RW Eye Contact and Sun Glasses

[skrovi 0]

I was curious what other RW jumpers think on this subject. I always find it preferable when I can establish eye contact with someone that I'm doing RW with. Again no biggie but if they have sun glasses on but sure would be nice to establish eye contact. What do you think? Is there a norm and or best practices?

[kirkverner 0]

It's better to see someones eyes. Whatever your discipline its all about working relativity and non-verbal communicating is what we work with every single jump. However, some people have very sensitive eyes and need protection. Just decide on a tint that allows protection and visual affirmation that you're seeing, not just looking.

ParacleteXP

[pr0ject42 0]

I say nay on the sunglasses. How else are you going to see the look of fear when you key a block before your opposite is ready?

I can hardly stand to be without my sunglasses on a daily basis but when doing RW, I suck it up and deal. Usually my visor is dirty enough to tone down the sun anyway.

[rehmwa 2]

I don't like sunglasses in the dive or the dirt dive. It's too hard to not look at the ground. But it's not always worth it to ask someone to take off their sunglasses, people can be very determined to have their shades on. So if serious training, no glasses. Fun dives - don't worry about it.

That said, while getting the dive in our heads, we will not enforce the eyecontact thing. However, once we decide we have the flow down, then we are very obsessive about it during the dirt dive, creeping and the dive. My opposite and I would reach out and tap the other on the head if the eye contact lags

Simple thing, but hard, it's not normal for most people to concentrate and communicate at the same time. IMO - the single best thing to learn.

...
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

[chanti 0]

Nike have brought out contact lenses for sportsmen (and women! ) that have the same properties as sunglasses. They look a bit weird (you have a choice of green or orange ) but at least that way you'll still have eye contact with your teammates.

-Chanti-

[skydance1954 0]

For serious and semi-serious teams, or even if you're a weekend jumper trying to improve your skill levels, the norm has been for several decades now, no sunglasses. Most of the non-verbal communications happen with eye contact. You know instantly if your partner is on the same page, or is having problems remembering, or at worst, is having a helmet fire.

Also, a lot of keys are sequenced through eye contact, not through the "shake and break" method, especially if the eye contact is across something large, like 8-way and up.

Exits, depending on the group, can be, and should be co-ordinated through eye contact when possible. When key players look at each other they KNOW when everyone is ready, otherwise, they don't get the eye contact.

With sunglasses, all this is not possible. Now, if someone has a legitimate problem with sunlight, they're going to have to find some way to protect their eyes, and still have some means to allow people to actually see them. If that can't be done, then that person needs to be placed in a part of the dive that communication is not critical.

Back in the '70s I was told that in 4-way and 8-way, eye contact was critical for communications by both Mike Zahar and Rob Laidlaw. The fundamentals that they laid down back then have not changed. Look at all the top RW teams over the past 20 years and check out the pictures. Are any of them wearing sunglasses?

Now, that said - it depends on the level of jumping you want to do. Can you fun jump with sunglasses? Yes you can. But recognize that there will be limitations. Especially if most of the people are wearing them.

We had one gentleman on an 8-way team back in the day that insisted that he could wear his cool frosted goggles without impacting his communications with the team. Well that turned out to be bunk, because we could never tell who or what he was looking at, or if he was having issues with memory. The rest of us wore clear. Naturally, the videos showed that when communcation problems happened, it was somewhere around him. It was very frustrating, but we were never able to convince him of the problem.

Mike Ashley
D-18460
Canadian A-666

[rehmwa 2]

Quote

.....but we were never able to convince him of the problem.

yup, that's exactly how it works. and trying to convince someone is really more trouble with no return

...
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

[GQ_jumper 4]

I did a two way when I had about 70 jumps and was wearing sunglasses, the guy I was jumping with had a camera mounted and watching the video there was no way to tell what I was trying to communicate to him. It looked like he was flying with a robot. Sunglasses are bad mmkkkay

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

[skydance1954 0]

Eventually, (and obviously, you can see this coming), the trouble became a whole lot more than it was worth with him, and we found a replacement. Our communications problems vanished, and we then had normal things to deal with. Like levels, co-ordinating piece turns, brainlocks, and simply trying to go faster.

None of that has changed, either. But the coaching and the techniques have certainly improved.

To this day, that gentleman still doesn't get it, and he's never been accepted on a team since.

Mike Ashley
D-18460
Canadian A-666