Coach Jumps and Nerves

[MagicGuy 0]

Today was my birthday so I was determined to get to the DZ for the first load. There was some RW organizing going on and one of the coaches offered to do some forward movement stuff with me.. kind of like a free coach dive really.

The plan was do a floating exit with her holding my harness. Once stable she was going to backslide and I was to 'track' towards her and dock. This was going to happen 3 times.

Well, we did the floater exit, she let go of me and damnit, I just could not get steady. I don't know what the hell was wrong with me - I was potato-chipping all over the place. I got steady right before deployment time and didn't manage to do any of the docking or forward movement that was planned.

I was really discouraged. Not only because I felt like I wasted the coaches time, but because I couldn't do the simplest part of skydiving - - ARCH.

Now I'm scared to even do another coach jump, especially a paid one. The arch is the most important part of the whole dive and I need to be confident that I can do that. I am 19 jumps and I really want to ge my A before the season ends in November.

I haven't jumped in 3 weeks and it was my first jump of the day, so I am not getting TOO down on myself for that reason. But what can I do to make this better? I need to be confident of my arch. Is practicing it on the ground worth my time? If not, what can I do to work on this? It's really bothering me..

[NWFlyer 2]

Practicing on the ground never hurt anyone, so that's always a good thing.

I suspect though, at 18 jumps, you didn't forget to arch, you forgot to RELAX. You'd had three weeks off ... I know when I was a student three weeks was like FOREVER and I had all my nerves come rushing back.

I was the student from hell. For me, it was one step forward, two steps back. Stuff that I thought I had dialed in on one jump was a struggle a few jumps later. You're putting together an awful lot of puzzle pieces and sometimes you're going to leave some out. As long as you remember the ones that will save your life (and you did, because you were altitude aware, you pulled, and you landed safely and are here to write about it), the rest will come together for you eventually.

Get back on the horse and keep trying and if you can, don't pressure yourself to finish by a certain time. You may be able to do hop & pops through the winter (and/or travel) to stay current... if you're still working on your A early next season, so what? You're still skydiving!

If doing a solo just to get you back in the comfort zone of a relaxed, stress-free skydive is what it takes, then do it. But don't worry about "wasting a coach's time"... they've seen it all, and what you did, while frustrating for you, at least wasn't scary for the coach!

(Caveat: I'm not an instructor, just someone who took 37 jumps over 7 months to get my A license... and I still felt less skilled than people who got it in 25).

And happy birthday.

"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

[xlh883 0]

Some of your problem besides the usual relaxation was probably the time off. I got my A license 6 weeks ago and got injured the same day. I had been unable to jump until yesterday. I was nervous and tense. I did alright on the first jump, but the second and third were so much better.

I had similar problems during my AFF and coach jumps. The first jump of the day always seemed to suck and eb a waste. It was like beign in a rut. I couldn't change it. Eventually though, the first jump of the day turned into the best of the day several times.

Keep working on it and it will come.

David

[feuergnom 22]

Quote

because I felt like I wasted the coaches time

did she tell you that you wasted her time and talk rude to you? no? didn't read that in your post.
so quit giving yourself a hard time and get in the air again. obviously the lesson to learn was to relax. next time you jump out of an airplane, don't forget to smile and breathe - that makes a lot of things easier

The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle

dudeist skydiver # 666

[yoink 321]

I've fucked up coached jumps before doing stuff that's easy on solos or with friends...

Sometimes the added pressure you put on yourself to perform has a detremental effect - you tense up and stop skydiving well.

If it happens, take a big breath, let it out and smile... Relax...

Remember it's still supposed to be a fun jump!

[peckerhead 0]

>>>>It's really bothering me..

Dude, lighten up! At 19 jumps the most important thing is to have fun. You will get it, just don't put so much pressure on yourself. Every single one of us went through the same thing.

You did not waste anyones time....jumping with students is the coaches job. If you are paying student rates she got a free jump out of it and hopefully learned something herself.

[kkeenan 13]

Do some more solo jumps and just practice relaxation and heading control. Once you have a few more jumps, you won't be as nervous.

