2airishuman
Contributor
Some of you may be familiar with the Outward Bound School, an educational organization whose original purpose was to teach a survival mindset to new sailors so that their chances of prevailing in a life-threatening emergency would be comparable to that of more experienced hands.
The organization and its programs have evolved over time, but they still teach the same core values and skills. I took the course many years ago at the Colorado school. While there are many facets to the course, the relevant ones here are:
1. They teach the skill of refusing to give up in the face of adversity, even when the odds seem overwhelming.
2. They teach that many of the limits we perceive in what we can do physically are in fact limits that are mentally enforced. Most people can reach farther, pull harder, run longer, etc., than they think they can.
3. They encourage a certain tenacity and stoicism in dealing with minor irritants and discomfort.
4. They teach a sober respect for safety given the inherent hazard in many of their activities.
It is my Deep Thought (tm) of the evening that all this applies directly to safe diving. I wonder whether Outward Bound graduates, as a group, make safer divers.
The other uncommon mental skill that safe diving requires is the ability to consciously and deliberately divide one's attention multiple ways in an emergency. Aviation -- flight training -- is the only place I've seen this taught deliberately as a skill of its own.
The organization and its programs have evolved over time, but they still teach the same core values and skills. I took the course many years ago at the Colorado school. While there are many facets to the course, the relevant ones here are:
1. They teach the skill of refusing to give up in the face of adversity, even when the odds seem overwhelming.
2. They teach that many of the limits we perceive in what we can do physically are in fact limits that are mentally enforced. Most people can reach farther, pull harder, run longer, etc., than they think they can.
3. They encourage a certain tenacity and stoicism in dealing with minor irritants and discomfort.
4. They teach a sober respect for safety given the inherent hazard in many of their activities.
It is my Deep Thought (tm) of the evening that all this applies directly to safe diving. I wonder whether Outward Bound graduates, as a group, make safer divers.
The other uncommon mental skill that safe diving requires is the ability to consciously and deliberately divide one's attention multiple ways in an emergency. Aviation -- flight training -- is the only place I've seen this taught deliberately as a skill of its own.
