Keeping up tunnel skills

[emmiwy 0]

Hey all,

Sounds like a silly question but, are there suggestions for keeping up what you learn in tunnel, apart from jumping a lot? My coach told me most of what I've done in tunnel so far emphasizes body stability/positioning, which is very useful as I'm interested in becoming a better belly-flier. The downside, they're not skills I can necessarily practice when I do my AFF jumps [e.g. 360 deg turns/side sliding while going up and down].

Time permits me to jump only once a week, and I felt like I lost the muscle memory and my skills regressed in between the times I went to tunnel. I really want to improve my belly fly skills, as I anticipate becoming a more serious skydiver beyond just completing the AFF. Perhaps doing longer tunnel sessions will help with muscle memory?

Thanks for the input :)

[davelepka 4]

Forget about your tunnel skills for now, and just learn how to skydive. Go to the tunnel all you want and have a blast, but that's not skydiving.

There are far more important things to learn during your AFF jumps than fine-tuned belly flying skills. When it comes to skydiving, all you really need as far as body position goes is to able to get/remain stable for deployment, everything else it just extra.

Safety in and around the aircraft, spotting, deployment, emergency procedures, and canopy control are all for more important than fine tuned belly skills. Focus on what your instructors tell you to focus on and forget about the other stuff. If something is important, they'll teach you.

Once you're past AFF, developing your skills is just a matter of volume and currency. Jump/tunnel a lot and often.

However. always keep in mind the 'important' skydiving skills I outlined above. No matter how much tunnel time you have, and how sharp your belly skills are, you only build those 'important' skills one jump at a time. Don't mistake flying skill for skydiving skill, and make sure you give those factors their due consideration.

[rehmwa 2]

Quote

always keep in mind the 'important' skydiving skills I outlined above. No matter how much tunnel time you have, and how sharp your belly skills are, you only build those 'important' skills one jump at a time. Don't mistake flying skill for skydiving skill, and make sure you give those factors their due consideration.

great post - a body flyer isn't a "skydiver"

the freefall skills and comfort learned in the tunnel are great, eemiwy, and you should be able to just coast through the freefall portions

use that comfort as an opportunity to learn better about the things you don't get in the tunnel (Dave's list is great and I'll add a couple more: altitude awareness, gear familiarity) - as those are all about surviving to jump again which is much more important than being skilled in just the one portion of body flight

if you have good AFF instructors, though, they'll take that tunnel experience in consideration of your training plan and focus on the other things extra.

I've seen a couple ways of handling this, my favorite is letting the student fly mantis is they like it and are comfortable with it, but return to boxman at pull time for extra safety.

But do what the instructors teach, if they want you boxman the whole time - do it, you'll be good enough from the tunnel that it shouldn't matter to you. Nail the other stuff, you have the good fortune to be able to focus on those things and not obsess about the freefall portion - that's big help.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Itchy 0]

As a tunnel instructor, I must say i agree with most of what davelepka says, aside from forgetting your tunnelskills... get the skydiving portion down then concentrate on fine tuning... the tunnel is a GREAT tool and can make you an amazing flyer, but it cannot teach you altitude awareness and canopy skills... however, whenever you do use the tunnel try to put yourself in a battle training mindset, dont try to think of everything you do step-by-step, instead, feel it and go with the flow, it might feel weird at first but it will start feeling natural eventually... always think of the relative wind... it comes from below, so if you increase surface area on one side of your body it will move you in the opposite direction (i.e. if you extend your legs, it will make you move fwd, but if you also extend your arms at the same time you create more surface area and even distribution which will keep you in a neutral position causing you to fall slower), what i am getting at is, dont try to remember everything you are taught just because thats what you were taught... think of what effects your movements will have before you fly and then just go with the flow... the best way to progress is feeling the wind and going with it as opposed to trying to fight it... not sure if i veered off the question but i hope this helps...
*Itchy

Life is all about experiences...
Luck, is when opportunity and preparation meet...

[emmiwy 0]

Thanks for the advice--all very thoughtful and definitely stuff I will keep in mind. I should clarify that I don't mean to say that I'm trying to substitute tunnel with a lot of the nuances and skills (i.e. altitude awareness, canopy control, emergency procedures) that are necessary to be a skydiver. I agree with you all 150% on that.

