Icon134 0 #1 May 27, 2005 I was doing some RW coaching last weekend at one point in the weekend the RW coach noticed that I was wearing a Carnegie Mellon University T-Shirt. Then after asking if I had gone there he suggested that any problems I might have in the sky could be because I'm "thinking too much." How much of a part does intellegence play in the ability to be a good skydiver? Scott btw: Personally, I'm more inclined to believe my lack of reliable ability has more to do with the fact that I only have a little over 100 jumps... and that any percieved intellegence will only benifit my overall skill level in the end...Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MarkM 0 #2 May 27, 2005 He was accusing you of being smart? The bastard... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #3 May 27, 2005 QuoteHe was accusing you of being a smartass? The bastard... I've corrected it for you... seriously though... not smart... too smart but whatever... that's not the point...Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
panzwami 0 #4 May 27, 2005 I think a lot of it is putting trust in your training and believing that you are in possession of the skills necessary to do what you are doing. Instead of thinking of each little individual step of which arm and leg to move in which way to turn yourself the right way to get into the next point, the thought process becomes streamlined to simply "turn." The training that you have already built up will take over and get you there. You need to have the intelligence to learn the proper way to do something and commit that information to memory, but also the belief in your own ability to allow yourself to operate from that training. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ianmdrennan 2 #5 May 27, 2005 QuoteHow much of a part does intelligence play in the ability to be a good skydiver? 'Thinking too much' has little to do with intellect and more to do with psyche. Overthinking the situation is almost guaranteed to have you perform more poorly. Relaxation and faith in your ability to perform will provide much more satisfying results. That's probably what the person was getting at. Blues, IanPerformance Designs Factory Team Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AMax 0 #6 May 27, 2005 There is a great skydiving book - "The inner game of tennis" Just replace "tennis" with "skydiving" when you read it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peej 0 #7 May 27, 2005 QuoteQuoteHow much of a part does intelligence play in the ability to be a good skydiver? 'Thinking too much' has little to do with intellect and more to do with psyche. Overthinking the situation is almost guaranteed to have you perform more poorly. Relaxation and faith in your ability to perform will provide much more satisfying results. That's probably what the person was getting at. Blues, Ian That's the head of the nail right there. What blew me away about freefly coaching with Eli Thompson was the way he looks at human flight. I doubt i'm going to do his wisdom any justice when i paraphrase him here but basically what he was saying is that good skydivers don't think about where they need to be, they know. He says that if you're thinking about what you need to do next you're thinking in the past while where you really need to be is in the future. To paraphrase another famous brand: Just Do It. Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ianmdrennan 2 #8 May 27, 2005 QuoteI doubt i'm going to do his wisdom any justice when i paraphrase him here but basically what he was saying is that good skydivers don't think about where they need to be, they know. He says that if you're thinking about what you need to do next you're thinking in the past while where you really need to be is in the future. I think that's a perfect description. Wise words. Blues, IanPerformance Designs Factory Team Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
calledisrael 0 #9 May 27, 2005 exactly. this is my biggest problem in skydiving - i am sometimes more busy thinking than i am responding. and i am learning how to do better with this, thanks to good instruction. my tandem instructor before i did aff called it on me right there. think *less*, he said, not that intelligence is bad, but you have to act out of it. "too much thinking can kill you." and i have learned what he meant when i ended up as a student in a low-pull incident. good, consistent training has proven so important to me. way more than all the books i have read about jumping and all the analysis i can do of situations - i value my teacher who taught me to put that aside in the right moment and just do my EPs out of response and muscle memory. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 2,384 #10 May 27, 2005 >I might have in the sky could be because I'm "thinking too much." Could be. Overthinking is a problem that some people have. I had it for a while, and I've seen it in a lot of my students. It takes a while to get to the point where you just go rather than think. >How much of a part does intellegence play in the ability to be a good skydiver? Not too much. You need good reflexes, the ability to memorize things, the ability to see ahead of what you're doing (i.e. to be one step ahead of the dive) and the ability to see well (i.e. see a lot of things going on very fast and pick out what's important.) But you don't need to be able to do calculus, or see patterns in number sequences, to do any of that. I know some amazing 4-way people who cannot for the life of them figure out why the 45 degree rule doesn't work. