mhwag

NSAID's (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like ibuprofen or naproxen are best for muscle soreness, joint pain, and orthopedic injury. Ibuprofen (motrin, advil) is most used, but some people swear by naproxen (aleve). You want to take the lowest effective dose, usually 200-400mg of ibuprofen. When I was marathon training I started taking 200mg of ibuprofen before long runs, and it did seem to help me get through 3 hours of pavement pounding. Caveats for NSAIDs - they can irritate your stomach if you take them without food, and if you're on any blood-thinning meds, you shouldn't take them without consulting your doctor. The best pain management is prevention. If you don't get to fly regularly, you should at least do lower back and hamstring stretches regularly. And have at least a minimum level of cardiovascular fitness and upper body strength. If you're going to sitfly, don't do an intense upper-body workout earlier that same day or even the day before (I speak from experience). Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. If it's a recirculator, the air is seriously dry. Fly quietly, which means don't over-input your moves, and definitely don't slam your piece-partner around. Tunnel training is very good for teaching you to fly your own body through piece turns. If people are overly aggressive, there will be wall-slamming, and pain is a good teacher. If you're working intensively on something new, like piece turns with verticals, wear knee or elbow pads until you get so you can do them without slammage. If you're very sore afterwards, evaluate why. Are you slamming each other around? Is there a large fall-rate discrepancy? The tunnel exaggerates this, so a girl who usually wears 10 pounds to fly with the guys will find that she needs to go up to 14 or 16. Whatever you are, be a good one.

Trey Verner, who is all of 3 years old..... Or any of the Verner or D'Annunzio kids. My own daughter, the L-Dub. Myself on video (hparrish, I'm with you here) Or any of XP's flight crew, but esp Rick or Earl smiling when I finally figure something out Whatever you are, be a good one.

Yes, coaching by volunteers definitely can blur the value of coaching. People tend to undervalue those things they do not pay for. We're recommending that Tunnel Fun attendees who want actual coaching make individual arrangements with official coaches - that can still be worked into the rotation as long as the groups have at least 3 people. Which is not the same as having an experienced flyer or two who work informally with a group, and should not be perceived as such. ParacleteXP has several discount possibilities, from purchasing after-hours time by the hour, to monthly memberships with (kind of) unlimited time. Tunnel Fun is a way of getting together an informal group with mixed skill levels and tight budgets to maximize flying time and fun. I anticipate that our flying abilities will benefit also. Whatever you are, be a good one.

We've just started up a regularly-scheduled, loosely-organized "tunnel league" of local Raeford skydivers at the ParacleteXP tunnel. Tim D'Annunzio offers after-hours discounted time, if you buy and fly for a full hour. So, to take best advantage of this, everyone who is available and interested on the scheduled mid-week evenings meets at the tunnel, we divide the cost by number of people, split into groups, and have fun. Since it's loosely organized, teams who want to use the time for practice, or small groups of inexperienced flyers who plan ahead to work with a coach, can partake. Or you can just show up and get organized. The idea is to have a fun boogie atmosphere, get maximum flying at minimum cost, and improve skills. Twenty people showed up for the first evening, so everyone paid $30 for 5 or 6 2-minute flights. Interest to continue was very high, so we've got two more evenings scheduled. I'm wondering if any other DZ's and tunnels have similar "leagues" and if so, what worked and what didn't work for them? Whatever you are, be a good one.