You probably think it is premature to be going to tunnel when I'm not even done with the AFF; fine tuning the skills is a goal I have yes, but what I have found particularly useful with tunnel is developing confidence in flying on my own. Personally, going through AFF levels 1-3 with two JMs who are still holding onto me became pretty comfortable. Once they let go, I want to be sure that I can handle the feeling of flying on my own, more so recovering from instability.

My tunnel coach has told me that I'm not going to have any problem with finishing the rest of my levels, based on my tunnel performance. So you're right, what I'm learning through tunnel is probably more than enough. I suppose I just find it a little frustrating that simple things like forward/backward/up/down, side sliding, etc. seem so easy but I can't do it completely naturally.

[Itchy 0]

it is not premature at all... it is very smart... the hardest thing to do in the sport is break a bad habit, and the tunnel helps you from building bad habits... in the past they didnt have tunnels, so the progression was slow... take advantage of the tunnel everytime you get a chance, it is worth it, and if you get a chance, do coaching sessions as you will see that you learn much more than thinking you can figure it out on your own... i strongly suggest current or former tunnel instructors as that is what they do, they spend or have spent hours upon hours looking at flyers to the point that they/ we can see things happen before they do... dont get me wrong there are many good coaches out there with no instructor experience at all, as there are many instructors that could be good coaches but have a hard time explaining things... if you find you cant afford coaching, bring your own DVD or buy one then go back and actually watch it, pause it at random moments and look at your body position and guess what will happen next, then hit play... it helps train your mind... and the one thing i have always told my students to never forget it "the more you think, the dumber you get" feel the wind, dont fight it... blue skies

Life is all about experiences...
Luck, is when opportunity and preparation meet...

[emmiwy 0]

Quote

it is not premature at all... it is very smart... the hardest thing to do in the sport is break a bad habit, and the tunnel helps you from building bad habits... in the past they didnt have tunnels, so the progression was slow... take advantage of the tunnel everytime you get a chance, it is worth it, and if you get a chance, do coaching sessions as you will see that you learn much more than thinking you can figure it out on your own... i strongly suggest current or former tunnel instructors as that is what they do, they spend or have spent hours upon hours looking at flyers to the point that they/ we can see things happen before they do... dont get me wrong there are many good coaches out there with no instructor experience at all, as there are many instructors that could be good coaches but have a hard time explaining things... if you find you cant afford coaching, bring your own DVD or buy one then go back and actually watch it, pause it at random moments and look at your body position and guess what will happen next, then hit play... it helps train your mind... and the one thing i have always told my students to never forget it "the more you think, the dumber you get" feel the wind, dont fight it... blue skies

Thanks Itchy. :) My tunnel coach said the same thing--I'm building good habits. In fact when we were reviewing a video covering the dive flow for my next level jump, he pointed out that my body positioning is even better than the instructor in the video. That made me very happy.

Yes I've had the good fortune of going through my levels with different instructors every time, and different JMs who mentor me on each jump. While I miss out on progressing/flying with one instructor/coach, I get the superb benefit of different styles of teaching and explaining from different people. And I get to know more people at my DZ better. :)

[soulbabel 0]

I tend to find that my belly skills are so basic and fundamental to skydiving, that they don't atrophy too much from inactivity.

When you say you only jump once a week, do mean you only get to do a single jump once a week, or that you can get out to the DZ to do a few jumps once a week? I'm assuming you mean the former, since I remember sitting around all day during my AFF training for an instructor to free up and train me and then do the jump. If that's the case, then there are alot of different factors that would make you fly less efficiently than you are used to. Not having jumps beforehand to get you warmed up could be one cause, another is just the mental stress of having your AFF objectives coursing through your brain and having to perform them during the jump.

I think you'll find that once you get your A license or reach solo status, and can begin truly flying your own body without the stress of having your performance evaluated, you'll be able to see your actual belly skill level (especially when you try flying level with 2 or more people). I've also found that being able to do something in the tunnel, may take a few jumps to adapt to the sky.

So my suggestion is for you not to worry too much about muscle memory loss, and just focus on becoming a skydiver that deserves her A license. Anything that you can do now, but might get rusty at later from inactivity, usually doesn't take more than a few practice jumps to get back up to par.

[emmiwy 0]

Thanks soulbabel for the vote of confidence. Yes, I've only jumped once in the last two weekends I've been to my DZ. From now on I'm definitely going to try to jump several times for the one day that I go. I have a feeling I may be, as you mentioned, overly focused on AFF performance and doing everything perfectly. But I may be taking this too seriously.