Interesting exercise for 8-way

[billvon 2,400]

Last week I was doing fill-in 8 way for a Fury tunnel camp in North Carolina. Basically I'd go in with two teams and get in whenever anyone else didn't want to due to exhaustion, shoulder pain, sinus problems etc (we had a few of those.) Often I wouldn't know who I'd be filling in for until 30 seconds before we got in, and I didn't know which slot I'd be taking (since even the people who stepped out were changing slots.)

My usual preparation for 4-way, 8-way etc is to visualize my moves and what I will be seeing throughout the dive. During a 19, for example, I think about how I'm looking across at the other diamond tail, the picture I'll see when we cross, and the picture I see when I stop and let the fronts of the diamonds cross.

This time I couldn't do that. I'd have to visualize the whole dive including what each of the pieces was doing. On the randoms, for example, I'd have to have a mental image of the entire dive, and see what each person's slot was.

It was very tough to do, and I'd often spend the first page hesitating and looking at my opposite to figure out which direction to turn, what part of the compass they were building etc. But after a while it became easier to see the flow of the dive and I started to key on overall patterns more. If the first point was an hourglass, that would tell me to within two slots where I was, and I'd rely more on my mental image of what the second point was going to look like, rather than my mental image of what things would look like from my slot.

Overall it was a big learning experience, something that I could see significantly raising my overall awareness. I'm not sure how you'd structure an actual training dive like that - not tell people slots until just before they got in? - but it might be worth it as an exercise.

[rehmwa 2]

I use this (visualizing the whole dive) for 4-way and think it's a great bit of knowledge to share.

If you know the whole dive, all slots, and see it from the camera perspective, instead of just your own slot, then you will always do a better job for the team - IMO

You shouldn't just fly your slot, you should fly the whole formation the whole dive knowing your place in it and everybody else's place in it. Knowing what your teammates are trying to do means you fly for the team and not just yourself. You can react faster to compensate when someone else falls off the flow for a second. You can recover better when you glitch too. I think you glitch less too. I think it really hammers in where your slot is and makes you dial into it more effectively.

I don't think a lot of new 4-way flyers really get this until they've flown multiple slots.

...
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

[wildfan75 1]

You could always freefly the exit, and where ever you ended up on the frist point is your slot. You literally wouldn't know until you got there. Just make one person the "Center" of the skydive.

We jump 182's at my dz and we've toyed with the idea that the chase plane would just get to the first slot they could get to, and so you wouldn't know when exactly what you were doing until you got to your slot.

Of course me and my skydiving twin, Jamie, have also thought about changing jumpsuits in the chase plane, and then fly our slots to see if anyone gets confused. One of these days!!!

[RebelMike 0]

Hey Bill,

I know what you are talking about, whenever I fill in like that, my awareness of everything going on in the dive picks up 10 fold, and I find that just by using my clone I can figure everything out, and tend to go to my slot faster and more stable.
It happens in 4-way just the same.
This is what a the coaches want you too learn. LOOK (especially in 8-way). I don't know how you could incorporate the type of training you are talking about. But it is really FUN