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wan2doit

Bak 2 the Infamous Leg Turn

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OK - last time in tunnel was Jan and plan to be back in it in early April. Having withdrawal pains due to not being able to work on leg turns.

Got a lot of help on the other thread "Is Too Much Arch a Problem" (ITMAP)

Now y'all don't laugh too hard but I am looking for opinions as to if what I am about to explain that I'm doing in the meantime makes any sense.

On the ITMAP thread sirenoremac said "I like to think of it as sort of grabbing a chunk of air with my knee. " and that gave me an idea.

The idea actually struck me while trying to go to sleep one night. I just rolled over onto my stomach, kind of got into bellyfly position, then drew up left leg while straightening the right then dug the left leg into the bed and pulled myself over with the leg. Then reversed it to do the opposite turn.

I'm not totally sure if it is worthwhile but the feelings of muscle tension in the upper inside thigh (pelvic area) do seem to feel quite similar to the tunnel - I think -even though it's been a while since I've been in one..

Now here's what is funny as hell. I was on the floor doing this a few nights ago (back and forth - left and right turns) including the arm moves. Eventually I got confused the same as in the tunnel and zigged my arms when I should have zagged them which believe it or not led to fukin up my leg move sequences . It was really amazing to experience the same confusion as when in the tunnel even on the ground w/o the wind.

I am sure practicing in the tunnel is best but am using this as a half baked substitute until I get back in the wind. My goal in doing this is to get familiar enough with the moves so I don't have to consciously think about doing them so much.

HaHaHaHa now we're (me included) done laughing our asses off - What do y'all think of my half baked system?

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The tunnel is the hobby for keeps now with dirt/floor tunnel work in between.

It took 50 years for something to come along and big time distract me from hunting deer in the Everglades but iFLY Orlando did it.

Tandem is in the future but not quite ready yet.

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if you are really into tunnel flying, buy a suit.

If i don't have my own suit, i refuse to pay money to fly.

Even if tunnel flying is free, if I have terrible fitting suit, I'll just sit out.

Personalized suit makes night and day difference.

Spending 100 of dollars to fly shitty in shitty fitting suit is waste of money imo.
Bernie Sanders for President 2016

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stayhigh


Even if tunnel flying is free, if I have terrible fitting suit, I'll just sit out.

O_o weird
Have free WT time but haven't proper suit? Take off everything exept pants and Go fly with naked skin - it's quite usefull experience in the way of understanding how to flyyourbody
Why drink and drive, if you can smoke and fly?

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I don't think what you're doing is helping...although it is a really funny, really wierd mental picture that I want to forget now.

You need to arch a lot to make your leg turns work correctly. Until you really get the dynamics of it down in the tunnel (which is difficult and can take time) practicing at home is a waste of time and may even slow down your progress by teaching your incorrect muscle memory.

In the end you want balanced leg and arm turns. There are very good coaches in FL who can teach you this much better than your Beautyrest.

Hunting deer in the Everglades sounds awesome.

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The coaches at iFly Orl are as good as they get. I feel bad I'm not picking up the leg turns quicker considering the effort they have put in to teach me.

Mt wife had a few facetious comments on my bed flying activities also. LOL

The deer hunting in the glades can be very exciting when one factors in bad ass animal interactions with bears, panthers and many alligators. Trust me sometimes when walking thru the swamps in the dark to get where u want to hunt well before sunrise scary stuff happens. Hunnting still has my attention but the tunnel has mostly distracted my finances and if something suffers it will be the hunting gas budget.

A friend of mine that I have advised of the danger he exposes himself to skydiving countered to me that he considers hunting in the glades with all the maneaters out there poisonous snakes, animals etc. there as being much more dangerous than jumping out of a plane.

One thing for sure nowadays the Glades are as wild a place as one can find on earth IMHO.

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can you go side to side, as in side slide?

pure leg turn is side slide minus the arm. center point turn requires both arm and leg.

I try not to expose inner thigh to the wind, since that causes lots of lift, however I think about kicking the wind with my inner foot and outer ankle while dropping my knee.

get a custom suit before going into the tunnel again. Tonfly, Vertical makes good one. Might sound expensive but it is custom made for you and costs alot less than an Armani blazer.

When when I fly belly in the tunnel, I keep the wind speed down. My torso is perfectly flat, I just hate arching, hurts my back and just not fun, and when I go skydiving I just add weight accordingly.

If you turn down the fan a little so that you don't have to max out on your arch, you will probably have more range and can experiment little more.
Bernie Sanders for President 2016

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I can side slide but not in any way smooth at it since it is new to me at this point. I have actually picked side sliding up much more easily than leg turns.

Last time in the tunnel I could tell coaches were grooming me for dual leg turn inputs since they worked me on arm movements for stronger turning moves.

I have been coached to expose the inner thigh to the air and have noticed rapid ascents during my feeble leg turns that somewhat scare me with my reaction being heavy arch to descend forgetting anymore turning for a few moments to regain confidence to try again.

