The theme of my IDC was control. I came into it with horrible awareness, trim and neutral buoyancy. That really didn't matter much if I had control. Control, control, control. The not so unsurprising counters to all this was a well known and respected cave instructor, Reggie Ross, and the guy who brought me to the IDC, Michael Brady. At one point after a control session, Reggie commented that this was why he didn't like teaching OW. I was taught to teach skills on the knees, in the pool, and in a serial fashion. The first two skills you HAD to teach was clearing the mask and reg retrieval and that was done on the knees. On the first dive, I gather my ducks in a little circle and we would go through the serial skills again. Knowing how to clear the mask was the goal. Having them know when to clear their mask and doing it neutral was secondary. But you had to maintain tight control, so keep 'em on their knees where they can't swim away. After the skills were done, take 'em for a swim. Sure, try to get them neutral, but remember it takes a 100 dives to figure all that out, so it's not really your problem. Remember, they only have to hover for 30 freakishly long seconds. Mask clearing and reg retrieval are your real primary tasks to teach.
I didn't like the final product. Not even a bit. I didn't like the product of my fellow instructors. Then I took a cavern course. Getting neutral wasn't that hard when someone cares about it. I would have cared about it earlier, but I didn't know how to do it myself. I had seen it and liked it when I saw it, but even though I thought I had it, I was a mess just like most of my fellow instructors. My cavern course was a watershed event in regards to truly being in control. So then, my focus shifted. I really wanted to produce students I wouldn't be embarrassed to dive with. Since I was taught that my best class would always be the next one, I started to experiment. Some things worked, some never got repeated. At first, I just took extra time after teaching peeps on their knees to get them trim and neutral. At some point, a chance conversation with Reggie at Ginnie Springs helped me to see the connection between being trim and mastering buoyancy. It was all about the direction of thrust. I confided how long my classes had become. BTW, part of being in control is managing time. DON'T WASTE YOUR STUDENT'S TIME! My two-day classes had stretched into 3, 4, and 5-day classes. I think it was Reggie who said something along the lines, wouldn't it be awesome if they didn't have to kneel, especially in OW. Then came the epiphany at Alexander Springs and the experiment shifted focus to getting off the knees in the pool. The first class was epically funny but I kept at it. The second class was night and day better. Could it be that simple? I was back to two days in the pool and they really looked good. Within a month I had a fellow instructor ask when I had started teaching cavern. That was after two days in the pool. The unintended compliment felt good and I shared it here. I was pretty happy about it. Then I was called a liar. I was told that it was impossible, but I was doing it. I was having fun teaching, but if/when I shared it here, I was called a liar.