Just Relax?

[Cepheus 0]

Ok, so I'm pretty much a skydive newbie. 7 jumps, 4 of which were tandems. In those 3 AFF jumps, I've managed to screw up 2 of them (both level 4). In both of them, I exit fine, go into my PRCTs fine, check altitude, and immediately start into an uncontrollable right spin... Everything I try to correct it seems to fail...

So my JM for my most recent jump (yesterday) tells me that if all else fails, just relax.

Easier said than done, right?

So how do you (or did you) get to the point where you can 'just relax'? I had this point fully on my mind during yesterday's jump, and still I was extremely stressed.

Though I do have one thing to be proud of, yesterday... I stood up my first landing
Tips? Pointers? STFU's? Thanks in advance.

--
Skydive -- testing gravity, one jump at a time.

[prepheckt 0]

here's a couple of tips that I got from my JM...DO relax....breathe...just before jump run..take a few deep breaths to calm yourself... When in freefall...take your time...do it right...don't throw yourself all over the sky to make sure you get the dive flow...take a sec...remember slow is fast.

"Dancing Argentine Tango is like doing calculus with your feet."
-9 toes

[AggieDave 6]

Breathe, do it. Before you give the count, take a deep breath and let it out. Next, smile, you're doing one of the greatest things on earth, enjoy the view.

A lot of students (fun jumpers too for that matter) have some control problem because they won't relax, they're worried about too many things and not focused on the jump. Let it go, you'll be surprised how much better your dive will go.

The plane ride.
"fagedaboutit" Look out the windows, enjoy the view. Touch your handles once or twice, think about your dive a couple times, then relax. Think about how much fun you're about to have.

The Door.
When it opens, enjoy the fresh air (since you'll probably have assholes like me on the load who tend to fart in planes), enjoy the cool breeze. Smile and laugh at the people going out the door (like lemmings sometimes) and think about how much fun you're about to have.

The count.
Focus, look in the eyes of your instructor, take that deep breath, let it out slowly, give the count and leave.

The Dive.
Go through your dive, smile.

The canopy.
Deploy. Don't worry about a malfunction, if you have one, you've been trained to deal with it and you've practiced your emergancy proceedures, take care of it if it happens. Otherwise, kick your feet, smile and laugh, you just had a great skydive. Look at the other canopies landing, setup your landing pattern, fly your pattern and land.

Alright, so what if your dive didn't quite go as planned, what if you even have to repeat a dive? So what. Were you safe? Did you have fun? Would you like to do it again? Then don't worry about it, smile, buy beer for the DZ (most important) and enjoy the company of fellow skydivers.

Every single skydiver experienced fear when they had lower jump numbers, that's natural, some of the best had to repeat student jumps when they were students even.

Bottom line: smile, breathe, have fun.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[prepheckt 0]

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smile, breathe, have fun.

Right on AggieDave...

"Dancing Argentine Tango is like doing calculus with your feet."
-9 toes

[Cepheus 0]

Fear isn't the problem, I think. I'm fine once I get to the door, and start the exit count. By then I'm pretty much committed to the jump (in my mind anyway), and besides, the way the wind hits me gets me going, hehe
I think the problem is that I'm simply concentrating too hard on the task at hand. I forget that I'm supposed to be having fun... As a result, I push myself too hard, get caught up in what I'm doing wrong, as if I'm doing this for a better reason than to enjoy it. Like I have to prove something to somebody.

>>shakes head
I'm fine under canopy. Set up my own landing pattern, got very little correction via radio -- mostly minor corrections that I would have made without prompting if given the chance. Landed on my feet, got applause (I am NOT used to applause)... People came up to me all day after that telling me 'great landing!' etc... Course, then they ask how the rest of the skydive went... lol

So I guess it is about fear. Fear of failure. But who am I failing, really? Like someone said in chat to me today, "The punishment is the same as the reward. You get to jump again." And I really do love it.

So what am I worried about?

Thanks for your post, Dave. Reading it got me grinning again.

--
Skydive -- testing gravity, one jump at a time.

[Michele 1]

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So what am I worried about?

Um, being perfect! Like the rest of us.

When I watch the video of the jumps I failed, I noticed I had this halfhearted smile on my face. Kinda like this:


I had my lips compressed, and you could see the frustration writ large throughout my body....

On the jumps I passed, I looked like this:

I was grinning so hard that my face wasn't flapping around...

I dunno why it works, but it does..."relax" never did it for me, and by jump #4 they stopped telling me that. I suppose that had something to do with me bursting into tears when Ed said that...

What's also bizarre is that if you grin like a fool, even if you don't believe it, even if you don't mean it, it works.

I also recall, when someone told me I was gonna have a hard time with a particular jump, I told him "nope, not me! I'll be fine"...even though I didn't think I would pass. Guess what? I passed.

So smile. Have confidence. Have fun. Play. I mean, you're flying for goodness sake! How amazing is that???