Your main task should be making a lot of routine jumps and practice being safe and getting down in one piece. As long as you can keep flying safely and landing safely, then you can continue learning.

Kevin K.

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

[snakeeater 0]

she pretty?

that might have been the reason for you not to relax..

maybe you want to do a solo at the begin of the day next time. just to get confident. it takes a while and a few jumps to really relax in freefall (or at least it took me a while). so, my advice would be not to put too much pressure on yourself until you feel really "at home" in that element. forget about that A licence for the next few jumps and have fun. that might help..

"He tried to kill me! He tried to f***ing kill me!"

[Orange1 0]

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I've fucked up coached jumps before doing stuff that's easy on solos or with friends...

Sometimes the added pressure you put on yourself to perform has a detremental effect - you tense up and stop skydiving well.

ditto! happened to me a couple of times - i'd practice the moves on a solo, do it perfectly and stuff up with the coach. One of my coaches has invented an in air signal which means "relax"!! i did much better on my coach jumps once i stopped treating them as "tests".

Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

[idlewild70 0]

Corey,


who were you doing coach jumps with? im sure you werent wasting her time. just relax and have fun. that will help you out. are you going to make it up to jumptown this weekend?


fish

-Fish


Blue skies, Soft landings

[Darius11 12]

Corey

Just keep jumping bro.
You should have seen my first track attempted actually I have it on video if you ever hang out I’ll show it to you. What a fucking joke. Now I consider tracking to be one of the few things I am good at and I enjoy a lot.

Give it time. Remember the cool kids who do all the cool shit have thousands jumps. We have plenty of time to learn.

I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

[MagicGuy 0]

Yeah, I know I shouldn't get down on myself. I'm a bit (ha!) of a perfectionist. I like to pick things up quickly and tend to get irritated with myself when I can't. Call me stubborn I suppose.

As always, thanks for the advice, guys. Fish, I did the jump with Leslie. And of course, it was still fun, just frustrating that I couldn't friggin' arch.

Oh by the way, no she wasn't pissed, or rude.. just had some advice. I think I was just thinking too much about the task at hand that I wasn't thinking about having fun. It brought me back to the days of AFF.. a whole month and a half ago

[damion75 0]

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she wasn't pissed, or rude.. just had some advice.

Of course she wasn't annoyed - she knew your experience levels and wanted to help out! As a coach this won't be the first time that she has had a jump like that. And doing that on 19 jumps? don't beat yourself up - I bet I wasn't even that good!

Just make sure you take that advice and put it to good use...

***************

Not one shred of evidence supports the theory that life is serious - look at the platypus.

[VampireGirl 0]

Well done for recognising this so early. Now you can start working on it. I get horrible "Coach Jump Nerves" when I jump with a coach and I always have to do a couple of jumps with them before I relax.

Speak to the person you jumped with and be honest about having performance anxiety. I always do this before the jump and then it feels not quite so bad.

I can really really relate, mate, as this is something I really struggle with. Just take your time and talk to your coach, let them know if you think the jump planned is too ambitious, and maybe make a plan A and a plan B, as in, we will do X and if all goes well, we will do X and Y, but the main focus of the jump is X, making less for you to push yourself to do.

I hope this helps and makes sense.

xx

Sarah

www.sneale-create.com

[popsjumper 2]

I think the layoff contributed more than anything.

While performance anxiety could play a large part, that's easy to fix if you simply tell yourself to have fun. Any coach worth his/her salt will not consider jumping with a 19-jumper as wasted time. We are here for you to use and to learn from...it's not about us, it's about you and your skill development and most importantly, your fun.

You didn't sound like you had much fun because you were worrying about "performing" and meeting standards - whether your own or the coach's.

As was said before...simply relax and have fun. Skills will come more quickly if you relax and let it happen, as it will, rather than beat yourself up about not being an "expert" right off the bat.

One of these days you are going to look back and have a good chuckle over what you are going through right now...believe me...you will.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[racer42 0]

Breath Relax Enjoy. I really enjoy coaching. We're just there to observe, make suggestions and have fun!

