NetDoc needs YOUR help with his ITC...

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Little suggenstion- Never remind the nose when teaching. Talking about certain kind of problems (of course I do not mean DCS!!!) may create them where they never would have been created before.

Let me give you a simulation of such a lecture on breathing:
(somewhat reminding of my own in my course, and of me sitting as evaluator in the crowd during later days):

Sitting on the table in front of the class, looking in the eyes all of my odience (3 more IC students and 3 ITs, dont ask why so many ITs!!!!) one by one: "Now we'r going to talk about breathing (Dramatic pouse, going with the eyes drill again). Breathing is one of our basic tasks in life, one we alwais do without even paying attention to it. However, when we dive, we may well pay attention to every breath we take." (now remeber- you must make the lecture interesting, and make the audience participate in it to get higher score, and make them not get bored / crucify you later) little pause (no eye drill this time) "Any idea why?" (looking for one who wants to talk. now, remeber- your friends that do the course with you, will ask you easy, some times even dumb question, to make you look good, while the IT may ask you either very tough question to check your knowlege or EXTREMELY DUMB question, to see how you cope with a darvinist, or simply to make you lough so hard you can't remeber what you were about to say). choosing a friend, the genious goes "Becouse we are now in a new enviorment we are not used to" choosing the other clever participant of the course "Yeah, and we also breath through special equipment, and the sensation is different" (now how the hell did this guy know the sensation is different if it's the first time he hears about it?!?!?! he's really smart eh???). Now the IT looks like he really likes to ask you a question, and wanting to get a good grade you let him ask it "But Isn't it really scary breathing underwater?!?!?!? and what if the regulator slides out of your mouth???" seeing his sencire face you can't help but break out loughing. you start: "Dont worry, we will learn about that later (seeing his horrified face, a definite darvinist this one!!!!) really, dont worry it's my next topic (he seems relaxed now). " Going on "Right you two, that's true. We're in a new eviorment. It is a bit unnatural, for us humans, land creatures to breath underwater. As you also mentioned, breathing through the regulators feels a bit different than breathing in air. What we have to remeber though, is quite simple" (a dramatic pause, with the looking in the eye drill) "REmeber this rule, as it is one of divng's most important- ALWAIS BREATH!!!! never stop breathing! breath regularly- fill your lungs and than empty them. You must also learn to count on your regulator- It will not fail you (now you can see the darvinist thinking about giving you the obviouse dumb questin, but this time he let's it go), it will deliver you as much air as you need- as much you demand. This by the way, is why this regulator is called a "Demand regulator"." now- another factor in the score, is giving the audience some reall background you have regarding this, like dives you had and such. So you try to come up with something in this aspect too: "I want to share with you a story. When I was a kid I used to have dreams about the see at nights. I had a motive that repeated in many of my dreams: me swiming underwater, for some time, untill I feel I need to go up to take air, only for some reason I can't. Than after some time I take a breath- and what a wonder!!! I can breath!!!. Years later, when I turned 16 and had my OW course, I found out that this wonder can be achieved!!! It is one of the reason I am so hooked on the subject." Now that you'v gone all through the subject, and through all the aspects of a good lecture, you need just to sum it up:
"What we'v discussed now is breathing- what is different in breathing underwater?, what is the most important thing to remeber regarding breathing? I want to hear you guys say it!!! yes, now- (they shout) "NEVER STOP BREATHING!!! very good-once again, this is very important, say it louder- "NEVER STOP BREATHING!!!! very good guys. never you stop breath when you go with scuba gear. I see you later in the pool, say in half an hour after we all eat?"

REmeber- every lecture must start with an introduction, followded by the body of the lecture, in which you need to let the audience participate, and tell some nice storys from your history. Finish by summing it all up and going over the topics. If you tought something that is a basic rule of scuba (such as equalizing, alwais breathing and other such issues) repeat it dramaticaly (and I also recomend making THEM say it). Also remeber to conect things you talk about to things that were talked about before or where felt/used/practiced earlier in the pool.

Taht's about it, hope I helped you. Any more help you need in your course, I will be happy to help :wink:

On reall courses I teach I also talk a bit about the importance of breathing for keeping good bouyancy, but in you own IC dont do it, try to stay within the subject. As for the exact way of how to breath, I'm sure you can come out with something good here, But I think I gave the most importent issues and aspects of a lecture here. Expect questions such as "But when we equalize we stop breathing for a moment" from the IT, and try to preplan answers to questions you think are very liked to be asked. (Actualy you can divert the audience to ask question you want them to ask but taking in certain ways, a method I like to use when teaching).

P.S-
If my writing is a bit blur- just remeber I didn't do it in english, rather in hebrew).
 
My ow instructor told us that the only time you really breath normally is when you are sleeping (aside form those that snore). I guess that means that breathing normally is when we are not conscious to the fact that we are doing it, its just something that we do. I've been breathing all day long (thank god) and haven't had to concentrate on doing it, I just do it normal.

Does that help, or make you more confused?
 
Originally posted by NetDoc


"How do you breathe normally on SCUBA?" (I have to do it today)
With my mouth.......:jester:
It don't work to good with my nose :bonk:

Sorry couldn't resist :D
 
Thanks for the input guys... unfortunately I got to read some great replies after the fact. I got dinged in three major areas.

