After a burnout in 2007 I nearly gave up the dive pro route. It was only after running into the right instructor who asked me how much fun diving was I doing that it clicked. It was stress. Pure and simple. I told the instructor I had been DM'ing for that I was done. After actually arriving at the site late because of traffic and getting out of the car, looked at him and the students in the water, said screw it and got back in the car, and drove 3 hours home.
I got with the other instructor and for 6 months dived for fun during which I took an Intro to Tech and Helitrox course.
It was with this instructor that my interest in teaching got rekindled.
Over the last 14 years or so, there have been times I had to step back and times I've told students to slow down and even refused to train them because I felt they were moving too fast. Might have cost me a few thousand dollars in teaching income, but much less than I'd have lost if they got hurt.
I decided to stop teaching deep and deco class this year. I'm getting older and realizing my risk tolerance is not there for those classes.
Even with Intro to Tech and Advanced Nitrox that don't require 100 ft dives, I still require my students to have a minimum of 25 dives (actual ones, not dipping their face in the water) in the gear and configuration they were going to take the class in.
Drysuit for any kind of overhead training? 50 is better. Even if it costs me a student to someone else, There is just too much task loading.
My advice, for what it's worth, is forget the caves for a year. Dive open water so that the suit and configuration is instinctual. Minimum of 50 dives. Work on task loading at some point during every dive. Treat the dives as if they are overheads during that time. Even if it's only 5 minutes. Then at the end of that 5 minutes, RELAX and have fun. Allow the stress to leave and after the dive, analyze your successes as well as the failures and use the successes to gain the confidence to reduce the failures next time.
One of the reasons I feel that some courses are not popular is that they are taught with failure as the most likely outcome.
UW Nav is a good example. If taught the way it usually is, it most often results in frustration, and acceptance of close enough is good enough to pass. The exercises are too often expecting unrealistic results that when they are met, it's as much luck as skill. You get frustrated and the next dive sucks from the get go because of your attitude of defeat.
If the class is set up to result in small, but noticeable successes from the beginning, the whole dynamic changes because the skills are built upon a solid foundation.
Same with tech classes. Foundation built on sand? Good way to fail and maybe fail your teammates as well.
Build the foundation on granite and it's not so daunting. That solid foundation also includes the wisdom to say, "nah, not today. Not feeling it. It'll still be there tomorrow. Or next year if necessary."
