling pretty discouraged, and then decided I would just do some fun jumps next time to relieve some of the pressure. Maybe you could think about something you have learned so far that you really enjoyed and just have fun for a few jumps.

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You're absolutely right. This perspective really helped. Thanks!

My coach said pretty much the same thing to me about bumping into others. In my mind, I know this is a team sport but this situation made it that much more real and showed me how my mistakes could potentially cause problems. Just a good learning lesson.

Thanks everyone for the encouraging posts! I really appreciate them!
Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
-Raymond Lindquist

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mrubin

You're not going to be perfect every time.



I was asked by one of my coaches what I was expecting and I said "a perfect jump!" :D Yeah, I do realize this, I just tend to be harder on myself.
Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
-Raymond Lindquist

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It's not a good feeling, right?! But hey, you got an accuracy landing and that's awesome!! I think that's a great idea, doing fun things for a few jumps. I told one of my coaches that I would like to just fall and try to maintain my heading next time. Throw some flips in just for fun. :)

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
-Raymond Lindquist

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Quote

The only improvement I recognized was that I'm slowly but surely becoming more aware in freefall. I'm actually remembering what's happening up there!



Then you are not regressing.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

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Please don't give up. You are reminding me when I had the same difficulties at the beginning. Some people started to look at me as a guy "having trouble" instead of helping me. Those people have left the sport years ago and here I am after more than 40 years and doing Canada 102 way record. If you are like me, you have to work harder to get someting but because of that, you get more details, appreciate more the sport and you are more understanding toward beginners having the same problem.:)

Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

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