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FrogNog 1 #11 May 27, 2005 I had someone say I thought too much last Summer when I said I thought there was something wrong with having the door partially open at 200 feet. I wasn't thinking enough to put my finger on it until the next jump: we close the door on takeoff because we're still wearing our seatbelts and we want to keep our pilot chutes inside the plane. Later I read some stuff Bill Booth and other inventive riggers came up with, and how they thought stuff through and came up with reasons for rigging things certain ways. I was stunned - way more detail, thinking, planning, what-ifs, and testing than I ever realized. So for some parts of this sport, I don't think anyone can think too much. -=-=-=-=- Pull. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #12 May 27, 2005 QuoteI know some amazing 4-way people who cannot for the life of them figure out why the 45 degree rule doesn't work. It doesn't work?!? j/k... I've looked at Kallend's work... I usually keep my mouth shut when people try to tell me about the 45 deg rule... just nod your head and count... Quote Overthinking is a problem that some people have. I should point out that it isn't something I'm tooo worried about... I usually can get to a point where I shut down and as Peej said "Just do it." to some extent I think its just me trying to learn as a new jumper. (I noticed in one of my tracks last weekend that I was relatively unstable... this only happened after I had asked for instruction on how to improve my track...) also for about the first 30 or so jumps I had stability problems right outside the door and it wasn't until I "just relaxed and let my body arch" that I corrected it... thanks for the input...Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cocheese 0 #13 May 28, 2005 I skydive, therfore I am. I think. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnMitchell 14 #14 May 30, 2005 Quote I skydive, therfore I am. I think. You're putting DeCartes before the (post) whores? No offense intended. Just a chance for a cheap philosophy pun. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Orange1 0 #15 May 30, 2005 Quote I skydive, therfore I am. I think. You're putting DeCartes before the (post) whores? you guys crack me up!! LOLSkydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cocheese 0 #16 May 30, 2005 QuoteQuoteI skydive, therfore I am. I think.You're putting DeCartes before the (post) whores?No offense intended. Just a chance for a cheap philosophy pun.Very clever. I'm not that edumacated to be that punny. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
popsjumper 2 #17 May 30, 2005 Quote... btw: Personally, I'm more inclined to believe my lack of reliable ability has more to do with the fact that I only have a little over 100 jumps... and that any percieved intellegence will only benifit my overall skill level in the end... Scott, I believe that what was being said to you was just that....you, along with me and many others are at a point where we are still thinking about how to do instead of what to do..... I still catch myself thinking "drop right knee, slide right, arch" when I should be thinking, "next point is a meeker and then a transistion to a bundy". By the time I think "drop right knee, slide right, arch", I've missed my slot in the meeker. Ahhhh, don't fret it....we'll get there sooner or later... The good part is that you're not stupid like some of us! My reality and yours are quite different. I think we're all Bozos on this bus. Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnMitchell 14 #18 May 30, 2005 I was reading an article by a sport psychologist not too long ago. Supposedly they did some brain activity studies on golfers. When the amatuers were teeing off, the brain was buzzing, ("head down, eye on the ball, lock that elbow" . . .whatever) When the pros were teeing off, the brain was just . . .quiet, nice and relaxed. Maybe that's what "in the zone" is all about. I tell my FJC students that when they jump from the plane, their brain is going to be really busy. I tell them I'm training their body to do the right thing. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
adamsr 0 #19 May 30, 2005 it can be a problem, just think about driving, when you come to a bend in the road, do you think:- "i'll have to slow down a bit then turn the wheel in a certain direction and follow the road" i know i dont think that, i just do it. it should be the same with jumping, and skills that you've learn should just happen rather than being a concious effort. when i want to turn in freefall i just do it rather than thinking what parts of my body i should move. Some of the best coaching i've had was with the babylon freefly team, they give you a short brief on the dive, but their main techniqu is to say just keep eye contact and follow me, i was only just getting into freeflying and learning sit, but by starting off backflying with the coach above me, and him moving down over my head it forced me to go head down (briefly) without even knowing it! I'm sure if he'd told me to go head down i wouldn't have been able to Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #20 May 31, 2005 I made an effort this weekend to just fly... not to over think things... it was interesting... I recall on one of my jumps I wanted to side slide back to the formation... (I was pretty far away from it...) but I did manage to slide to the formation... I also managed to fly right past it... Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
