One-hand or two-hand valve drills (back mount doubles)

[lukas_manthony]

Hi everyone, this is my first post to ScubaBoard. I've been a quiet but appreciative member for a while.
What are your thoughts on the one-hand versus the two-hand valve drill when diving back mounted doubles? Is one method better than the other? I'm a fairly new technical diver, and my two tech instructors have different approaches to drills but have never explained the merits of their preferred system over the other. I imagine that the two-hand drill is faster (and I have found this to be the case), but I suppose the one-hand drill allows the diver to control other equipment (e.g., primary light, buoyancy devices, etcetera). Interested to hear everyone's thoughts. Thanks!!!

 

[BlueTrin]

How do you do a two hand drill?

You close one while reopening the other to diagnose?

 

[Lorenzoid]

I have never heard of one-hand drill versus two-hand drill. I use my right hand to turn my right post valve and the isolator valve, and my left hand to turn my left post valve, so I guess that must be a two-hand valve drill.

I'm a fairly new technical diver, and my two tech instructors have different approaches to drills but have never explained the merits of their preferred system over the other.

As you have probably observed from your SB lurking, there are various ways of doing things, there are often pros and cons to each, and SB members love to debate the merits of their way of doing whatever it is. But one thing I would say we all agree on is that a good instructor is happy to explain WHY they do what they do the way they do it (and the answer should be more than just "that's the way I was taught"). Don't hesitate to ask your two instructors for their reasoning. Reach your own informed decision.

 

[NothingClever]

I’d prefer NOT to have both hands twisting dials simultaneously.

Sounds like your dive buddy is interested in speed. I don’t think that’s a priority objective here. Maintaining an open circuit and buoyancy control are. Speed will come with repetition.

I like a very sequential drill.

In another life where it was kill or be killed, we had an important phrase, “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”

 

[boulderjohn]

I am very familiar with the two-hand drill. When I had to get my valve drill down to 30 seconds for my instructor rating, that is what I did. For those who don't know what it is, here is a brief description. There are a couple of options for it, but essentially you have both hands working to open and shut the valves at the same time. For example, while your right hand is shutting down the right post, the left hand is closing the manifold.

I am hesitant to go on with this, because I have strong and unconventional feelings about the whole exercise. A full expression of my thoughts would make for a very long post.

For this post, let me just say that I first learned to do the valve drill while I was a DIR/UTD student, and then I did it later as a TDI student. When I did my first TDI drill, I did the very best and most beautiful DIR drill I had ever done, and the instructor pronounced it terrible.

• With the DIR/UTD approach, the whole focus was doing all 200 steps (yes, I exaggerate) beautifully, showing perfect buoyancy control. Every step had to be preceded by a light signal and a hand signal indicating that I was working a valve. Each regulator shutdown had to last until I had breathed it all the way down. It took me about two minutes, but it was a joy to watch.
• My TDI instructor wanted it completed fast. The purpose is to be able to reach your valves and manipulate them in a hurry. What was with all the signalling, breathing down, clipping off, etc.? You won't do that if your valve is spewing out all your air.

So if you are doing a valve drill the way I was taught by DIR/UTD, then you cannot do it with two hands. If you are doing it for speed, then two hands does help.

 

[boulderjohn]

My problem with the valve drill in general goes to a key point in instructional theory: when you learn a skill, it should be as gamelike as possible. You need to practice the way it will really be done. The valve drill is an artificial exercise that is never done in a real situation. No matter what approach you use, you are likely to be practicing something that is inappropriate. The goal of the exercise is to make sure you are able to reach and manipulate all valves easily in the event of an emergency. That's what it is for. I have had to reach and manipulate valves for real on three occasions, and none of those occasions looked anything like the valve drills I practiced.

 

[ELCAM]

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast…

Great if you can do it in 30secs but in the process lose a line or silt out a cave and make a problem worst for yourself and team.

 

[NothingClever]

Tracking all that, @boulderjohn but @lukas_manthony is still new to technical diving. A crawl, walk, run approach is appropriate and right now it seems like he’s still in the crawl phase.

 

[lukas_manthony]

I am very familiar with the two-hand drill. When I had to get my valve drill down to 30 seconds for my instructor rating, that is what I did. For those who don't know what it is, here is a brief description. There are a couple of options for it, but essentially you have both hands working to open and shut the valves at the same time. For example, while your right hand is shutting down the right post, the left hand is closing the manifold.

I am hesitant to go on with this, because I have strong and unconventional feelings about the whole exercise. A full expression of my thoughts would make for a very long post.

For this post, let me just say that I first learned to do the valve drill while I was a DIR/UTD student, and then I did it later as a TDI student. When I did my first TDI drill, I did the very best and most beautiful DIR drill I had ever done, and the instructor pronounced it terrible.

• With the DIR/UTD approach, the whole focus was doing all 200 steps (yes, I exaggerate) beautifully, showing perfect buoyancy control. Every step had to be preceded by a light signal and a hand signal indicating that I was working a valve. Each regulator shutdown had to last until I had breathed it all the way down. It took me about two minutes, but it was a joy to watch.
• My TDI instructor wanted it completed fast. The purpose is to be able to reach your valves and manipulate them in a hurry. What was with all the signalling, breathing down, clipping off, etc.? You won't do that if your valve is spewing out all your air.

So if you are doing a valve drill the way I was taught by DIR/UTD, then you cannot do it with two hands. If you are doing it for speed, then two hands does help.

Yes, this is what I meant by the "two-hand valve drill"! I am pretty new to technical diving, so I just assumed people would know what I meant by the two-hand version of the drill. Sounds like it is fairly uncommon.

The DIR approach sounds fairly silly to me. I was recently diving in 0 degree (celsius) water, and air erupted from my left post. I didn't do anything besides reach back and turn off the left post valve. That took 5 seconds. If I had performed the DIR method, I would be a very pretty, very deceased diver. But every time I YouTube "valve drill", I see a lot of very pretty "one-hand" valve drills but no fast drills. This made me wonder if the two-hand drill was misguided. Anyway, thanks for clarifying this for me.

I'm from Alberta, and we don't have many (or any) open water sites from around December to May. This means that I spend a lot of time in the pool running drills, and I don't want to be building bad habits/techniques during the off-season.

 

[NothingClever]

@lukas_manthony - a valve DRILL is different than an emergency shut down procedure. You asked about drills.