L.A.S.T. #24
Co-Founder Biscuit Brothers Freefly Team
Electric Toaster #3
Co-Founder Team Non Sequitor
Co-Founder Team Happy Sock

[mailin 0]

Quote

You should have seen my first track attempted actually I have it on video if you ever hang out I’ll show it to you. What a fucking joke.

You should ask to see his AFF jumps too

Seriously, if you have the money go buy 10 min. in the tunnel. Heck, I'll split some time with you if you want to carpool up to NH. 10 min. and all your problems will be solved

I'm not kidding - really. I've got just over 4 hours in the tunnel and I've never had trouble in the sky (minus tracking which Darius is gonna help me with , can't really practice that in the tunnel). Now, under canopy, I've always been a bit of a 'special needs' parachutist


PM me if you want a tunnel buddy


Jen

Arianna Frances

[Pubwoof 0]

Forward movement, fall rate control, and tracking/swooping are all skills that you'll be learning long after you've gotten that coveted A-license (just ask around if you don't believe me). The point of the coach jumps isn't so much that you learn these skills the first time out, but to get you thinking about these kinds of things while still having a safe jump. Let me ask you, did you maintain altitude awareness? Did you have a safe wave-off and deployment at the right time? If you did have a safe skydive, then your coach jump accomplished what it was supposed to accomplish even if you weren't a brilliant tracker your first time out.

Where students go wrong in their coach jumps is being overly fixated on the task at hand. When this happens, students and licensed jumpers alike fail to maintain altitude and situational awareness which is unsafe. What you should hope to learn from your coach jumps is the ability to think about these or other new concepts in the air without neglecting any of the things you need to do to stay alive. Until you can do these things without really thinking about them, focusing on whether you moved forward or not is contrary to the very purpose of coach jumps.

From your description, I'd think your bigger issue on that jump was more relaxing than arching (which probably wasn't a problem unless you were spinning on your back). Relaxing is more than a state-of-mind thing in freefall, but also how you fly your body. The air in which your falling isn't perfectly clean in the same way a highway's surface is never perfectly smooth. Like the shock absorbers in a car, your limbs should have a certain amount of flex in them. The more tension with which you hold your arms and legs, the more potato-chipping you can expect to have. Stiff suspension, bumpy ride, stiff limbs, bumpy flight. Your coach should be your first source about these things since she was the one with you. Don't be so hard on yourself, good luck, and blue ones.

The glass isn't always half-full OR half-empty. Sometimes, the glass is just too damn big.

[howardwhite 5]

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(minus tracking which Darius is gonna help me with , can't really practice that in the tunnel).

Next time you're there, tell Derek (or whoever is your instructor) you want to track. He'll grip you just below the knee and (so he tells me) you can track as hard as you want.

[DougH 270]

Don't worry about it Corey. You will get it. Just relax!!! I had the worst time for my first couple of jumps in AFF because I wanted to do EVERYTHING perfectly. Don't be hard on yourself at all, you are going to hit a point where the relaxation and the feeling in the air is going to click. You aren't going to become a skygod over night, but once you reach that point you won't be fighting yourself with stress.

All that matters is you land safely and you don't kill any one. All the stuff in between is gravy.

If I can get licensed you can too.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[MagicGuy 0]

Ha, thanks Doug. Sorry you didn't get in the air this weekend. Damn winds yesterday sucked but I managed to make two jumps once they died down.

For the first time I think since AFF I actually felt what a good arch was like yesterday. Last load of the day, did a fun jump with a coach (who's the man, by the way) and we managed to fall at the same rate - a whole 97MPH . It was the most fun I've had on a jump yet. To be hanging out with a good friend during a skydive and actually doing it right felt pretty damn cool.

Thanks for the help guys. I'm getting there...

[DougH 270]

I wish I could fall that slow. LOL When I was in AFF I was averagin 130+ lol. Now I am down to an average of 120 if I don't start doing stuff like flips.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P