Any tips for staying relaxed and avoid tunnel vision while laying the line?

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BlueTrin

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Just doing cave 1 at the moment. Find it extremely hard to lay the line as I have never done this before.

I get both tunnel vision and a very high sac rate.

If you have any tips that would help me to learn faster, would be very much appreciated.
 
Yes.

Stop, take a deep breath
look down the tunnel to where you want to go for your next wrap/placement,
take a deep breath,
go to that place

Repeat until tied in.

Take 3 deep breaths.

Proceed into the cave.
 
following on that, land drills, land drills, land drills. Part of this is perceptual narrowing because you are having to focus on the actual laying line bit in terms of tie offs and placements. @cerich uses a great analogy where every diver has a dollar to spend which amounts to your total focus ability. Someone like Chris, @mer, or @kensuf are using maybe a penny on things like buoyancy/trim/propulsion, at this point in their diving careers it is natural but someone new to Cave 1 may be having to spend say 20 cents on fundamental skills just due to experience because they're trying to read the cave, adjust their trim to match the profile, keep their buoyancy spot on so they can lay the line, etc etc.
You now have another dime added in of just new environment jitters which are completely normal, another dime allocated to paying attention to your buddy, and if you have a half dollar allocated to placement of the line then you have over 3/4 of your attention allocated and that doesn't leave a whole lot of room left. With time and experience this allocation will come down, but know that you are not alone and that this is completely normal in the start of a cave class.
One thing that we teach that applies to all aspects of life is that if the world starts to feel like it is spinning it's your job to put the brakes on and make the world move at your pace, there is exactly a 0% chance that when it starts spinning that you can keep up so don't try. This ties exactly into what Ken said, an instructor isn't going to brow beat you for taking 5-10mins to put a line in if it is put in properly and comfortably but when you start to huff and puff your judgement gets clouded by increased CO2 and you are probably making mistakes in terms of your placements and that will come back to you in debrief.

Slow and relaxed with good technique, be quick but never hurry
 
Excellent question!

This is one of those things everyone struggles with at first. And it all comes down to the same thing as every other task you may find challenging:

Buoyancy.

The reason your sac rate sky rockets is because you’re so task focused you revert to that “first learned” muscle memory of controlling your buoyancy with your breathing. Instead of with the device on your back that is explicitly for Buoancy Control.

Which seems like a hassle because you have this pain in the ass thing in your hand that feels like it’s attacking you half the time. And this increases the task-focus.

As Ken says. Very first step… stop. Breath. Stop moving. Do you have to push off a rock or feel like you absolutely HAVE to move your fins at all? Fix your buoancy. Get yourself stable.

Once your stable you have the opportunity to comfortably move on to…

Next step:
Keep your light up and your head up.

Look for the biggest darkest area ahead of you, not at the ground below you. The big dark spot is probably where you want to go. Your cave dive has started. So look at the cave. It’s pretty.

Don’t look for tie-offs as you’re swimming. Pick a spot where there’s likely going to be a good tieoff then swim to that spot. Look around and take it in; don’t stare single-mindlessly at your spot.

Swim casually and adjust buoancy along the way. So by the time you get to your spot it doesn’t feel like you have to hurry to get this stupid tie-off done before something horrible happens.

Instead, you’re floating neutral. No need to breathe like crazy to stay afloat, and getting all stressy about the task at hand.

And finally: practice. It gets easier. It’s a new task and theres some performance anxiety. Of course you’re going to be a little stressed and breathe a little heavy.

Before you know it you’ll be able to lay a primary reel to the mainline in about the same time as you’d just swim that distance.
 
Take. Your. Time. It's not a race. This was something I struggled with at first. I was always trying to get the tie offs done quickly and ended up fumbling around a lot costing more time and more energy. Just slow down. Think about the next move first, then execute. Think, execute. If you get our of sorts, stop. Settle yourself, then continue. The pressure you feel from everyone watching is real so hopefully you have a good understanding team that will just chill while you work through things. If not discuss it on land, maybe have them hang back a bit so you don't feel their pressure. Workout the movements outside of the cave. I haven't found land drills to be all that useful. I like to practice in open shallow water, trying various tie offs and positions and find it much more useful than running lines around trees and rocks while standing up. Nothings the same once you gear up and get in trim. At least for me.
 
A few things that helped me. I often have "stage fright" when it comes time for me to demonstrate something or tie into an unfamiliar cave. It's the feeling of constantly being judged and critiqued. I guess in your case it's true since it is a class but try not to stress. You're new at it and literally nobody is perfect at this the first time. It's a bit cliche but realizing that we all make mistakes and none of us are perfect helped me not to stress.

Fix buoyancy and stability before doing anything else. Number one priority.

Slow and steady wins the race. I see a lot of people rushing and trying to go fast. You make mistakes and miss good areas to tie off and placements if you're rushing. I dont mean to take an hour to tie-in but no need to rush. Your focus should be good line laying, proper placements and tie-offs, not speed.

Scan in front of you, visualize and look for your next line placement/tie-off. I realize this is not always possible when you're new or dont know the cave. I try to have a queue in my head of sorts for next good tie-offs / placements. I know you're in class but a teammate can help here. They can point out a good tie off and even help "fix" your line with a quick placement as you go along.

Practice, practice, practice. Practice in open water, volunteer to run the primary reel rather than hope someone else will do it. The only way to get better is to keep doing it.

EDITS
 
I’m working on this still, but I would stress the previous advice about stopping before each tie off and taking a second -or a minute- to stabilize, adjust buoyancy and catch your breath. Most of my mistakes during the course came from going too fast, and my instructor gave me the same advice which I found super helpful.

I still get a bit too focused at times so it is a WIP, but I’ve found that if it feels stupidly slow - then it is probably the right pace.
 
To reiterate (in fewer words), look UP and scan 15+ft ahead for your next tie off. Swim to that spot scanning the tube/room of the cave, try to focus on all your other basic diving skills at this time not tie tie tie. When you arrive 20+ft ahead at the spot then do your tie off. You can trust that there will be something there, if not scan another 5-10ft ahead for an alternative. Avoid looking at the floor.
 
Thanks for all the tips, I’ll try to put this in practice and plan ahead rather than swim and look at a spot while swimming.

Will tell you tomorrow how it went 😃
 
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