fuga
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Everything posted by fuga
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No one said you have to stretch. I know people who have had injuries from freeflying and people who find some things difficult because they are not supple enough. Its just there if you want to and if you do it can make some things in freeflying easier. It all depends on what your goals are for freeflying. Just want to do some fun jumps? Or get to be the best you can be in freeflying? .
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yeah its in portugal .
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Let me know what you think
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What hand signals have you seen used, or do you use when coaching people? Just wandered what different signals people use. Thanks .
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Freeflying is a physically demanding sport (as are other disciplines in skydiving) and like any physical activity it is much easier to damage your body if you do not prepare your body properly. Stretching helps prepare your body for the physical activity it is about to go through, by offering some of the following benefits: Relaxes your body (which is always good in freeflying) Helps your coordination and allows for easier movement Gives you a greater range of motion Increases your body awareness Improves circulation so if you do damage your body it will repair quickerA lot of freeflyers seem to think stretching takes a long time and that it isn’t important. It is very important and if you plan on jumping for a long time then stretching is the way to allow you to keep on jumping as you get older. Stretching can take a long time but it can also be a short 10 minutes in the morning. The following is a short and basic stretching routine to help you prepare yourself in the morning. This doesn’t mean you should only do this in the morning when you go jumping, try to do this every morning, it only takes 10 minutes. Guidelines for stretchingIf you do not stretch right you can damage your body just as bad as if you do not stretch. Some people think that stretching should be painful, this is wrong. You should feel comfortable in your stretch, feeling a mild tension in the area that your are stretching. You should never bounce into a stretch, take your time, and ease into it until you feel the mild tension mentioned earlier. Stretching routineYou should try to do this routine every morning to get the best effect. Start off by making sure you are warm, a hot shower to warm you up in the morning can help. Start by lying on your back, keeping your spine flat to the floor and look up at the ceiling/sky with your head. Start with one leg, bend it at the knee and pull it towards your chest until you feel a mild tension. Hold this position for 20 seconds and then move onto the other leg, taking a 10 second rest in between. [Figure 1] Next, lay on your back, keeping everything straight and looking up at the ceiling with your head. Bend your legs, keeping your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands behind your head and lift it up until you feel a tension in the back of your neck, still keeping the rest of your back on the floor. Hold this tension position for 5 seconds and then slowly lower your head back to the floor. Repeat this 3 times. [Figure 2] This is a good one if you have bad landings and find you hurt your ankles every now and then. Sit on the floor and have one leg flat. Grab the other leg just above the ankle. Rotate your foot clockwise providing a slight resistance with your other hand. Repeat this 20 times and then do the same but rotating your foot anti clockwise. Do not rush this. Now do the same with your other leg, again making sure you do not rush yourself. [Figure 3] Start by leaning against a wall with your head resting on your hands. One leg should be closer to the wall and bent with the foot facing straight forward. The other leg should be straight and behind you, foot facing the wall and the heel touching the floor. Slowly push your hips forwards, keeping your back straight, stop when you feel a mild tension in your calf. Hold this position for 30 seconds and then slowly move your hips back and relax. Repeat with the other leg, again taking your time. [Figure 4] Start by standing up straight with your feet shoulder width apart and facing straight forward. Slowly start bending from the hips keeping your knees slightly bent at the same time. Relax your neck and arms, keep bending until you get a slight stretch in the back of your legs. Hold this for 20 seconds and then slowly move back up. [Figure 5] Start by standing with the side of your body next to a wall, put the palm of your hand closest to wall against it just a bit higher than your head. Now slowly and gently turn your body away from the wall until you feel a mild tension in your shoulder, You should be between one and two feet away from the wall at this point. Hold this position for 15 seconds and then slowly turn back and relax for a few seconds. Now repeat this with your other hand. [Figure 6] Start by sitting on the floor and put the soles of your feet together, hold onto your toes. Now start to gently pull your self forwards towards your feet. Make sure you are moving from your hips and not bending from your shoulders or back. To help try resting your elbows on your knees for stability, this will make it easier. Keep moving forwards until you feel a good stretch in your groin. Hold this position for 40 seconds and then slowly move back and relax. [Figure 7] Now you’ve finished the stretching routine make sure you wrap up warm to get the best effect. Do this every morning and you will see a marked improvement in your flexibility and you will be much more relaxed in the air. Louis Harwood is a freeflyer from the UK and jumps at Target Skysports, in Hibaldstow. He has competed for the last two years in the Artistic nationals, he has two silver and one gold medal in B catagory freefly, freestyle and skysurf. www.avalore.co.uk -
some of my first pics .
