Relaxation Techniques

[ScubaDadMiami]

The instructor may be the issue here or may not. You will have to decide for yourself.

On the other hand, positive visualization before the dive can go really far. Find a quiet place on the boat during the ride out, sit and quietly think about what you are going to do from beginning to end of the dive (you do have a plan, don't you?). Think about completing each task slowly, perfectly and feeling good while doing it. Relax, close your eyes and breathe in a deeper, relaxed fashion while having this visualization. You will start to feel relaxed and your heart rate will drop.

You will get some strange looks from people on the outing perhaps but this mental rehearsal works.

If you visualize something positively and move toward it, you will do it. If you think only of avoiding mistakes, you will not achieve success. Read this paragraph over a few times. It is gold!

 

[ChrisA]

Hi All:

Does anyone have any tips of relaxation during OW class? My instructor makes me tense. Because I am tense, I am having problems relaxing enough to sink. Any tips?

Thanks in advance.

Are you sure it is the instructor who is causing stress or could it be that you are in an unfamiar environment and that is the cause of it?
Before taking this class did you have frequent experiance in pools and with using mask/fins/snorkel or is all of the above new to you?

One other thing: You can be as tense as can be put with enough lead weight you will sink. Sometimes people will use thier fins to kick upward while tring to decend. Keep feet still and given enough weight youwill sink.

 

[junior diver]

Diving is my relaxation. But seriously your instructor shouldn't be making you tense and I'm sure your LDS must have another instructor that would be able to take you.

 

[TheRedHead]

Thank you all for the replies!

As others have said I would address the issues with the instructor first and foremost!! you may realize that you don't have to worry about relaxing if you are not stressed. first figure out WHY you are so tense then you can work on the HOW to solve it.
WAC

My instructor is pretty macho - a redneck (for lack of a better word) from Alabama. If I had met him before the signing up, I would have looked elsewhere. The LDS sales woman gave me a great pitch about how wonderful the classes are. In all fairness, most of the other instructors I've met are nice and my assistant instructors are very kind. My instructor makes comments in a very loud voice every time someone makes a mistake. I try to avoid working with him -- everyone does -- and maneuver so that I am in the group with one of the assistants. Last week, I was in the instructor's group and was next to the other "cork." She was having problems remaining kneeling in 4 ft of water and was bobbing up and down. She was trying to talk to him about getting her weights stable and the instructor said, "I heard from your husband that you are unstable." This is his little joke which he had told me the previous session. It's really not funny when you are struggling hard to remain under water. I wanted to kick him. We had been kneeling in the shallow end for about 15 minutes doing various skills and my I had to twist to face the instructor and felt a twinge in my thigh. So I surface and he surfaces and he asks me what's wrong and I said pain in my leg. He thinks I have a cramp in my leg and grabs my fin. Then he tells me to take my fin and I try to tell I don't have a cramp and then he splashes water in my face and yells at me to take my fin. So I take the fin. Then we stand there for a minute as I am unsure of what to say. Then I tell him that the nonexistant cramp in gone.

BUt some quicktips
breath slowly (in for a count of 1,2,3 and out for a count of 1,2,3,4 longer so you have less air in lungs will help you to sink) and try to count your breaths (1 in and 1 out = 1breath)
WAC

I went to the pool yesterday with my husband (who is certified) and didn't have any problems sinking with 4 pounds less weight than in class. I learned how to get on my fin tips and make myself sink and ascend by breathing. It was so fantastic! I am going to try very hard to control my breathing while under stress. I will try the counting and I'm going to concentrate on how I felt yesterday.

Tune out everyone EXcept your buddy concentrate on the task
WAC

We have not been assigned any buddies in our class. My instructor believes everyone should learn to be independent divers. His background is in commercial diving and he is constantly relating war stories of wreck dives illustrating the point of knowing how to take care of yourself can save your life at 200 feet (and I'm thinking it's going to be a long, long time before I ever see 200 feet). We have done almost everything that doesn't require a buddy. We've even switched to breathing off our own octopus. I'm sure we will have to do the share air thing soon, so I suppose I will get a buddy for however long that takes.

session you are imagining you are floating, in the water you have the advantage of really floating) close your eyes feel yourself floating and just relax (it works for clients in a chair it can work for you when you are in the water)
Good luck
WAC

I will try; I only have 1 week left of class. If I were not so far into it, I think I would start over with another instructor. I am doing my OW dives in Florida with another instructor.

Thanks for your help.

