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Student Training Difficulties

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Hey guys. I'm a student in training in the IAD program. I'd like to dedicate this post to discussing the mental barriers that we have all experienced while just getting started with our skydiving training. It would be very beneficial to me, personally, and all other skydiver-in-training, to hear about your difficulties as a student and how you overcame them. Thanks.

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If you have time to search, there are plenty of threads about newbies overcoming their fears. Not sure what the best search terms would be, but "fear" would be a good one.

Good luck!
It's not like skydiving can kill you... oh wait... it can... never mind!

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...mental barriers that we have all experienced while just getting started with our skydiving training.

***

By 'mental barriers' I take it you mean fear?

'We' all have different fears & different ways of dealing with them, back in my training I was more afraid of failing than I was of getting hurt or dead.

I asked questions, read a lot and worked to be a good - safe student.

Remember Skydiving is an elective...it isn't required, if you are too blocked by 'mental barriers' there are other things to do. ;)











~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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This might be a help to you. It is the student logbook of Wendy Faulkner. She has had a VERY successful career of jumping, despite a rocky start. She has over 8000 jumps and at least one skydiving world record (shared with 99 other CReW dawgs). She now makes her living as a skydiver. As you can see from her logbook, she had some trouble as a student.

http://crwdog.servebeer.com/CRWdog/HowCRW.html
The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

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I started jumping in 1975. I messed up my second DRCP attempt, and ended up with such gut-wrenching fear that I still remember it. But once I got to freefall (jump #8), it pretty much went away.

Not that I was a natural, but at least the gut-wrenching part of the fear was left. It was replace, fortunately, with a respect for what I was doing, but at least it became fun again.

Wendy P.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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...mental barriers that we have all experienced while just getting started with our skydiving training.

***

By 'mental barriers' I take it you mean fear?

'We' all have different fears & different ways of dealing with them, back in my training I was more afraid of failing than I was of getting hurt or dead.

I asked questions, read a lot and worked to be a good - safe student.

Remember Skydiving is an elective...it isn't required, if you are too blocked by 'mental barriers' there are other things to do. ;)



I had an irrational fear of leg straps breaking.
My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

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Hey guys. I'm a student in training in the IAD program. I'd like to dedicate this post to discussing the mental barriers that we have all experienced while just getting started with our skydiving training. It would be very beneficial to me, personally, and all other skydiver-in-training, to hear about your difficulties as a student and how you overcame them. Thanks.



I was a pretty nervous student up until exit. I got over it......by jumping.
Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

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:(

Let me explain something to ya kid, :)
You are about to learn something, that for a time we can not teach you enough, nor you can retain all of the information that you need in order to survive in the worst case event.

Let me explain this another way,...untill you gain some experience, you (All of us really) can not nor will you be able to have the knowledge needed at the time you need it to survive anything other than the perfect jump. There is a point, when just getting started, that the mental barriers are truly mental barriers.

Another way of looking at this is if you can learn a little about flying a helicopter,...we call this the "Dead Mans Curve," it's the point you don't want to be at in the H / V envelope, it's a transition area that you have to get through.

If someone can train you knowing that no matter what they do as an instructor, your learning as much as you can but your brain can't possibly access all of the information needed in every eventuality,...

At least your going to do the decent thing and overcome any mental barriers that you can think up!

Other than that, you come to us with the desire and drive to achive your goals, I'm not going to talk you into this,....It's up to you to survive your mental barriers.

This is an open forum, this is just one opinion, don't take my head off,........:)

Good luck :)
I mentioned "the perfect jump," and before anyone takes off my head, I'm making a reference to the fact that being a student is a very diffucult thing because of some of the mental process involved can not be overcome. Evolution didn't do us any favors when it comes to skydiving...that's just the way it is. Obviously every student has a differing threshold and many jumps don't go perfectly and the outcome is great. That's why we have two jumpmasters with Cat. A's , right? I'm speaking more twords the reasons we "have two Affi's" and really need both. [:/]
But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

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I was a pretty nervous student up until exit. I got over it......by jumping.



^

I don't think a thread with a bunch of anecdotes is the thing, other than as examples that people overcame their issues. Each student is different.

I think finding a good instructor, and then trusting them enough to talk about your fears honestly is the best way. Hopefully, if it's normal fear, his interest and information is good enough. (don't read this wrong, people. it's not a freaking therapy session, it's a couple of exchanges during question and answer parts of the normal training)

If the fear is irrational and affects performance, then the instructor should get the chance to know that as well (either advise the student to quit or get professional counseling, then). Gladly, I've never encountered this....so far.

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or, suck it up, make that first jump or two, and see the reality of it before deciding to be scared......trust me, we know who's got a bit of fear during the training, it's never very well hidden.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

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you (All of us really) can not nor will you be able to have the knowledge needed at the time you need it to survive anything other than the perfect jump.



You lost me there. And maybe it's semantics, and a metaphorical meaning or implication or something you are going for there and I'm missing it. If so I apologize in advance.

However, if you truly mean this literally, I find myself here disagreeing with you completely. Personal experience example (and just one of several), and personally witnessed:

1st jump student (AFF) - Tumbles BADLY at pull-time. Enough so that he flings-off his reserve-side instructor - bending RADICALLY and suddenly in a completely unanticipated way trying to reach his main deployment hackey. Grabs his harness and will not release. Pulled-out by the main-side instructor, but the main PC somehow gets "sucked" back into the still badly tumbling student's burble & lodges between the rig & the students back, as he rotates over yet ANOTHER 360 summer-salt. - :o - In other words, clearly far from the perfect jump!

During this whole sequence of events, the student does the right thing - and starts his EP's. Another rotation of the summer-salt occurs and this time around - right AFTER the student has pulled cutaway, the main PC launches. ...I think I'm now about to see and RSL deployment of the reserve, as everything now launches, right? - Still WRONG! :o

So again - nowhere near the perfect skydive! :P

Because the student was in effect in a sitting position right at this time (ass-to-ground) - as the main bag got to line stretch - the main opening shock shear-force actually tore the RSL completely off the riser without pulling the reserve ripcord! ...The student was now in effect in freefall having cut-away his main, but with nothing out at all now above him, to show for it.

3 more tumbles later, and me yelling into my helmet "pull the reserve, pull the reserve" ...That is EXACTLY what the student did. - :)
So, based upon this, and several other actually witnessed, real-life experiences I've had thus far as an AFF instructor - I find I have to disagree with you completely, on this:

Quote

...nor will you be able to have the knowledge needed at the time you need it to survive anything other than the perfect jump.



I've seen it several times, first-hand, in my experience in actuality - quite the opposite.
coitus non circum - Moab Stone

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