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Whether you are interested in freeflying as a main discipline, or you only want to make the occasional "fun jump", you will still want to follow the best and safest learning progression. Though freeflying can be a very fun discipline to take part in, it can also be very dangerous if you get it wrong. It is not something to rush into. You should take your time and enjoy the experience of flying in this new dimension. This article will introduce you to the steps you need to take to have a safe and fun experience and carry on doing so throughout your freeflying career. Not Just VerticalFreeflying isn’t just about learning to fly headup and headdown, it’s everything (yes belly flying too). As your skills improve you will realize that you can use all angles and positions between headup and headdown. Once you are proficient on your back, belly, feet and head, you will see that everything flows together and you end up moving in between these positions with ease. To get to this stage you need to have a solid base in all these positions and an understanding of what the air is doing to your body. Too many people, especially now that freeflying is becoming so popular, go straight to headup flying after AFF and quickly move to headdown. The majority of these people are limiting themselves in the future and will find that they have to go back and learn basic belly flying and back flying to progress any further. I will now go through the steps I believe necessary to become proficient at this discipline. Future articles in this series will go through some of these steps in more detail, explaining how to do them, how to practice them, and drill dives to improve these skills. You should try to learn these skills in the order listed to increase the learning curve. Belly FlyingThe most important thing is to become proficient on your belly. This doesn’t mean you need to become a 4-way master, but learning how to move around the sky with control certainly helps (especially now that hybrids are becoming more common). You should learn the following: Fall rate control Horizontal movement (forwards, backwards and sidewards) Center point turns Diving to a formation Docking on a formation Superpositional moves (e.g. sidesliding while moving forwards – known as carving) Break off procedures (flat tracking) It also helps if you experiment with barrel rolls, forward loops and back loops to get used to not just being on your belly. All these skills will become very beneficial in the future. The other advantage to learning to fly on your belly is that you will be getting used to flying close to other people and will be learning the necessary skills to do this, even though it is in a different position. TrackingBy now, you should have already learned how to flat track. It’s time to take tracking one step further. Find a coach or someone who has experience leading tracking dives and learn the following: Tracking on exit Heading control Fall rate control Speed control (speeding up/slowing down) Moving Sideways Break off procedures (different on tracking dives)Tracking is a big part of freeflying. Learning these skills will help on breakoff, especially with larger groups, and will also help you when it comes to tracking dives. Back FlyingBack flying is the first big step towards learning headup flight. You won’t be able to see the ground and you will start to get used to feeling the air on your back and the other side of your legs. This skill can be used a lot in freeflying when you get low on a jump or become unstable. This position is used to get back where you want to be, while preventing corking (suddenly lose speed) and hurting someone. You should learn: Heading control Fall rate control Horizontal movement (forwards, backwards and sidewards) Turns Barrel rolls from belly flying to back flying and back again Front/Back loops from belly flying to back flying and back againThe advantage of back flying is that its speed range is huge. You can stay with a belly formation quite easily, but you can also speed up so that headdown flyers can stay with you without a problem. This diversity is what makes it such a useful technique in freeflying. Headup FlyingThis is where things start to get a bit different. Because you are in a vertical orientation, you have to learn how to move your body differently, move your arms and legs differently, whilst remembering that arching doesn’t make you stable at all. In later articles we will cover all of this in a lot of detail, explaining how and why, but you must always remember that an article is in no way a substitute for a coach. Whenever you have the chance, get coaching! Things you need to learn: Heading control Fall rate control Horizontal movement (forwards, backwards and sidewards) Turns Transitions (cartwheels, front loops, back loops) Independent arm movement (altimeter checks, taking docks, etc) Correct exit technique Breakoff procedures (you can’t simply go to your belly and track)Headup flying is much faster than any of the other positions. Because of this, every movement has a much larger effect than it would if you were going slower. The air is moving over you much faster and therefore has much more power behind it. Therefore, you have to be very careful with your movements to ensure the safety of yourself and others. Back TrackingBack tracking is a very important skill in freeflying, especially when starting to learn headdown. During breakoffs it adds a whole new perspective and gives you more awareness. Once you have learned headdown this position will open up more angles and add fluidity to your jumps. Backtracking is what I call a power position, this means that when your learning it you have to put in a lot of energy to keep an efficient position and to speed up, etc.. Things