domsdad

I know what you mean about extra feet in the door compared to the mock up. I've often thought of stepping on toes and see who screams twice.

Great sequence of photos. I especially like exit 3. The inside rear diver (#10 on his helmet) has a great presentation to the relative wind coming through the door. I was in an airspeed camp some years ago and Craig stressed to me the importance of seeing the COMPLETE back side of your rig on video but even more important was pressing your hips through the bottem corner of the door. I always tried to focus on trying to stick my left hip into the bottem corner and keep my head up looking back up at the front floaters. Great job #10

Even though your exits aren't the same as an otter and your limited to a few formations, remember you still need to properly place the formation to the relative wind regardless of the door, and flying on the hill. So it's still learning to fly together as a group.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but a couple of years ago didn't the NSL institute a few designated formations for the rookies. I'm thinking it was 4 of them. Your draw would always start off with one of those designated formations. I wonder if thats what this individual at the ranch was referring to when they told you only these particular formations. I know they don't do that now.

As for helping the exit training. Mike has the right idea. I want to add too that, that the DZ might let you do exit training which is exits from 6000'. Turn the first page only, get to your packers quick if you don't have second rigs and do a quick video review rather than a full blown debrief. The idea is to turn as many exits as possible and all your concentrating on is the exit.

Sounds like you've gotten a lot of great advice here. The thing that sets you apart from alot of skydivers is that you recognize the room for improvement. Enjoy working out all this good information, and enjoy creating and improving YOUR tracking method.

I've always heard bend at the waist and roll the shoulders to cup air, blah blah blah I'm sure you know the rest. All very good advice, but I found that bending at the waist has a tendancy to tip me foward into a dive. Speaking for myself. I was shown a long time ago instead of thinking of bending at the waist I think push my shins down, alot. Do all that other stuff like rolling the shoulders tucking the head so on and so on too. Just stand straight up out of your chair and put your toes about 12 or so inches in front of you and there you have it.

I think it's a great idea. Go with it. I for one used to use names of a formation to help me remember how it builds...what it looks like. After I got into 4-way I'll look at a larger formation and say to myself "oh that looks like a P or the top half of 21. I remember in alot of gear stores they sell two books. One is 2-ways to like 20 ways or something and everything in between. The other book is from 21 ways up to like 60 or 100 ways. There are a ton of formations in these books. It's a light blue colored book but for the life of me I can't remember the name. Sorry. I know somebody out there is going to read this and know the answer. You can probably find it at an online gear store. I'm with ya. Sometimes we get stuck doing the same ol' stuff. Let's color up the day a bit.

I read one of the earlier post, someone mentioned staging your blocks. I've found this to be a key element and for me probably the most important element to good block work next to eye contact. This works better for teams rather than fun jumps though because you actually stop the skydive. I learned this from Chris Irwin. We would stop or stage the block and we would have to wait for the key, then finish the block. An ex: would be with stardian/stardian once the outside center & inside center cross we would stop and break the momentum. Wait for the key then complete the block. The purpose is to learn to slow down the block or break it in half to get a better picture. The other is to stop the momentum. Until we understand how and where to move we tend to get our motions going in the wrong direction so by the end of the block we're a little or a lot out of whack. As we get more use to the block and our individual and partners jobs then we gradually eliminate the stop. On comes the speed