Are you a "goal oriented" skydiver?

[AndyMan 7]

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Anyone else noticed this in themselves or in others?

Absolutely. Currently I'm working towards being a first class camera flyer. The short term goal is to be making good money working with tandems.

After that, Get my performance landings to the point where I can get my PRO rating through high performance flight.

_Am

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You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[skyjules 0]

I know i'm quite the newbe with only 30 jumps but I just passed my solo and every weekend i'm on the DZ. I love this sport and I am working hard to get good at it. There are alot of helpful people with good tips on the DZ and on this site. My main goal when I started was to get the skydiving experience so that I could base jump. I still want to base jump but I definitely will stay current with my skydiving.***Free bird Forever

[skr 1]

>Are you a "goal oriented" skydiver?

Only slightly.

I once took the Meyers Briggs test which
shed some light on this.

For me goals can provide some direction
for my logical mind, but they provide little
moment to moment motivation for taking all
the steps to get there.

Skr

[Squeak 17]

go here and odwnload the "B licence manual"
it has drill that you need for your B license here in Oz.
http://www.apf.asn.au/apf_services/publications.asp

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[JustRelax 0]

My goal is to fly a parachute down mountains like the DVD Out of the Blue. Before that it was wing suit flying, but the mountain thing has replaced the first. I then generally approach my skydiving to build the skills for that, even though it will take me a year or two. I am old enough to realise that reaching the goal is only that. I therefore make much of my connection with my DZ, the people there and my part with them. Doing things with people is far more important to me than the thing itself. Treasure it all, I say and then enjoy reaching the goal.

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Taking risk is part of living well - it's best to learn from other peoples mistakes, rather than your own.

[mjosparky 3]

My goals in skydiving are to find the right plane, get out of the right door, at the right time and remember to pull. But the big one is to enjoy the friendships I have made and will make in skydiving. Skydiving is recreation and I wish to keep it that way.
Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[jettero 0]

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Anyone else noticed this in themselves or in others?

Pretty low timer here, but I've already noticed this. It's more difficult to motivate myself to invest a saturday at the DZ when I don't have something to work toward. The good part is, at my level, I have goals like, "learn how to land" and "learn to pack."

Right now I'm working on my A... Two jumps to go (hopefully).

[smiles 0]

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I do learn a little from each jump, but I feel like I could learn more if I had one particular skill to focus on at that time.

There is a skill to focus on you may not be thinking about........sorry this is so long..........I am trying to share with you a feeling that is hard to describe and mostly cannot be achieved unless the individuals attitude towards it is positive.

Every jump you make costs money- the more jumps you have to repeat in order to work out your problem the more expensive the solution to that problem becomes. When you are in the air with people that know as little as you do, the inevitable result will be funnels, smashing docks, unintentional rodeos and unforseen collisions. The constant failure is an unwelcomed blow to your ego and enthusiasm. Also you can learn bad habbits that will be difficult to break later on and you easily become discouraged.
............Emotions
The kind of things you say to yourself are an important indication of the way you feel about yourself. Emotions can become a problem in any sport. Some people tend to be too aggressive, some suppress the normal amount of aggressiveness needed. You may lack confidence, or have too much of it.

.............Distance
There is a distance between your level of skydiving knowledge, ability and skills- that will in time become not so far away. Try to stay enthusiastic, confident....do not let baggage get in the way of being able to feel the real joy, the exuberance that comes when you make a dive that is your best, that is better than you ever dreamed it could be. Make small acheivable goals for yourself and keep them simple. Mostly keep the spectator part of you "in the stands and behaving as an encouraging, supportive fan rather than an agent provocatuer, you'll have made that initial big move toward that much happier situation.

This is hard to explain............not easy to practice but a very important goal to work on. I try to explain it over and over, some people get it fast...others do not understand. Say for instance you are learning to dance. First you memorize the steps by repeating them over and over- practise makes perfect but you are unable to let go and really dance until you know the steps so well that you are not repeating them in your brain like "tripple step, tripple step, rock step"..........instead your brain is quiet and wow! - you are actually listening to the music, feeling the beat, and moving your body to it-------not thinking once about the steps....


There is so little time on your skydive- and if you understand that ....."Thought destroys flow".......you will be so far ahead.
What is ....flow???? many ask........
There is no sense of the self in the period of flow, but what is called a "merging of action and awareness." Flow is a floating action in which the individual is aware of their actions but not aware of their awareness. Thought destroys flow---during your skydive if you are thinking while leaving the aircraft about where your feet are positioned, if you have thoughts like "oh no that wasn't good", or "did everyone see that?"....your flow stops. If the second is split so that the player perceives their action from the outside....flow halts. The person in flow does not stop to evalutate the feedback. The action and reaction have become so well practiced as to be automatic.
The more freefall time you acummilate- the more sense of flow will develop- you will be able to leave the aircraft and fly your body without thought of how it is positioned, or thoughts of how good/bad you are doing on the dive.
There is ecstasy associated with the most intense moments of flow....you will reach this level eventually......... and this is why I skydive.


SMiles

[curtismelaniej 0]

Come to Excel, girlfriend!!!! I live and breathe 4-way, and basic skill work, and woule LOVE to help you get a new 4-way team going. I am ALL about that! (Actually, this Saturday, my friend Elisa will be out jumping with me at Excel too-- she's yet another 4-way addict, and amazing flyer.

PS to this post. Goal oriented? Um, I honestly don't think I know how to be any other way. Idleness drives me nuts!

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http://www.skydiveelsinore.com/teams/EXCEL/basic_camp.html

[tbrown 26]

And Melanie, you really put your effort into those Excel Camps, I was having a great time and actually getting somewhere with them before my little "boo-boo" this spring (but the ankle pin comes out this week, so I'm on the mend).

In the old days we'd learn our skills a little at a time, mostly by jumping a lot and living through some hairy situations. After returning to the sport from an absence of over twenty years, I see that so much has changed, but mostly with the learning process. We've learned how to do a lot more with our bodies in freefall and much better ways of teaching those skills more effectively. At today's prices it would be just plain stupid to go on flinging one's body out of an airplane without learning something new all the time. In the old days I was never even nearly as good as I wanted to be. Now that I'm back, I want to learn to fly with more grace and control, and if I don't become a great flier, at least a respectable one. And have fun doing it too, it's sooooo damn expensive it's just gotta be fun or else it makes no sense.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[SarahC07 0]

After reading all that you wrote.. I was thinking... 'man, she sounds like me'... except I think you tried a little harder than I did... I was extremely frustrated early on.

My solution: I stopped jumping more than once in a one week period (sometimes two weeks) and now I'm saving money. I will get better at flying!! I'm trying to do SDU with an awesome instructor at my dropzone. It is going to happen!!! It was like one day it hit me. I made it easy on myself: I had two options... one, stop jumping all together (which wasn't going to happen) or two, get some good (and unfortunately expensive) coaching... And there I had it!

Being at the dropzone and not jumping sucks... but it will be worth it in the end. The SDU coach is fabulous and I can't wait to get started!! He has told that 'Skydiving kicked his butt' and I have a feeling it's kicking mine (or will be).

I think being a goal orientated skydiver will be in my future.. but right now I have one goal and only one: saving money to get some fantastic coaching. I will go from there....

Good luck to you!

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[Mad47 0]

It is amazing that for many of those who used to dream about standing on a podium gold turned to be just an intermediate goal.

[Conundrum 1]

As great as it is to just jump and have fun, I try to take something new away with me on every single jump. I love learning and jumping with experienced jumpers and having them teach me. Leaning new skills and improving the ones I have learned.

I want to one day to compete in 4-way... and win.