you should learn: Back tracking exit Heading control Fall rate control Speed control (forwards/backwards) Moving Sideways Break off procedures (different on tracking dives) Transitions (back to belly/belly to back) Once you have learned these skills, try going on a tracking dive, getting next to the base and transitioning to your back track position, while staying relative. Talk to an experienced freefly coach and ask about leading a tracking dive; you’ll learn a lot. HeaddownLearning headdown brings a whole new level to your freeflying. Everything flows together much better and you can move around the sky with more ease. While moving around becomes so much easier, collisions become much more of a danger and you must be even more cautious. This position is not a power position. By this I mean that once you are used to keeping your legs wide you will be able to move around smoothly and fast without having to push into your movement. Again you should aim to learn the basics before you start work on complex manoeuvres. Use this list: Correct exit technique for jumping with others Heading control Fall rate control Turns Horizontal movement (forwards, backwards and sidewards) Transitions (front loop, back loop and cartwheel) both to/from headup and from headdown to headdown Independent arm movement (altimeter checks, presenting for docks, etc) Correct breakoff proceduresOnce you’ve done this you can start to work on using your skills to take docks, carve, etc. Jumping with OthersWhen you start to jump with other freeflyers, you have a lot more to think about, including where the other jumpers in your group are at all times. As a minimum you should specify the following for a freefly jump with others: Exit Content of jump (don’t just say ‘we’ll see what happens’, have a plan and stick to it) Base (specify someone as a person, everyone should then work towards them for a level) Breakoff (what is the breakoff height, make sure everyone knows where the others are and do not go straight to their belly and track, slowly decrease your speed as you track away)When you are just learning freeflying you should only be jumping solo or with an experienced freeflyer. Use the following as a rough guide to how many people, maximum, you should be jumping with: 0-100 freefly jumps: Solo’s or 2 Ways 100-300 freefly jumps: Up to 3 ways maximum 300-500 freefly jumps: Up to 5 people maximum After this I try to use good judgement and common senseIf you have only ever done 2-ways then at the most you should only allow yourself to go on 3-ways. SafetyFreeflying can involve a huge range of speeds, trajectories and positions, which presents us with many possibly dangerous situations. Because of this you need to ensure you have the correct training and also the right equipment. Your container should fit well. You should not use a leg throwaway system, only BOC throw out or pull out is acceptable. The leg straps should fit right and not easily slip down your legs. You should also have some kind of bungee between the two leg straps to make sure they do not move around in freefall. It should have good riser and bridle protection with an absolute maximum of 1” exposed bridle near the BOC. Your pins and flaps should be tight. A good test is to gently lift your rig by each pin cover separately - if the covers stays closed then you’re good to go, but if the cover opens when lifting then get the opinion of an experienced rigger. You should have a minimum of 2 altimeters: one visual and one audible. This is important as when you are learning to freefly it can be difficult to see your visual altimeter and it is easy to forget that you will be falling much faster than you would be if belly flying. The audible altimeter will remind you of this. Wear a hard helmet. Don’t think you can get away without a helmet or just a frapp hat. Hard helmets might not save you from everything, but can mean the difference between life and death. If you’re just starting freeflying, don’t even think about wearing a camera helmet. This just adds to the list of new things you will have to think about and will take your awareness away from other more important matters. Some people get away with a full face helmet but if you are learning to freefly then I would suggest an open face. This allows you to keep better eye contact with your coach or other jumpers. Any clothing you wear should be durable and secure. It shouldn’t be able to cover any of your handles and shouldn’t be excessively baggy. A good all round freefly suit will do the job. When learning headup, a lot of people like to wear trousers and a baggier top to help them. If you’re doing this, then make sure the top is tucked in well and is secure. You should always use an AAD of some form when freeflying. You can easily have collisions when freeflying and closing speeds can be upwards of 100mph. It is also very easy to lose altitude awareness. An AAD could save your life, fatal collisions have happened to very experienced freeflyers, why couldn’t it happen to you? The next article in this series will concentrate on how to do the things mentioned in this progression list. There will be ground exercises and tips on performing these in the sky. Louis Harwood is a freeflyer from the UK and jumps at Target Skysports, in Hibaldstow. He has competed for the last two years in the Artistic nationals, he has two silver and one gold medal in B catagory freefly, freestyle and skysurf. www.avalore.co.uk
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Another thing I forgot to mention. Even if you are a big person and feel you imght sink out on people I would suggest still going for something tight (even if its just some tight jeans and a tight top) and then when you can move around and hold a stable sit, move to something baggier to help with fallrates. .
