side sliding in freefall

[schon267 0]

I am trying to learn to sideslide left and right in freefall, but every time I think I'm tilting my whole body one way, I go into aflat turn instead of my whole body sliding, my coaches have been awsome at z-hills, but I'm getting frustrated with not being able to do this task!! help please!!!

[FFAddict 0]

i just finished doing skydive u to get my fs1 and struggled with side slides as well, so i know how it feels.

Firstly remember to relax. No matter what your doing in the air you must be relaxed because the second you tense up you stop flying your body and wont beable to do anything.

I was not told to try and tilt my body but to look at and shift my hips sideways towards the direction i want to move in. by moving your hips your arms and legs will naturally be pointing in the opposite direction giving you some movement but more importantly moving your hips will change your centre of gravity and tilt your body.
I struggled with it for a few jumps but the second i stopped thinking about it too much and just pushed my hips sideways everythng else falls into place and its actually pritty easy.

hope this helps and good luck

stephen

[Hooknswoop 19]

Any move in free-fall, fowards, backwards, sideways, they are all the same. You are merely deflecting air in the opposite direction you wish to go. If you are turning as you slide it is because you are deflecting too much or too little air with either your lower or upper body. For example, if you are sliding to your right and turning to your right, you are deflecting more air to left with your upper body than you are deflecting to the left with your lower body. The fix is simple, deflect more with your lower body or less with your upper body.

It sounds like you are thinking about it too much and flying mechanically. Try not to think about it and just fly. Don't position your body like you practiced on the ground, move as necessary to go in the direction you want to go. If it isn't working, change something. If the change makes it worse, move whatever you changed the other direction.

Derek

[alw 0]

Hey Steve,

I worked on slides in the tunnel. It helped in two ways.

1. I didn't have too many things on my mind.
2. I could tell when I was starting to spin and when it was lateral.

If you get the movements down, the instructors will come in with you and provide counter pressure to allow you to increase the force without banging the walls.

May that would help a little - just a thought.

---------------------------------------------
Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

[OSOK 0]

Not meaning to hijack the thread... but so to carve circles on someone, you basically tilt your hips, and your shoulders you tilt them a bit less to allow for the change of heading?

[schon267 0]

thanks for the help, it makes perfect sense, I can't wait to get back up and work on it.
steve

[riddler 0]

Wind tunnel will make a HUGE improvement here. You have time to figure out what's going on in a tunnel; on a skydive, you only have a few seconds. You live close to one of the best tunnels in the world, look into it. And get a tunnel coach - it's 10 times better.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[Beverly 1]

Ok, the side slide technique is as follows:

In the advanced body position (Mantis - Head up)
You need to dip your leg and same side elbow into the wind.
A 45 degree slant.
maintain the arch throughout!
The even dip of the knee into the wind and the elbow into the wind will allow you to move to the side.

If you are dipping to the left and you find yourself turning to the right, = too much leg and need to compensate with more arm. If you are just turning and not making any movement progress, you need more knee.

The best way to illistrate is jump with a coach, or a friend that can just fall down the tube and be a point of reference.

There is a need to get the right balance between the knee and elbow. Practice on the same jump to move left and right.

Please PM me if this is obscure or if you have any further questions. It is a great skill to master.

I think true friendship is under-rated

Twitter: @Dreamskygirlsa

[btucker 0]

Two ways:

1) old school
reach opposite. i.e reach right (equaly with arm and leg) to go left.

2) new school
pitch the body. This is done by dropping the elbow and the knee. However to drop a knee you must straighted the other leg. This will also move (and pitch) the pelvis. My last coach said straightening the leg gives the power and you aim with the knee.


To master this technique some tunnel time (with a coach) is essential. There just isn't enough reference in the sky!

[goose491 0]

If you need to think of distinct inputs for distinct outcome and you are having troubles with the sideslide, try this. This is what got me side sliding when I wasn't sure what I was doing worked (on a solo, it's really hard to confirm your making any lateral movement)

On a solo, get a small, upper body turn going. By small I mean a very tiny input which will create a very slow turn. Hold the input. When you are ready, try droping your knee on the same side you are turning to. When you have dropped your knee enough to stop the turn you initially created, that is your heading is no longer changing but your original upper body turn input is still there, you will actually be side-sliding. Stay in this configuration for a few seconds to train some muscle-memory and then go back to stable belly to earth and try the same thing in the opposite direction.

The key to this excercise lies in making the original turn input very minute and dropping the knee very gradually as well. I compare dropping the knee to raising the clutch slowly to find where it catches if you've learned to drive a standard car. By doing everything very slowly, you will find that magic configuration and you may not have to think about the other leg at all as it just 'does it's thing' to keep you stable.

After a few tries, you can make the turn and faster before each attempt. Eventually, you will be able to drop the one side evenly, knowing just what it should feel like and presto, you be slidin'

... I hope that was clear enough an explanation. Keep tryin' and let us know how you make out

My Karma ran over my Dogma!!!

[Fast 0]

Lots of good advice.


Just one thing to remember and realize... It's not _that_ hard to do. I was over amping my slides in the tunnel and got told to calm down and put both my hands out in front of me and rotate them... I found I could slide all the way across the tunnel just by turning my hands. I am sure it doesn't work as well in the air but the point I am making is that like everything else its calm moves of the right body parts.


It is possible your trying to slide and are moving another part of your body w/o thinking about it that stops the slide. Get some video / coaching or tunnel time.

~D
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