Unacceptable Instructor Behaviors...
- Thread starter The Chairman
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I have taken a bunch of courses over the years and, to me, instructors (at any level) fall into two categories. I've somewhat overstated this to get the point across:
Teachers/Instructors who size you up after the first dive and then focus on drills designed to strengthen your weaknesses. As a student, you just think that it is part of the course.
Assessors who show you how it should look and then point out where you are lacking. "You need to do it this way. You aren't doing this right. Watch me!"
I can deal with either...
Teachers/Instructors who size you up after the first dive and then focus on drills designed to strengthen your weaknesses. As a student, you just think that it is part of the course.
Assessors who show you how it should look and then point out where you are lacking. "You need to do it this way. You aren't doing this right. Watch me!"
I can deal with either...
OP
OK, I made the first update to my list in the original post (OP)! Thanks for the insights and contributions so far. Let's keep this going. We don't want to overcomplicate it, but hopefully, the agencies will take notice.
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Waiter, I want what he's having. Looks like it's taken him to an alternate reality.
The part about the missing mask skills triggered this memory.
The shop manager asked me to do a special class for someone. She briefly told me that this woman had been her student in the pool a couple years ago, but she had apparently had some problems finishing up after she moved to a different location. She needed some TLC for some reason. She especially needed help with mask skills. In my DM and AI days, I had assisted the shop manager, and I knew her to be very thorough. If that student had finished her pool class with the shop manager, then, by golly, she was good to go with the mask at that point in her life.
The student gave me the rest of the story. She had moved and waited nearly a year before going to finish in her new location. The new instructor quite rightly had her join her class in the pool for a review before doing the OW dives. That pool session was a nightmare for her. It involved ripping masks off students, shutting off the air, yelling, screaming, and other forms of harassment. She was petrified. The instructor was especially abusive to her, openly mocking her for her poor skills. Still, she was allowed to go on to the OW dives. Before the first one, she was again openly mocked in front of the the rest of the students. When they got in the water, the harassment resumed. More turning off gas. More pulling off masks. She had to clear a ripped off mask, and she simply could not do it. She surfaced and quit.
So now, nearly a year later, she had moved back to our town and was ready to try again. My primary task turned out to be restoring her shattered confidence. Above all, she had to see that I was not going to abuse her. We started with the mask skills, and once we got that problem solved, everything came back to her. We later traveled to the same place she had had her aborted OW experience, where she breezed through the OW dives and was certified.
The shop manager asked me to do a special class for someone. She briefly told me that this woman had been her student in the pool a couple years ago, but she had apparently had some problems finishing up after she moved to a different location. She needed some TLC for some reason. She especially needed help with mask skills. In my DM and AI days, I had assisted the shop manager, and I knew her to be very thorough. If that student had finished her pool class with the shop manager, then, by golly, she was good to go with the mask at that point in her life.
The student gave me the rest of the story. She had moved and waited nearly a year before going to finish in her new location. The new instructor quite rightly had her join her class in the pool for a review before doing the OW dives. That pool session was a nightmare for her. It involved ripping masks off students, shutting off the air, yelling, screaming, and other forms of harassment. She was petrified. The instructor was especially abusive to her, openly mocking her for her poor skills. Still, she was allowed to go on to the OW dives. Before the first one, she was again openly mocked in front of the the rest of the students. When they got in the water, the harassment resumed. More turning off gas. More pulling off masks. She had to clear a ripped off mask, and she simply could not do it. She surfaced and quit.
So now, nearly a year later, she had moved back to our town and was ready to try again. My primary task turned out to be restoring her shattered confidence. Above all, she had to see that I was not going to abuse her. We started with the mask skills, and once we got that problem solved, everything came back to her. We later traveled to the same place she had had her aborted OW experience, where she breezed through the OW dives and was certified.
Adam Grose
Contributor
Under "Safety", I would add that the student ABSOLUTELY has the right to call off a dive if they feel that there is something that could endanger their health or safety.
Of course.
But students don't really know that. They will implicitly trust that the instructor knows what he or she is doing.
This is the first sentence I heard from my instructor.
If anything wrong- feel free to speak in any case
We only use it for my wife after failing his mask removal and I recall we didn't have to do or ask anything. Instructor made a good job here.
I have no clue anyway if most of instructors do such sentences to call a dive or simlple freely talk about something. Shoudl depends as always.
If anything wrong- feel free to speak in any case
We only use it for my wife after failing his mask removal and I recall we didn't have to do or ask anything. Instructor made a good job here.
I have no clue anyway if most of instructors do such sentences to call a dive or simlple freely talk about something. Shoudl depends as always.
Adam Grose
Contributor
That is true. As has been said many times on here.... there are both good and bad instructors. What I am saying is that the student needs to trust his instincts.... sometimes you just KNOW that something is wrong.
Do you have few examples ?
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