The new suits at iFLY Orlando seem to fit me real good so I will use them for a while longer so as to put more $$$ in to flight time. I don't expect to progress too fast since I will probably only be flying about 2 hrs a year (via 4 overnight camps / 30 minutes at each) due to the tunnel being 220 miles from home and ancillary associated expenses on top of tunnel time.

I am OK on arching but due to being a featherweight they only fly me with 72 - 80% fan power. I feel like I'm headed thru the roof when it gets above that. Ha Ha really hard arching to descend at 80%.

OBTW I found another thread here that showed me I wasn't the only one doing leg turns on a bed. LMAO

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=710718;search_string=tunnel%20leg%20turns;#710718

Seriously appreciating everyone's advise. I do believe I will be doing leg turns better the next time I get to try - hopefully in April thanks to the good folks here that take the time to help a wannabe tunnelrat. :)

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Hey, I didn't dog deep - found the thread pretty quick - 10 minutes?

As far as the beautyrest leg turns go I wouldn't claim them to be a good thing unless it pays off in the tunnel. I will know and report on that soon hopefully.

Plus if this does happen to help me I wouldn't claim it as an aid for anyone other than me but if out of the box(spring:)) stuff like this works - it does seem that some will benefit from it.

Now to help the mental picture - I do practice fully dressed less shoes.

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Trafficdiver

practicing at home is a waste of time and may even slow down your progress by teaching your incorrect muscle memory.



I agree, it can be very damaging to reinforce incorrect muscle memory. On the other hand, if you are sure that what you are practicing is the right thing, it can be helpful to ingrain that muscle memory outside the tunnel. In this case, I don't think it would be very helpful, as I don't think I can do the right thing for a leg turn lying on a bed.... though when I was learning to backfly, I actually did almost the exact same thing and it helped a lot. Of course that is a more general body position and easier to do correctly lying in bed... and I only did it after getting it decently down in the tunnel, so I already knew what it felt like and I could mentally critique myself, rather than just guess what might work...

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I agree that I may be programming in some bad muscle memory but I am up for gambling with that to catch on to these turns quicker. Hoping like heck it works.

I think my biggest problem is that when I try to drop the leg it bends but often blows out into the horizontal plane while maintaining the bend at the knee and I can't get it back down to the slightly outboard of vertical position where it should be - so I'm thinking when I have moved the leg up on the ground/bed and dig the knee into the floor or whatever to drag my body in the direction I should turn I will be developing more muscle strength in the pelvic area to hold the knee where I should in the tunnel OR the whole problem may be my brain talking to the muscles involved.

I am also working the arms into the turning practice because I don't want to think about that a whole lot or at least a good bit less when trying these definetely COUNTRERINTUITIVE groups of simultaneous movements in a 120+ mph wind.

Totally not sure if this will work but I so want to learn them so I can spin like hell in the tunnel.

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IMHO home training can be quite useful if given by coach
There some points in body position and bodypart's relative movement that can be successfully trained and save a lot of WT time at the beginning of learning of various elements)

But again it should be given by a coach, not "invent" by yourself coz these exercises can be vary non like to elements for which it were developed)
Why drink and drive, if you can smoke and fly?

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I think you're overthinking things a bit. :D

Go fly, get video, and a good debrief. Concentrate on basic body position. Narrow arms and legs; mantis position, elbows down. This will let you pressurize the air and add power as you work out your legs. If your knees are too wide for instance your turn will be slow and not very snappy... mushy.

Start with long/thin, no legs to turn, just spill air... just do 90s. Then as you get a feel for those start adding legs... drop a knee to initiate, then use the other to counter before you hit a full 180, 360, etc. Break turns down: 360=90+power 180+glide through last 90 to grips.

I'm not really sure laying on a bed is the best way to do it... perhaps a low stool so you can move arms/legs and get a core workout in the process. :D

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

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Ok - stacked up 2 of those cube style milk cartons up and laid on them. Worked better since I can drop the leg down instead of dragging it horizontally. Can't believe it but sure as shit I got confused again between the arm and leg moves. I wonder how many thousand times it will take before these absolutely counter intuitive (for me at least) moves are 2nd nature.

This type exercise is also, as u said a good core workout plus lower back since most of me above the waist and below the hips is off of the milk crates. Really fun to try and maintain an arch. :)

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Never thought of it but Bak 2 is probably a mistake on my part.

A while back (bak) I started a thread titled "Is Too Much Arch a Problem" and personally derailed it into leg turns but actually that is what it was actually about since I was concerned that my arch was too much and interfering with leg turn skills learning process.

Probably should have titled the 1st thread Leg Turn Problems or something similar.

Oh Well

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Good idea (skip it) but when I can't get something it makes me want it all the more. Of course on math test problems I remember the rule was if you can't do it move on to the next one. Hhhmmm

Plus I thought one had to go step by step to train for tunnel flying.

I have been on my back one session and liked it and will do more the next time.

Thanks

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