Counting and awareness

[addicted4life 1]

I am 4 jumps into the sport, i realize that i am not counting at deployment. I am too scared to count. If i am too afraid to count to 4 , maybe i shouldnt proceed with aff. This may sound stupid. Any tips?

[obelixtim 150]

its just a matter of training yourself to do so. Practise on the ground is free, so you can practise this thousands of time till it becomes an automatic response.

Visualise the actions, and go automatically into count mode till it is ingrained. Repeat it over and over and over and.......

I suggest you are not afraid to count, it is just your brain is in overload mode at that moment. That will pass.

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[rmarshall234 14]

One of the reasons to count - and even verbalize the count - is it gives our mind something to do so we don't dwell on the negative. It should actually make you _less_ scared.

As D 84 says....practice on the ground ( to build muscle memory ) and forge ahead..

[addicted4life 1]

Ok thanks guys. The sensory overload makes sense. first jump i was overloaded at the door and i came back after coming off the hill. Now I can focus through my dive flow just fine, but after pitching i kind of relax my mind and let the overload come. Once i am under canopy i am fine again.
Overload at the moment of possible malfunction... I guess that will be fun to see if i can get my shit together haha.

[riggerrob 643]

Large doses of adrenaline distort peoples' sense of timing. Mouthing numbers helps restore your sense of timing. Mouthing numbers helps you focus on tasks you need to perform during your skydive.

Relaxing after pulling is a bad habit. While you might believe that the most dangerous part of the skydive (freefall) is over most injuries occurr during landings.

If I may provide some historical perspective ..... We did not understand the whole "relaxing too much after opening" phenomenon back when static-lines were the only way to make your first jump. We just knew that one student out of "X" hundred would never try to steer his/her canopy and drift over the forest.
Much later - after tandem gained popularity - we learned that some students lost consciousness after opening. The start of their problem was skipping breakfast. All that adrenaline rapidly burned through their (tiny) reserves of blood sugar and they vomited or lost consciousness after opening.
The cure is simple: eat a normal breakfast. Then nibble snacks and drink water throughout the day.

[JP_1337 0]

Practice on the ground, and get in the habit of yelling your count out loud. Don't be self-conscious about it, just shout those numbers as you practice your actions. This will put the habit in your head, so when you are about to exit the aircraft, do as you practiced and shout those numbers out.

That also helps with alti awareness. When you look at your alti, shout the number.

Remember, nobody hears you in freefall

_____
SPLAT

[BIGUN 1,342]

You're not too scared to jump out of a plane at 13K; but you're too afraid to count to 4?!?!? Think about that for a minute.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[DJL 235]

BIGUN

You're not too scared to jump out of a plane at 13K; but you're too afraid to count to 4?!?!? Think about that for a minute.

It's funny when small weird things pop up. If I've done tandems all day I get gear fear at deployment. It just feels like I'm missing something that's supposed to be there.

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

[addicted4life 1]

BIGUN

You're not too scared to jump out of a plane at 13K; but you're too afraid to count to 4?!?!? Think about that for a minute.

Something bad may happen if i count, but if i dont count then everything will be fine.

[sammielu 3]

Remember that you're new to all of skydiving and cut yourself some slack - it takes practice to learn!!!

You can practice solely in the sky if you choose, but it makes more sense to also practice on the ground. Mental and physical practice takes only a couple of minutes each day and prepares/trains your body to do what you're supposed to when under pressure. If you practice that count 100 times before your next jump you are way more likely to just go through it when you're in the moment.

[addicted4life 1]

I have been practicing dive flow with a stop watch on my floor. 5500 ft wave off. Approximately how many seconds is that on my stop watch?

I have been using 55 seconds but that is just my guess.

trying to get consistent on my wave off, pull, and then counting to 4.

[Deimian 43]

I don't think that will help you. While jumping your time perception will be heavily distorted. Also, while jumping, time doesn't matter, altitude does. While on the ground I'd simply close my eyes and rehearse the whole jump, including the counting. Seems more effective to me, but I am no instructor and just a random guy on internet, so take my advice for what is worth.

[tred 0]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.com.mixedup.skydivingaltimeter&hl=en

[BIGUN 1,342]

addicted4life

***You're not too scared to jump out of a plane at 13K; but you're too afraid to count to 4?!?!? Think about that for a minute.

Something bad may happen if i count, but if i dont count then everything will be fine.

At this point, I think the best person to help you is BrianGermain. You might search for some of his articles/books on here, but I'll ask him for a visit on this one.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[dthames 0]

Deimian

I don't think that will help you. While jumping your time perception will be heavily distorted. Also, while jumping, time doesn't matter, altitude does. While on the ground I'd simply close my eyes and rehearse the whole jump, including the counting. Seems more effective to me, but I am no instructor and just a random guy on internet, so take my advice for what is worth.

When I was doing SL progression, if you were to pull "in 5" and you didn't, you would not progress, or worst, back on the rope. We started looking at the altimeter when the freefall was 15 seconds or so. Before that, just count.

Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

[Deimian 43]

For counting until 5, sure. But counting until 55 is another thing.

[sammielu 3]

Time doesent matter during freefall, altitude does. If your school has the practice altimeters, use those (they're a stopwatch with the face of an altimeter that counts down at approximately 5 seconds for every 1k). You are training yourself to check your altitide often (before a maneuver, after a maneuver, anytime you're struggling, and at least every few seconds) - and to have the correct reaction at each altitude. Practice the dive flow, doing each maneuver correctly, and then practice it with unexpected altitudes thrown in there at different times (what would you do if your altimeter says the following at any point in your dive: 10k, 6k, 5500, 4500, 3500, 2500) - that's the advantage of using an altitude-trainer, in addition to helping you practicemoving through the complete dive flow in the time you will have. When I work with students, I'd walk through that with their first few dive flows, first focusing on body position and doing everything in the dive flow, then throwing in "what if" questions throughout and including instructor queues (hand signals, what to do if they see me track away, what to do if they see me deploy my parachute, etc).

Counting helps for short time periods or when you can't look at an altimeter and maintain good body position at the same time - like during tracking/breakoff procedures or during opening.

Re: how long does it take to get to 5500ft:
Look in the SIM to understand the concept if the hill and descent rates. It depends on your exit altitude - if you exit the plane at 5500ft, it will take you zero seconds. Its 10 sec for the first 1k feet and 5 sec for every 1k afterwards, so to breakoff at 5500 ft and have 55 seconds of freefall, you'd need to exit at 15,500 ft. Most dropzone exit at 12,500 - 13,500', definitely check with your instructors and look at your altimeter before you exit the plane. Example: exit at 13.5k, breakoff at 5500ft, working time is about 45 seconds from when you leave the aircraft until you're at 5500ft and break off.

[Bob_Church 7]

On my first jump I was absolutely terrified, I'd never even been in a plane before and I was only in this one because I'd said the wrong thing at the wrong time. But once the canopy opened everything was fine. Better, it was beautiful. I noticed how far away the ground was but that it didn't bother me. I checked over my canopy, and got a kick out of watching the plane fly off.
Then remembered to my dummy ripcord. oops.
But like they told me afterwards, it's all gets more natural with each jump. In the famous words of Tom Hantack "not to worry"

[dthames 0]

Deimian

For counting until 5, sure. But counting until 55 is another thing.

I thought the OP was talking specifically about counting to 4 while waiting on deployment after pitching.

Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

[sammielu 3]

dthames

***For counting until 5, sure. But counting until 55 is another thing.

I thought the OP was talking specifically about counting to 4 while waiting on deployment after pitching.

OP posted additional questions down thread.