What advice would you give a new AFF instructor?

[shortyj 0]

What did you wish you knew when you were a new AFF instructor? Also what are some of your best student stories, funny things they said or did?

Playtime is essential.

[chuckakers 425]

shortyj

What advice would you give a new AFF instructor?

Never bust a hard deck.

Teach until they get it. Hone your observation and recall skills. Fly to the needs of your student. Be the fun. Never bust a hard deck.

Oh yeah, never bust a hard deck. And by the way, never bust a hard deck.

Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

[faulknerwn 38]

Get the students to relax. Smile. Laugh. Make faces at them in freefall. If you can get them to relax 90% of your job is done. My favorite other AFF instructor was super chill and our students tended to perform well. Not because we were more spectacular at training or anything else - but we were relaxed so they were. In the airplane - even if you are a rookie and are scared to death to be an instructor (I have been there!) smile and relax.

I have had a LOT of students tell me a hundred or two hundred jumps later tell me how it was so relaxing to jump with me but instructor X stressed them the heck out and they performed poorly partly because of being stressed about the instructor.

If they see the instructor calm and relaxed, they will reflect that. If their instructor is not worried and is chill, it will calm them down and they will perform better.

I had one licensed skydiver who came to my dropzone and talking to him he told me how his original dz flunked him on level 1 for not doing a good exit count. I was in disbelief. I jump at a 182 dz, and even though we practice a lot on the ground, what the student does on a strut can be creative. I am an instructor - I am used to students doing pushups on the step. I had a student who did his first two jumps the same day. The first jump he did a couple counts and the second he climbed out and left. And I just went into freefall on the second one laughing because his first one he was doing pushups. And he did GREAT in freefall on both jumps. Relax and give the student a chance to learn.

[JamesBond 0]

faulknerwn

Get the students to relax. Smile. Laugh. Make faces at them in freefall. If you can get them to relax 90% of your job is done.

[#112f4d]If insight from someone who's just finished his AFF is useful for you, this is absolutely spot on. My most successful jumps, by far, were the ones where I was with relaxed, chilled instructors who (seemed like they) were just having fun, so that's what I did too.[/#112f4d

[wmw999 2,447]

Quote

Relax and give the student a chance to learn

Back when the earth was cooling and I was an AFFI, someone told me “You gotta give ‘em room to waller.” In other words, some students learn things by doing them, not by not doing them. Give someone time to figure out how to stop that turn (if they’re not spinning up, obviously). Etc.
And yeah, if you make it clear that working with students (particularly that student) makes you happy and relaxed, they’ll read that as confidence in them.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[pchapman 279]

Wendy is right about giving students a chance.

When PFF (AFF) was brand new at my DZ, and the instructors were brand new, we ended up worrying about accidentally holding back students by hanging on to them too much. One can't wait until they are perfect, before giving them a lighter grip or having 1 or 2 instructors let the student go. Especially as a newbie instructor, the tendency is to death grip on to the student 'to be safe'.

On the other hand, especially on a student's first times free from either instructor, one has to stay CLOSE and stay focused. Otherwise before you know it they've drifted 10 feet away and that little turn of theirs has started to speed up uncontrollably...and it would have been much easier to counter & stop early had one been only 3 ft away.

[ufk22 33]

You job is NOT to save their life!
If you think it is, you are likely to kill yourself, your student or both of you.
Your job is to assist with stability and deployment.
Your job is to train them well on the ground, give them good feedback in the air and post dive and to let them make the small mistakes.
Know your limitations.
Wear audibles with at least three tones.
Has anyone mentioned not to bust the hard deck?
Seriously, decide now.
I will not chase a student below ____’.
Period.
No exceptions.
None.
Ever.

This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.