Tec-focused classes vs self training bouyancy

[DirtFish]

It's the mentor that matters. You need a skilled technical diver to mentor you. It could be called a course, but it's more one-to-one mentoring for a couple of sessions.

You don't need a certificate, the skills speak far louder.

Cracking the core skills, buoyancy, trim and finning does take time to master. Having a decent mentor will really help; literally showing you what "good" looks like. You then need to go off and practice which may take some time (e.g. back finning!)

I second what Wibble stated! A mentor that is skilled and can communicate what you are doing correctly and doing wrong is paramount. Also, have someone video you while you are practicing your skills. This is important so YOU can visualize what mistakes need to be corrected. You don't want to reinforce bad habits.
You can sometimes find GUE or Tech instructors that will work by the hour to help with skills.
Keep at it you are on the right path!

 

[grantmac]

Pools have limited use. Not challenging enough. Need a more difficult environment with teammates you need to keep track of and position yourself relative to.

In short: go dive with good divers.

 

[happy-diver]

I am working on skills demos in shallow water. Trying to really nail pinpoint accuracy and buoyancy.

Would additional tec focused training like intro to tec be more useful than drilling in the pool on my own? I have several exercises I run through, but am hitting diminishing returns.

Post a video of you doing the skills

One thing to consider is not that "practice makes perfect", it's that's "practice makes permanent"


I'd suggest doing something like Fundies before you inadvertently pick up bad habits that may need to be undone.

and not one mention of diving

Trouble with "just go diving" is that you don't necessarily improve. Have seen way too many "highly experienced" divers trailing a cloud of incompetence behind them with their seahorse trim and happy flappy leg wagging.

The key is seeing what good looks like. That is flat, calm, efficient and stable.

"just go diving"

See this, it's your quote not mine

Here's a guy, poor guy driving himself insane practicing in a pool
I have not proffered a suggestion for anyone I made a statement
And the trust has suggested fundies, and technical diver mentors

If I were to proffer one idea it would be to not pay attention to inept suggestions

So if you attempt to quote me, wait until you're smart enough and do it correctly

 

[LFMarm]

I would go for cave training even if caves are not your interest. The skill level enforced by instructors is higher than anything else I have seen.

 

[The Chairman]

Play a game.

Underwater Jenga. Grab a bunch of soft 2-pound weights. Get trim and neutral. Build a house out of the weights, trying not to move. Then, learn how to pick up as many weights, one at a time, without adding air to your BC. No, you can't hold your breath. Now, drop them off, also one at a time, and don't float to the surface. Have fun.

 

[Diver-Drex]

My understanding of the question is a DM improving buoyancy for skills demos, likely to students. Leaping to Tec and cave training seems like a lot.

Work on buoyancy/body position separately from skill demos. Master the separate skills first before trying to combine them. This is why intro/fundamentals are taught and mastered prior to Tec training.

Learn to walk, then learn to juggle, then to juggle while you walk.

 

[boulderjohn]

Trouble with "just go diving" is that you don't necessarily improve.

I’m a psych prof; seeing what other skilled people are doing and imitating them is how humans learn complex skills.

I am thinking of my development in skiing and golf, two activities I started as an adult. I couldn't afford lessons then, so I mostly learned by doing and by imitating others I saw around me. It was many years before I could afford lessons, and when I finally did, I learned that the people I was imitating were doing it wrong, and by then I had thoroughly ingrained the bad habits I had practiced and practiced and practiced for all those years. I was never fully able to eliminate them.

 

[grantmac]

I am thinking of my development in skiing and golf, two activities I started as an adult. I couldn't afford lessons then, so I mostly learned by doing and by imitating others I saw around me. It was many years before I could afford lessons, and when I finally did, I learned that the people I was imitating were doing it wrong, and by then I had thoroughly ingrained the bad habits I had practiced and practiced and practiced for all those years. I was never fully able to eliminate them.

I have the exact same issue with archery, I learned by imitating poor archers without realizing it.
I don't have it with diving. The difference is that I almost entirely dive around tech trained divers and have since near the very beginning.
Those who seem to spend years diving in the rec world seem to have the issues I do with archery.

 

[boulderjohn]

I have the exact same issue with archery, I learned by imitating poor archers without realizing it.
I don't have it with diving. The difference is that I almost entirely dive around tech trained divers and have since near the very beginning.
Those who seem to spend years diving in the rec world seem to have the issues I do with archery.

Sure.

The problem is this--how does a relatively new diver surround himself or herself with highly skilled divers? Those divers are usually diving somewhere else. It is much like my problem with skiing. As a beginning skier, I was surrounded by beginning skiers, and I was looking at them for guidance.

If you are a relative beginner, you are not able to recognize which of the divers around you are the right ones to imitate. Let's say you are on a reef dive in a resort area, and one of the world's greatest divers happens to be along for that dive. He or she will look a little different from everyone else, but what will you look for to pick out the true skill? You might dismiss that skilled diver because he or she is so different from the rest. I am reminded of the time I was diving in Florida, and the DM came to me after the dive and said he noticed how my knees were bent and my feet up higher than my body while I was diving. He suggested I use ankle weights to get my feet down where they belonged.

 

[grantmac]

I think now we have the internet which helps show what right looks like. That really wasn't available in the same way when I was learning archery.