Deliberate task overloading for training.

[AfterDark]

Our OWD class included some drills like that. The toughest one was called "blackout doff and don with harassment". You were blindfolded (still had the mask on though) and took off all your gear. As you started to put it all back on, the instructors started to "harass" you... loosen straps, drag you around, toss you over, turn off your air. Completion was optional as this was basic OWD, but it was on the course program nonetheless.

We had a similar drill. It was just "harassment" The instructor would undo a d-ring strap, while your dealing with that out comes the reg, then another d-ring, then a fin, there goes the mask, pulled the d-ring undone again, on and on until you crack or they were satisfied you could handle multiple problems. I had my own fins, they floated, the instructor had to retrieve them for me. Surfacing before the end of the drill was a failure. After that my fins were safe. That was NASDS 1968 basic scuba class as taught by M&S Divers,

 

[mathauck0814]

I think it's better to be done to you than to do it to yourself. As mentioned above, tech classes are just that. If you don't know it's coming it's more real.

 

[boulderjohn]

Our OWD class included some drills like that. The toughest one was called "blackout doff and don with harassment". You were blindfolded (still had the mask on though) and took off all your gear. As you started to put it all back on, the instructors started to "harass" you... loosen straps, drag you around, toss you over, turn off your air. Completion was optional as this was basic OWD, but it was on the course program nonetheless.

Stress training such as has been described can have great instructional benefit when the student responds correctly, but one must be careful with it.

A friend who was part of an instructor training program for a technical diving agency described a situation he observed in that program. The instructor in training swam over the top of him (the simulated student) from behind, pulled the student's mask off as he passed by, swam ahead, and turned around. By the time he was around, the student was nowhere to be seen, because the Instructor Trainer had signaled him to simulate a panicked ascent. According to DAN research, panicked ascents are by far the number one non-health related cause of scuba fatalities.

In my tech training in doubles, our instructor shut off my buddy's air. He signaled, I gave him my long hose primary, and I picked up my bungeed alternate. No air. I realized that my instructor had simulated a left post roll off by shutting off my left post before putting my buddy out of air. I reached back, grabbed the valve handle, and turned it back on. At no time before that had we ever been taught about left post rolloffs or what to do with them--I just figured it out. I later heard that in another session with other students, the student in that situation did not figure it out and panicked. Apparently things got a bit ugly (I don't know the details), but fortunately no one was hurt.

If you are an instructor who includes harassment in your training, you had better make sure you are in a position to deal effectively with a student who does not respond appropriately. If you do not and have a student fatality as a result, you will have to convince a jury that your training procedures were safe and acceptable parts of diver training. If your opposition points to the fact that your training agency does not condone those practices, you will have a tough time. Even if your agency condones it, you may have some trouble. For example, the agency in the first episode I described allows the instructor to take the mask off a student without warning. Other technical diving agencies forbid that because it is considered too dangerous, and you can bet that fact will be brought up in your trial. If the student with the left post rolloff had been hurt, the fact that there had been no prior instruction for that would have been very important in the trial.

 

[fdog]

As a generality, there is not much value to the student from a overwhelmingly task loaded scenario*. As an educator, there is tremendous value - you get to observe what "breaks first", and apply that as improvement points in further sessions.

For example, as the failure pile on, the student's buoyancy goes out the window. Guess what we're working on in the next session?


*: prioritization under stress is indeed a skill and can be learned. It is just one facet in the skills that need to be acquired, though, and it would be a disservice to the student to conduct all training in that fashion.


One of my instructors passed on this as a way to prioritize cascading failures, most important first:

1. Team
2. Air
3. Light

And it works amazingly well.



All the best, James

 

[AfterDark]

I was under the impression that harassment drills ended years ago because of liability. fdog I disagree, I wasn't sure going in if I'd pass that drill or not but, after we were done I was confident that I could handle problems submerged and have never surfaced to solve a problem, unless it's my float line getting tangled with a lobster pot marker! IMO we'd have better divers if some form of those drills were done at the end of OW. If nothing else weed out the weak. Oh! can't do that!