1) My title... "Don't Suck at Breathing" was deemed offensive. Many thought it was the funny play on words that I do all the time.

2) Too much... I knew I was in trouble when the first person went. She had FAR less to present and went to 7 minutes. I easily had 10-12 minutes of material. I should have just cut out some areas, but I rushed it instead.

3) I used the term "air embolism" and did not define it... just no time really. They saw that as unsafe.

They liked a lot of things I did (though, some said I was TOO enthusiastic) and one instructor said it was a 4 or 5 presentation that got dinged to a 2. Final score was a 2/5 which is a fail.

My impression/reaction; I was hurt. They missed some of what I said, and I think that one person clearly does not like my style at all. I am not sure that I am willing to change what he does not like, so I will always set the stage as teaching a bunch of teenagers, so I can get away with my enthusiasm. I was the only one given a topic NOT covered in the Instructor's guide, and I feel that we were all set up to fail to a degree. I will get a chance to read the forms first hand and that will enable me to "play the game" for the rest of the course. While they said they were trying to get a "snapshot" of our teaching styles, I feel that the filter they are using distorts how well you would do or not do in the field. I see it as flawed, but there is little to do but "play the game". There are some great ideas being taught to us, but the time limit of 5 minutes is sooooo artificial and is really teaching us some bad habits. We all tried to cram important issues with little regard to just HOW it was being received. You had NO time to establish a rapport with the audience, and we will be forced to be artificially narrow to "beat the clock".

The pool sessions was great though... I did the 1/4 mile swim in 9:41 (2nd) and the 1/2 mile snorkle in 15:30 (1st). I did the snorkle/mask/fin ditch, don and clear on the first try (never practiced that one) and also the Scuba doff and don, and the Scuba bail out. The gear exchange went incredibly well and was far tougher than the PADI skill. FAR TOUGHER. I will be doing my rescues tomorrow am. They are my weak point, so hope for the best.
 
Hang in there NetDoc. I think that one of the problems with teaching in these scenarios is that you are not talking to an unknowing crowd. These folks now how to pick you to death over issues that may not even cross a new students mind. In your air embolism scenario, a student would have asked what that was if they didn't understand.

One thing that I learned from my regoinal training rep ws to keep things basic and to the point and always directly on topic. I got to observe my instructor do a portion of his crossover. One of the thiings to remmeber is that we as experienced divers know more than a brand new student will need to know at that particular point in time.

I know I've rambled around here but hopefully its of some use to you.
 
Originally posted by NetDoc
... The gear exchange went incredibly well and was far tougher than the PADI skill. FAR TOUGHER.

How so?

I will be doing my rescues tomorrow am. They are my weak point, so hope for the best.

Think positive my friend, you'll do fine. You know enough to go in with a positive attitude and thinking success and not with a negative one and thinking failure.
 
Well, in my PADI gear exchange we just swapped gear... everything but our wetsuits.

The Naui gear exchange starts with one diver and one swimmer. The swimmer dives down to the diver and while buddy breathing we take the gear off of the one and put it on the other... then we swim 25 yards, re-exchange gear and swim the other 25 yards back. Only one mask, one set of fins, one SCUBA unit... you get the picture. A good deal more elaborate than my PADI exchange. Still, the guy that I did it with placed #1 in the swim and #2 in the snorkle, so we were fairly well matched in skills. We are pretty much done, while the others have a lot to do still.
 
That description fit pretty much the same skill as presented in some older scuba books I have ie 1960's. No BC's in the pictures.
 
This is what I am doing in the am... tell me what you think!!!

Regulator Clearing

Why?

Did you ever watch Sea Hunt? All Mike Nelson had to do was knock the regulator out of a guy’s mouth and the fight was over, with the poor guy floating off into the sunset. Well it doesn’t quite work that way in real life!! Heck, we’re all good guys! But, many times you will find your regulator out of your mouth. Some of these are planned like when you switch from your snorkel to your regulator, and some are not, such as when your “buddy” accidentally kicks you in the face! Either way, this skill will enable you to clear your regulator so you can breathe air and not water! Soon you will be clearing your regulator like a Master Diver!

Goal

One student at a time in the shallow end of the pool, you are going to clear your completely flooded regulator without and have a completely cleared regulator when you are done. As with all SCUBA exercises; you should never occlude your airway at any time… I want to see tiny bubbles coming from your lips whenever the regulator is out of your mouth.

Sequence

In addition to all of the other signals that I showed you before we got into the water, THIS one means remove and replace your regulator and clear it according to standards.

When I am directly in front of you and give you the signal, you should
1) Take the regulator out of your mouth.
2) Blow tiny bubbles whenever the regulator is not in your mouth.
3) Put the regulator back into your mouth.
4) Exhale forcefully while keeping your head vertical.
5) Take a first cautionary breath (tongue on roof of mouth)
6) Re-clear if necessary (Exhale again)
7) Breathe normally when you are satisfied that your regulator is free of water.



Cautionary Statements:
There is another way to clear your regulator if you are out of breath. This will be covered later.
Be careful to keep tiny stream of bubbles coming out of your mouth while the regulator is out… but don’t wait too long!
Keep your tongue on the roof of your mouth on your first cautious breath.
 
I followed your instructions and it worked




PS good luck
 
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