Ciels-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[bobsoutar 0]

Sounds like you're trying too hard. Relax and try this:- imagine that you are the instructor and that you are demonstrating (or showing off) how to do the manoeuvers to a student. Your thought pattern could go something like "I will demonstrate to you how to do it first and then I expect you to do the same, ok!"

[CrazyIvan 0]

Take a deep breath before exiting, just get a nice body position, don't force it, the wind will do that for you, just get symetric, enjoy the view and enjoy the skydive.
I'm also a student, and in my opinion is not fear what goes thru our minds, but, we tend to think too much on what we have to do in order to 'pass' the level, when you stop doing that, dude, you'll fly like an eagle, it works for me.
Hope that helps.

__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

[trfenwyd 0]

here's what I do.....I take a deep breath with my eyes closed, allowing the wind to push my body into the arch. Also, it could be that when you look at your alti, you're pulling in your arm. Remember to just twist the wrist.

jump safe, jump fun.

in vino veritas-
(there is truth in wine)

[Luminous 0]

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get caught up in what I'm doing wrong

This is the key statement, (IMO). Your thinking about what you just did instead of what your about to do.

You need to create yourself a mental "RESET" button. If something goes not as planned on the skydive, pause, "RESET", and continue with the skydive as planned. Deal with what went wrong in the debrief.

You've got a limited amount of time each jump, don't waste by debriefing, you can do that on the ground. And once on the ground you've got about 15seconds to berate yourself, (if necessary), then it's on to the next skydive.
That and the pre-jump preperations already posted oughta work.

BSBD

'In an insane society a sane person seems insane.' Mr. Spock

[BikerBabe 0]

One thing that might help (sort of along the lines of what Luminous posted) is something I didn't learn until I had hundreds of jumps.

When you get down to do the debrief, before you say a single word about what went wrong on the jump, pick out the things you did well. Tell your JM that you want to do the debrief this way. For example, you walk into the debrief room and sit down. Watch the video (if you have it) once through without saying anything. Then point out the GOOD things you did. "I think my PRCT's were really good this time. My exit was good too, I was nice and stable. And I had a kick-ass stand up landing!"

Now it's time to move on to improvements. Not "things you screwed up" but improvements you want to make next time. You may not know why you started spinning, but that's where your JM can help you out. And be specific on the improvements. "I want to work on not spinning" is a little too vague. If your JM says you dropped one leg, for example, then say, "I want to work on not dropping that leg next time".

I think this is an incredibly positive debrief style, and you learn so much. I learned this style of debrief from the best...it's the structure that Arizona Airspeed uses.

Here's some wise advice from Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld, one of the best skydivers in the world. On every single jump there is something good. Remember what that is, and forget the bad stuff. If you can replicate what was good, you'll be doing your best. That's why teams make "Best of" tapes as a training aid.

So on the ride to altitude, think "I was stable on exit and during my PRCT's...so that means I CAN fly stable. What was I doing then that I wasn't doing when I started spinning?" See what I mean?

Quote

get caught up in what I'm doing wrong

Get caught up in what you're doing RIGHT.

Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

[Meathorse 0]

OK, I'm a know nothing student but your situation sounds exactly like mine was, Cepheus. I failed a lv 4 last month because I needed to "relax". Like you I had uncontrollable spins, right ones that slowly built speed. There isn't a thing on the face of the earth that can calm me down in the plane. No happy thoughts or breathing excercises or anything could ease my nerves. Wasn't really scared... just tense.

This is the jump after my failure... first thing after exit and CoA I look over at my JM... he's laughing at me and giving the relax hand signal. Laughing at me in freefall! How funny
Anyways, the relax for me was less a mental thing and more a physical one. Now to work on staying sane in the plane
Good luck Ceph, don't be discouraged, it'll click soon enough!

[Cepheus 0]

Thanks for the help and support everyone.

I think I went into this whole thing with the completly wrong idea. I kept saying to myself 'I gotta finish AFF as soon as possible!' I see now that this is pretty self-destructive thinking, and just added yet another thing to get stressed about. Pointless, really.

So now, all I gotta do is chill. Not stressing is so much easier than stressing, I think. Requires less effort.
We'll see, won't we?

--
Skydive -- testing gravity, one jump at a time.

[SweCow 0]

Ground training & preparation!

Remember that relaxation is a physical ability!!! Train your manuvers on the ground, relaxed in your body and try to stress yourself up with stuff your worried about, then deal with it, but at all times remain relaxed and symetrical in your body...

just my 0.02

[wmw999 2,120]

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I relaxed the muscles in my shoulders and let the wind help determine the position of my arms. Boy did that make an amazing difference

That is a really key statement. Really. It's the perfect description of relaxing for me.

Once you're relaxed enough to feel the wind as your friend, then you can start to control your body, rather than trying to control the wind.

Wendy W.