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It depends, what are aims for learning to freefly? Do you just want to do some fun mess around jumps with your friends and not too bothered on how efficiently you fly or how ideal your body position is? Or do you want to spend the time to lay a good foundation in your flying so you progress much faster in the future? If you just want to do some fun jumps and quickly learn to do some basic freeflying then I would say something baggy up top (be careful it doesnt cover any handles) and something tighter on your legs. Your shorts and baggy sweatshirt will do fine. This will help you get into a 'sit' position quicker but it will probably mean that you will be relying on your arms a lot rather than having a good strong leg position. In the future you might struggle with more complex docks/fast forward movement or less conventional headup flying ideas. If you want to spend some extra time to learn the most efficient position to ensure you learn faster in the future and a good foundation of headup skills to start with then I would suggest a good fitting freeflying suit that is quite 'fitted' so there is not a lot of drag anywhere. This will push you towards using your legs more for stability and movement, freeing up your arms for docks etc. Later on down the line it might help you realise how important your legs are in freeflying. Basically, the point of my post is that if you want to learn properly then go for something less baggy all over and learn to fly your body correctly instead of using a suit. It might take a little bit longer at first but later on down the line you will progress much faster than others. However if you just want to mess around and do a few fun jumps then a baggy upper body and tight lower body will help you get to that magic sit position a lot quicker but will most likely force you into bad habbits. This is only my opinion, other people might think differently. Take everything on this forum with a grain of salt and make your own conclusions from what everyone says. Hope that helps. .
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Hello, im interested in everyones views (absoultely everyone) on what makes a good freeflycoach/school? What have do you like about coaches/schools you've been to? What dont you not like about coaches/schools you've been to? What do you think coaches/schools could do to improve on what they do already? Any ideas appreciated Thanks .
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Get coaching, we can all try and give you tips but theres no substitute for coaching or even talking to a coach at your dz. I think its a great idea to spend some time on your back before you even attempt headup flying. Get comfortable on your back, arms level with your head (no lower than your shoulders) with your palms facing the sky, legs tucked in a little, always making sure you keep your back as straight as you can with it parallel to the ground. Experiment balling up (make sure you are always aware of your altitude) and spreading out. This is for speeding up and slowing down on your back, you will find this very useful in the future as 1) it is your recovery position so you dont cork and 2) you can use it to get back up to a group of people if you have sunk out on them. Once you are happy on your back and have experimented with it a little its then time to start to get upright. From a backfly position, in one smooth motion, tilt your headback and push your chest up a little, at the same time push down with your legs, once you are upright keep everything at 90* and put some effort into your legs (you will it difficult, at first, to keep your legs pushed down). This should feel like the point between sitting in a chair and standing up, as if you are just getting up from a chair. The legs are the most important thing, keep them strong and make sure there is no air pushing on your calves or shins, your lower leg must be pushing directly into the wind. Keep your feet flat, your chest upright and always have your head looking straight forward at the horizon, do not be tempted to try and look at your body position. When first starting, try to wear something baggy (not tooo baggy) on your upper body and something tighter on your legs. Once you have a feel for the position, start to wear a normal freefly suit. You will find it harder as you get more drag on your legs. To practice on the ground, find a flat wall. Put your back up against the wall, keeping it as flat as possible, everything from your lower back, shoulder blades and head should be touching the wall. Move your arms up so they are level with your shoulders, touch the wall with your elbows and move your hands forward so there is a 90* bend at the elbows (you should be able to see your hands in your peripheral vision. Bend your legs to 90*, have your feet flat on the ground and your shins should be perfectly striaght up so they are perpendicular to the floor. Try to hold this for 1 minute while conecntrating on how your body feels, moving from the toes up. Have a rest and then try again, do this a few times a day and you will have the