 

[starfish365]

well doesn't he just make you feel like going to class. My suggestion would be stick it out and pass on a report to PADI after you get your certification. One would hope they'd be interested in learning some behaviour problems their instructors have.

Good luck!

 

[TheRedHead]

Are you sure it is the instructor who is causing stress or could it be that you are in an unfamiar environment and that is the cause of it?
Before taking this class did you have frequent experiance in pools and with using mask/fins/snorkel or is all of the above new to you?

I've been snorkeling for years and feel very comfortable snorkeling. I have no trepedation about open water. I love reefs and that is why I am learning to scuba dive. I want to get closer to an environment I already love. Having all the weight and equipment took some getting used to. I feel apprehensive about dropping my weight belt in deep water and putting in again because I am so bouyant. I'm a bit apprehensive about causing an injury to my back from lugging around tanks and lifting heavy bc/tanks during class so I'm very careful and do it slowly -- which just seems to annoy my instructor.

I'm 48 years old, but I'm in good shape. I work out 5 days a week, mostly on a treadmill. I also use a circuit trainer. Yet, I realize that I have an increasing risk of blowing out a disc. It has happened to my father and my brother and that makes me cautious and slow in my movements while I have my equipment on out of the water.

I haven't had any problems with any of the water skills. I have had my mask finned off many times while snorkeling. I've lost a couple of masks in currents and have had to snorkel back to boats without them.

The things which give me the most apprehension have to do with feeling so heavy, putting on and taking off weights, and moving out of the water with my equipment. I'm working on those things. Going from feeling totally free snorkeling on the surface to feeling weighted and heavy underwater has been the most difficult thing for me.

 

[baltimoron]

well since you only have a week left, just stick with the instructor the last couple classes and then try to never see him again!

 

[mstudley]

well since you only have a week left, just stick with the instructor the last couple classes and then try to never see him again!

Or complain to the dive shop to be able to go through the course again with a better instructor. Do your required OW dives with the new instructor also (-not- with this guy). I think stuff that the instructor was pulling and dive related injuries go hand in hand in some cases.

How can you expect to do these things in open water comfortably when the whole time you are going to be worried about the instructor being a jerk if you mess up? Getting the skills down so they're pretty much automatic takes time (outside of class too) and more effort/patience on the instructors end than he apparently has the capacity for.

If you don't feel 100% ready to go OW after the course don't do it.

 

[dbulmer]

RedHatMama,

Scuba is fun - say that to yourself a couple of times.
If your instructor is really annoyed about you taking your time gearing up maybe you should have a word with one of the other instructors and explain your predicament.

Every experienced diver of whatever agency I have come across has always stressed the need to kit up slowly and deliberately to avoid stress and injury. Take your time - it's not a race..

Also you said 'seemed' - have you asked your instructor or explained to him your concerns? Maybe a little word in his ear might help.

As you get more experienced, you'll become more comfortable with the weight and lugging it about - of course if gentle hubby can be persuaded to carry some gear (I hear blackmail is a good weapon!!) that might help too

 

[RDP]

He thinks I have a cramp in my leg and grabs my fin. Then he tells me to take my fin and I try to tell I don't have a cramp and then he splashes water in my face and yells at me to take my fin. So I take the fin. Then we stand there for a minute as I am unsure of what to say. Then I tell him that the nonexistant cramp in gone.

I can sympathize with you here. My wife and I had a different instructor on one of our OW cert dives, and she made it hell! I started the day with an odd cramp in the front of my thigh. The instructor began literally yelling for me to grab the fin tip. I did not comply explaining that the cramp was in the front and that was why it was pulling on my ankle. I was bouyant and not struggling. She ignored me an conitnued on yelling until she pulled my fin forward, thus compounding the problem. I was pretty pi**d at that point and we were only 5 min. into that day. My wife was also mentally twisted by this pshyco when a piece of her rental equipment failed to function correctly and the instructor was, again, very loud and critical. This insturctor never took the time to check the problem herself. Anyway, we got through the day fine, but my wife was very upset by the whole ordeal and ready to give up diving. The others in the group being certified that day also had their own problems with that instructor. When I explained what we had experience to our normal instructor, also the LDS owner, he was critical of all of us, the students, and acted as if there had never been a complaint like this before.

There are other places to get training.

What I am getting at is that people, whether they are instructors or not, are not worth the frusration. Take your time and be comfortable with yourself. Chances are, if you feel someone is an A**ho#e, there are others with like opinions.