 

[DaleC]

I am on the fence when it comes to overloading tasks. If you push up to the limit but are still able to respond successfully, it can be beneficial. If you go beyond and overwhelm the student you gain no positive effect. In fact, you teach poor response habits and undermine confidence. I would prefer a graduated task loading regime in which, with time, the student is able to contend with a high degree of stress.

My view of harassment (from a mature[r] leadership standpoint), is that it is far more important to have the right instructor than student.

 

[Lost down under]

Not quite in the same league as many who have posted but myself and a regular buddy regularly mess about with each others kit (tank, masks, clips, fins) it's done within a fairly specific depth range usually around safety stops on shallower dives where risk is minimal and we're both getting bored. As a (former) police cadet we where taught four phases of awareness :

White: we live most of our lives in this zone, blissfully unaware of our surroundings and driving in auto pilot.
yellow: Raised awareness, actively looking for potential issues technically where we should have been constantly whilst on duty or in this case diving.
Red: heightened awareness, reacting to a threat.
Red mist: The problem has dominated our thinking and we are once again unaware of our surroundings or context.

It's pretty standard but I don't think rec divers (myself included) spend enough time consciously thinking about where they sit on the sliding scale whilst diving. I find myself drifting into the white far too often when I should be 'in the orange'. Whats more dangerous of course is skipping the red zone all together and plowing into 'red mist' (military types may have a different definition to me, so I use the term cautiously) usually due to lack of experience with the given problem. My opinion is that the more exposure you get to a problem the less you panic, even if you experience a new problem at least your initial diagnostics and response will be fluid and well rehearsed.

 

[fdennis]

We got the whole drill with stress training when I was YMCA trained in 1972 for the MDCC marine technician program. You would go down and knew it was coming. One person would grab your mask, another would be taking off your fins, someone else was releasing your tank. Someone would take your primary. There was a lot of harassment. Lesson learned. Make sure you hang on to your tank and second stage to breathe on, everything else is minor. Once you don't have air, it gets stressful real fast.

Welcome to Shark Night!!!

I'm sure the prospect of something similar these days would have liability insurance agents piddling down their collective legs - but surviving a good Shark Night exercise can do wonders for your self-confidence.:cool2:

 

[DevonDiver]

I don't really see much value in 'harassment' (as per military usage). It's too easily dismissed as irrelevant to what can occur on a dive.

I see lots of task-overloading on my tech courses. This overload occurs from nothing more than a demand for absolute precision diving, with the occasional failure thrown in. It's amazing how such simple demands can cause a complete blow-out, even amongst experienced divers or people from otherwise high-stress backgrounds.

The key, for me, is absolute insistence on maintaining good foundational skills, to-the-second adherence to the dive plan/deco schedule and very precise standards on deco stops. Quite often, a simple distraction with task-loading causes a big spiral. Self-induced pressure by the student accounts for much also. As an instructor, I educate the consequences of screwing up... stuff escalates. That's realistic and natural. Knowing you're screwing up is a big stressor.

I've got hours of hilarious videos that demonstrate this (I video my classes). Sadly, it isn't fair on my students to post these...

Video is a very useful resource when dealing with task-loading/stress. When students review the dive video, they will often respond: "Why was I doing that? I was making errors and not correcting them. That caused me more errors It was all self-induced." That is a very, very useful training point.

 

[manni-yunk]

I love the harrassment and failures of tech training. It gives confidence as well as competence. Im done Trimix -but looking forward to cave and advanced trimix next year and I cant wait to see what the instructor throws at me in those classes that he hasnt already done!

I actually enjoy getting to the point that I cant handle the situation effectively and in good (enough) buiyancy - then debriefing, then trying again a few days or weeks later and seeing improvement.

As long as I have trust in the instructor, I welcome it!