strength in your legs that you need. Once you can keep stable in this headup position, try pumping your legs down one at a time, like you are walking up the stairs, this will also help the strength in your legs and also help improve your balance. Common problems: falling onto your back - Keep your legs strong (you have to really conentrate on this at first), your arms could be too far forward so try moving your hands more inline with your shoulders, you could also be leaning forward so concentrate on keeping your head up and your chest straight (imagine a puppet with a piece of string in the center at the top of its head, the string is being pulled up so everything is straight, imagine the puppet is you) falling onto your belly - you may have your lower leg bent backwards so the air is on your shins, be strong with your legs, if you still have problems try tying a short pullup to your shoe laces, glance down in freefall (do not move your head, just look with your eyes), if the pullup is hitting your shins then your legs are too far back, if it is away from your legs then they are too far forward, you should aim to have the pullup parallel to your shins spinning and then spinning on your back - go back to practicing on the ground, somewhere your body position isnt symetrical, make sure everything is the same on both sides of your body, practice it on the ground and then take it to the air concentrating on symmetry, another important thing that can help this is to relax, take a deep breath before you exit and do not rush yourself, take your time. Hope that helps, feel free to ask any questions .
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When you say open your legs do you mean daffy style or straddle? I'm assuming you mean like daffy but im not too sure. .
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Headup forward movement is all about using your hips. To move forward you need to push your hips forward, i'll expand on this. First of all when people say push your feet down think of it the other way: push your body up, as if you are standing on something solid. This helps when you come to practicing headup movement on the ground. Moving forward, in headup, is not as simple as just pushing your hips forward because when you do this you are presenting more surface area to the relative wind which makes you slow down. So as well as pushing your hips forward you need to speed up slightly by using your legs (think of making them straighter or pushing the rest of your body up). I find that to get the most efficient forward movement I do not try to do both things at the same time. Instead I think LEGS then HIPS, this allows me to make the movements simpler and it also makes it easier to push your hips forwards, especially if your headup position is slightly crunched up. You have to remember that headup is quite a powerful position, by this I mean that to make big movements you have to put a lot of power and effeor in the positions. The other thing to think of is your upper body. For good forward movement you really need to be starting with a good basic headup position. Where are your arms normally? Are they behind you at all? If they are then I suggest concentrating on this first: Try to bring your arms in line with the rest of your body or prefereably slightly infront of you. As well as this you should try to bend your arms at the elbows so you can almost see your hands in your peripheral vision. The problem with having your arms slightly behind you is that when you go into your forward movement you are likely to push them back even further to help keep your balance, this will only limit you in the future. Once you have got used to having your arms bent and slightly in front you can try this: As you push your hips forward you can rotate your forearms down to almost be inline with your torsoe, this helps give you balance but it can also increase your forward drive considerably. Again remember that this is a powerful move so can require quite a bit of strength and sometimes stamina to get a good sustained forward movement. This is where practicing on the ground comes in. ---- As far as ground practice goes, try the following to help you build in some muscle memory as well as strenthening the necessary muscles for forward movement. Place you back flat against a walll with your arms in the position I mentioned before. Have you legs as if you would your normal sit position. Try to have nice wide legs and try to make sure your legs are just more than 90* away from your torsoe. How long can you hold this for? It is good for strenthening you legs. From this position think LEGS then HIPS, so try to push your body up using your legs (keeping your back straight against the wall), then push your hips forward so that the only part of your body resting against the wall are your shoulder blades. Try rotating your arms down as I mentioned earlier at the same time. Repeat this process a few times until your legs etc are feeling a bit tired. Try and do this everyday and you should see a marked improvement on your forward movement. I hope that helped. Feel free to ask any questions.