[skybytch 259]

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Once you're relaxed enough to feel the wind as your friend, then you can start to control your body, rather than trying to control the wind.

Yup.

I know several instructors who swear by a no-pressure "relax" dive for students who are stuck on a level. The dive flow is simple - exit, arch, smile, geek the instructor, check altitude, smile, repeat until pull time. Having nothing else to focus on but the basic tasks of falling and pulling allows the "driven" to get a taste of what relaxed freefall feels like without the pressure that having to "pass" puts on them. Everytime I've seen this done the student has gone on to graduate.

[Cepheus 0]

Quote

I know several instructors who swear by a no-pressure "relax" dive for students who are stuck on a level. The dive flow is simple - exit, arch, smile, geek the instructor, check altitude, smile, repeat until pull time. Having nothing else to focus on but the basic tasks of falling and pulling allows the "driven" to get a taste of what relaxed freefall feels like without the pressure that having to "pass" puts on them. Everytime I've seen this done the student has gone on to graduate.

Maybe I'll ask my instructor about that. It does sound like a good idea.

--
Skydive -- testing gravity, one jump at a time.

[pilotdave 0]

I had the spins for a couple jumps. For me it was my legs. A toe tap helped me get some awareness of what my legs were doing. The whole relaxing thing never worked for me. It's just not possible to force yourself to relax. That will happen automatically when freefall control "clicks" for you. It'll happen. Suddenly on one jump you're just going to feel rock solid stable. Just keep working at the body position and find out what's causing the spin. Your instructors should be able to tell you if its your arms, legs, or something else.

The stress will end when the spins end, not the other way around. Just keep trying!

Dave

[AirMail 0]

You'll get it soon. Your instructor should be able to tell you exactly what is making you spin. Maybe your arm, or one foot turned in. Don't fight it. I too was tense throughout my student dives. I'd screw one up and then kick myself around for screwing up. After AFF I did a couple of solo jumps with no objectives set for the dive, then went back to the coach dives feeling a lot more relaxed.

And think of this. Your instructors wouldn't let you do this if they thought you were better suited for a different sport.

Have a good time. Millions of people don't know how much fun skydiving is. You do.

Patrick

--
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
Postal Rodriguez, Muff 3342

[Cepheus 0]

Thanks for the help, everyone.

--
Skydive -- testing gravity, one jump at a time.

[flailchick 0]

You might try adding the deep breath & telling yourself to relax to your visualization. Something like this: "Prop, Up, Down, Arch, Present Hips to wind, deep breath, relax, check left....." just try adding those steps to the visualization of your dive flow for your mental practice.
You'll do fine. We've ALL felt the same way at one time or another - I got stuck on clear and pulls had to do 9 of them instead of the required three!

[eyeinthesky 0]

i am new at this too, with only 11 jumps. i went through static progression. it sounds hard to do considering what we are doing, but relaxing is really the key. once i let go of the strut, no matter what the instructor told me to perform, the only thing i worry about is getting stable. let go, and thrust your pelvis as far forward as you can and make sure your legs are back (that got me until an instructor went out behind me and told me what i did wrong). once stable, everything is pretty easy to accomplish. then i just have to worry about the landing ( i hit the target perfectly first time off radio and have never hit it since, not even close, haha). like already said, just enjoy the ride up, take in the view, crack jokes, laugh at the funny stickers in the plane, and give everything one last check before leaping. my last jump i had a slight turning problem like you mentioned also. i just lifted the corresponding arm a bit to turn the opposite direction. if youre that tense, you cant tell how funky a position youre holding your body in!



never let anyone in your will pack your chute

hey, i was stupid before stupid was cool!

[Zenister 0]

i was seriously potato chipping on my first few jumps Joe (my JM) kept telling me to relax...then on AFF 4 i just did a kata prep exercise on the way to altitude and everything was beautiful..its fairly simple and may help.
close your eyes..(vizualize your dive flow while doing this and remember to see your self having fun)
slowly exhale thru your nose to a slow count of 10. (make it slow enough you reach 10 with breath left)

inhale thru your mouth for the same slow 10 count.

repeat 3 times. open your eyes, check your gear,(and those around you, ie. chest straps primarily)

deep breath as you exit helps to..( i like to exhale on go...but dont let that throw your count, its not important at all..)

daves words ring best, after all just remember your about to jump out of an airplane, how can that not be the coolest thing going?

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[FliegendeWolf 0]

This reminds me of my Level 7 dive. After the diving exit, I went into a mad spin. My JM later told me that she watched me go around like 7 or 8 times and was about to get really annoyed that she was going to have to stop me on a level 7. Then, she said she watched me tense up, flail a bit, and then just sort of give up. Once I gave up, I relaxed, and got into a perfect arch.

Very counterintuitive, trying to relax as you're screaming toward the ground at 120 miles per hour...

A One that Isn't Cold is Scarcely a One at All