Scared?

[nauifins73]

In my opinion I probably had the worse class possible; it was a weekend class with 8 or 9 in the class and only 1 Instructor. The only reason I am still diving is because of my husband a long time diver. I learned so much more from him and a very good dive buddy than I would have ever learned from the 1st Instructor.

I wish I had thought about private lessons afterwards. I think you are correct about them, Catalinakid. Unfortunately we don't have a clue as to what we are supposed to know as newbies. That is why I'm doing the Dive Con course so maybe I can help new divers.

Becky

 

[diverbrian]

The problem with a group class is that it can only go as fast as the slowest student.

As a rule, if some one freaks then something went too fast.

What I'm saying is that I think it's the design of the course that's flawed. If the length of the class is fixed then you might be able to learn faster in a private class. However since most dive classes are meant to progresson on the basis of skill mastery, the class should progress when every one is ready. While this class might last longer, I wouldn't expect students to be freaking.

This is where Snowbear and I agree (ref. her post as well). I get less and less interested in the instructor's course by the month. The instructors at our shop hand the slowest student off to certified assistants like me so that they don't bore the rest of the students to death. Face it, bored students don't advance well later either. They tend to tune you out.

Then I work them through the skill that they are having an issue with. Typically, after that the instructor can catch up them up fairly easily as they have cleared a hurdle and now have all of the confidence in the world. Worst case, we recyle the slowest student to the next, most convient class for them.

Like any instructor or assistant, I have also seen students that didn't belong in the water in the first place as they are taking the class for the wrong reasons. Typically, they don't return to class after about the second session.

There is no need to slow everybody else up because one student continually has a problem. That is the beauty of the private classes. They are guaranteed to go at the pace of the student. We have taught them to adept students and to students that needed just a bit more time. In any case, they seem to work out better than group classes and if the group class presents a problem, I see nothing wrong with trying for the one on one attention of a private course and seeing if that makes a difference (IMHO). Many times it makes a huge difference.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Some good points Brian.

Things went better for us when we changed the order that we taught some skills. For the most part that meant teaching students some control before trying to do a bunch of other stuff.

The students who are uncomfortable in the water are another subject and we see LOTS of them walk into dive shops to get certified so they can do that vacation that they're planning. While there's nothing wrong with that group deciding to learn to dive, they aren't always going to do it on the same schedule as a "water person". Financial incentives aside, why should we expect them to?

As to DM function...I don't like to have DM's off in a corner working with a problem student. For one thing the student with trouble needs the instructor more than the others. For another thing, the DM's are my extra eyes and hands and they can't serve that function if they're somewhere else.

 

[diverbrian]

Different instructors work differently, we have some at the shop that put the DiveCon with the problem students so that they can keep the rest of the class moving. Some of the better ones weigh what about the problem that it is that is causing the problem. If it is something cleared up in a moderate time and not severe, they have the DiveCon do it. If it is a comfort issue (ie. best solved by simply swimming the student around the pool without doing a skill for a session or two), the Dive Con takes that student and we may possibly try to get another DiveCon/Instructor for the next sessions if it looks like the student will need personal attention from the staff all course. All others in the pool, the instructor deals with. In short they use their experience and play it by ear. If there is any kind of issue at all in Open Water, the instructor deals with it unless the DiveCon sees an immediate safety threat to a student and is acting for the student's safety. We all know what that means without me spelling it out. I have followed more than one student up while the instructor is dealing with the class, but that is certainly not skills training. Oh and I am easy to find on the surface as the DiveCon carries the dive flag, LOL.

As to the extra eyes, ears and hands issue most of the instructors have their dive buddies (also instructors) helping to co-teach the class as our instructors are diving in pretty tight circles. Then the certified assistant is there as "gravy" anyways and has time to drag lead poolside and often really not needed in the pool.

Oh, and after blowing bubbles, our students go nowhere as for skills until we are certain that they know what neutral buoyancy feels like and they have an idea how to achieve it. All of the skills build from there anyways.

 

[paolov]

a private lesson maybe good if you are willing to pay the cost and time, you deem the effort to be worth it.

Getting a private lesson is good. Assuming you were not able to get certification then an Instructor need to handle the teaching.

If you got certification, then a Good DM would be good for the private practices / lessons (lessons in the form of learning techniques )

 

[STOGEY]

To Daveinseattle,

Don't feel too bad about freaking out, because when I was alot younger I took a scuba class. When it came to do the open water portion for my certificate I freaked out a little too.

After doing the emergency ascent well, we had to submerge and retreave our equipment. Everything went well, I was just about to swing my tank over my back and some how my mask flooded. I couldn't find my regulator. So then I freaked out a little.

I haven't dove in thirty years. So last year my significant other and I went to PDC and I took a discover dive. Thinking well I must have got over my freak out experience. Six months later I was certified.

So now if I don't get in enough diving I become certifiable.

 

[letterboy]

When i got certified my class happened to be a small class by chance not choice, three students. The class was awesome just the instructor and us. I was unable to make the open water sessions with my class so I needed to reschedule them and take the open water portion with another instructor and his class. The class i took the open water portion with was probably 10- 12 students and i noticed right after arriving that this was going to be a different type of class. . . I may have just gotten used to the attention from the prior instructor, but it seemed as though with larger classes it becomes harder to focus on problems that could arise. No problem arose but it seemed that it would have been difficult for the instructor to notice the early warning signs of stress, so as to relax the student before they became paniced.

Just my 2 psi,
John

P.S> if you don;t mind me asking what happened in the pool that freaked you out? just curious

 

[scutterjoe]

As a "lowly" divemaster, I thought that was what (at least in part) what we are there for? If a student is having trouble, once they are "shown" the skill by the instructor, it is my job to take the student off and work one-on-one with him/her until s/he is comfortable with the skill? That's actually one of the things I like about being a DM.... I have absolutely zero interest in being an instructor, but to be able to take someone from freakout to often times more competant than the rest of the class is pretty cool
Of course, they then play catch-up with the couple of other skills they missed, but by taking the time to get them over a major (to them) hurdle, it's usually not a problem.

Yeah, that's how it worked on my PADI OW course in sharm. The dive master and assistant were both there to offer one to one. I had some trouble equalising and calm breathing at first (the mind says you shouldn't be able to breath under water with your mouth open!), but I was taken to one side for one to one and felt much more comfortable.