Thanks. I'm not trying to be a pain in the neck, but I mean exactly what do you do in tech. courses that gets you to being really good with these skills-- most of which you should be able to do from taking rec. courses. Such as, kicking techniques SHOULD be part of a Wreck course (they weren't in mine). Holding decompression stops-- different than holding a safety stop (maybe, I don't know, never did a decompression stop and thought they were the same but longer)? Hover motionless--should be doing that in OW course.
How is buddy diving safer-- what specifically do you do in a tech. course making that so?
I do assume that trim may be dealt with a lot more than in OW, though it should be in PP Buoyancy courses. Kicking I can also understand, as I don't recall getting ANY instruction on that in any of the rec. courses I've taken, and have not given back kicking a fair try with my split fins.
So again, are there any specific drills/exercises that improve these basic skills, or maybe you are saying the instructors are much more experienced and teach them better than your average instructor who isn't a tech. diver? That would make sense to me too.
Technical diving requires a superior level of control right from the beginning. You need to hover motionless within inches of a planned depth and control yourself very well whilst doing skills (e.g. removing a mask or doing valve drills). All finning must be done without moving your arms and must not disturb the silt, so a mixture of frog kicks, flutter kicks for speed, backwards finning and helicopter turns. Your trim must be flat (for streamlining and not hitting things). You will be expected to do certain basic skills such as out of gas donation (longhose), valve shutdowns (backmount doubles or sidemount), mask removal and replacement, putting up an SMB and not holding on to the spool/reel, holding a 6m/20' stop in open water.
Those are the requirements for all diving. For this you will put in a lot of time and effort to perfect these skills, spending a lot of time on a 6m/20' platform. Most of the time this is done by encouraging new divers to make the effort to practice together until they can complete these drills without problems. Diving practice will also help where you swim through "confined" spaces, such as a bus or aeroplane in a diving quarry/lake. Most/all technical diving courses will simply expect you to be at that standard, which you will put in a lot of pre-course practice.
The main difference I've found between "technical" and "recreational" diving is firstly the quality standards level required - if technical dive training, you're expected to demonstrate these skills at all times; if you dive with other technical divers, you'll all be at that standard, i.e. you'll see first hand what good looks like.
Recreational diving (meaning to basic PADI et al standards) doesn't encourage that level of skill. Doing one wreck course might teach you a bit, but not to that level. For example you may be shown frog kicking, but you're not going to be drilled hard on helicopter turns, back finning and small adjustments (mod frog). Or, to put it another way, there's no equivalent of PADI Fundamentals as it simply doesn't fit their pile it high and sell loads of courses model.
My point is not being snobbish nor elitist; regardless of where and how you dive, everyone can benefit from better core skills.
Example...
Yesterday (29th March 2021) England had a slight relaxation of Covid lockdown rules so I went to a diving lake (Wraysbury) which is well known for being quite silty. For three months nobody dived there and yesterday it was jam packed with divers! We took a bit of time to kit up (rebreather faffing and Kubi problems!) so got in about an hour after the first lot. The visibility was less than a foot/30cm in places where they'd kicked the hell out of the bottom and stirred everything up. Not pleasant, but at least it was a dive and the sun was shining!
I'm happy that I've sorted out the additional weighting for winter and it was my first dive in 5 months on the rebreather (damn that lockdown). Am now ready for the 30+ days of sea diving booked in the next 2 months. Freeeeedommmm!