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I think that what you call the babylon/french advice is best. I'm quite light (just under 10stone) and find that this position works well for me. It has given me a huge range to fly in, with practice you can easy stay with the fast guys (can comfortably stay with some at 180 while still being able to take docks) but you are also very easily going to be able to slow right down without really having to goto your back. I think its easy to stay with people at the those speeds, the trick is to never let them get away from you, if you have a big distance its hard but if your near then its easy to maintain the speed. If I want to speed up from this position I find that a normal stand doesnt get me fast enough so i bring my arms up above my head (as if i was high diving) and straighten my legs. I only have to do this for a short time as I can accelerate quite quick with this. Its also still very easy to move around with as your going faster so you dont have to make such big inputs to move around. If I want to slow down from the position I can relax my legs a little into more of a tradition 90* sit position or if I need to slow down just a little I find that moving my lower leg out to the sides can help a hell of a lot for small adjustments. This position is also (I think) really nice for when you want to take docks, instead of compensating with your arms (one arm back and one arm forward) try to compensate with your legs a little. If your bringing your right arm forward bring your right leg back and out and your left leg forward and out, just a little. You'll still need to compensate a bit with your arm but I find that I can fly the dock so much easier. I can vary my fall rate by changing how much I am sticking my leg out to the side. I dont know if that answered your question or not though! Sorry if i rambled a lot .
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More will be coming along soon covering headup, headdown and some other things including some good drill dives, all along with diagrams and in a better format. fuga .
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I may not be amazingly experienced compared to other flyers but I think I have a reasonable understanding of how this all works. I started writing this mainly to help myself (they say the best way to learn something is to try and explain it to someone else) and also to help people who are just starting out freeflying or want to give it a go. I haven't done any diagrams yet and it is no way near finished (I still havent got to writing about headup flying yet). However if you've got time to give it a read I'd apreciate some constructive criticism from both experienced and non experienced freeflyers, wether its about my ideas on freeflying or the way its written (writing isnt my strong point at all). Ive got a long way to go with this but I think its worth it, the idea in the end is for it to be freely available to anyone who wants it, along with diagrams, to act as a starting point for beginner freeflyers. Towards the end I'd like to have a section with drill dives for people who have got the basic skills down and want to work with a partner so if anyones got any drill dives they could send me (headup, headdown, belly, tracking, anything) then i'd be very grateful
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Just trying to get an idea of what the state of coaching is in the UK, if we got a good list on here it could be good for people looking for coaching in the uk. So here goes, are you or do you know a freefly coach in the UK? If you do, can you answer some of these questions (doesnt have to be all): 1) Name 2) Primary DZ 3) Number of jumps? 4) Part of a freefly school? 5) There every weekend? 6) How to get in contact? 7) Cost? (Just slots, slots+?, no slot, etc) 8) Video? 9) Sponsors? Thanks all .
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Hello all! I'm thinking about organising a headdown 4-way fun competition thing. Does anyone have any experience of this? If you do, tell me everything! lol. What kind of formations work well? Is there a rough dive pool anywhere? If there is which formations are difficult/easy etc? What format did the competition run? Any advice for camera? (from above/below etc) Should the formations be launched or should the exit be free and then build from there? What is everyones thoughts? Thanks .
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Hello All, I just wanted to know what other peoples views are on this? When you look at US dropzones or DZ's in europe, a lot of them have professionally run freefly schools. The standard of coaching (not necessarily flying skills) seems to be higher, they seem to organize more events (professionally) and also seem to put a lot of effort into their coaching. They spend a lot of time before and after the jump with a student, some have written material and/or videos for the student to watch and read to help them along. Their briefs and/or debriefs aren't ina day room along with everyone else at the dz (some people dont like this), they brief them in a private room which i think allows for better learning (theres no one adding their little bit to the debrief). The schools are also very good at developing an identity, babylon for example are very well known, they have their logos on everything and work hard to publicize themselves. My question is, why doesnt anyone in the uk even attempt anything like this? I know freejive have done roadshows but it still isnt the same, I hardly know of any coaches in the uk that seem to even try and make it professional, yes they may be ridiculed a bit at first but wouldnt it be worth it? Even if we do only have weekend coaches. I know theres freejive (do they have a regular place from which they coach?), then theres the bullet freefly school (which doesnt really seem to be a proper freefly school as such) and theres euphoria (not sure about them, haven't been to nethers). What do you all think to this? Should uk freefly coaches try and make things a bit more professional, would it help them get more students/experience/etc? Thanks .