Training advice please

[Matt Cook]

Hello All,

I'm a new diver undergoing BSAC Ocean Diver training. I'm just going through my drysuit training prior to hitting the open water for the first time.

I'd like to be able to do lots of practice to make sure I'm confident with things like; buoyancy control; practicing getting out of sticky situations (e.g. inversion); tweeking kit configuration; etc..
However, my branch has just a 1 hour pool session a week ... which usually ends up being 1/2 hour in the water, given kit-up and debrief times. If I don't make much progress one week then I have to wait another week to get another go.

I was wondering if people had any suggestions on how I can get in more practice time per week?

My weekends are usually free. Unfortunately our branch is not near to the coast but there are some inland dive sites fairly accessible. I like the idea of 'nailing' my drysuit in the pool first, which would give me less distractions once in the open water training. Or maybe I should just go find some shallow and sheltered open water and practice there. Obviously, where ever I do it I'd want/need to be there with someone else to watch over me and advise. Maybe one of my own instructors? Maybe a 'buddy pairing' scheme? Maybe pay a commercial dive school for pool time?

Are there pools that would allow me this kind of practice time (e.g. those practice pools at some quarries)? Has anyone known public baths let divers in at times other than scuba club sessions? Maybe just go 3 or 4 meters open water and take my time?

I will be asking these questions of my branch Training Officer but I'd be interested to get a wider field of opinions.

Thanks in advance ... Matt

[PeteM]

However, my branch has just a 1 hour pool session a week ... which usually ends up being 1/2 hour in the water, given kit-up and debrief times.

Well that sentence is the obvious answer how to double in water time. Kit up and get ready to hit the water as soon as your hour starts, stay in until they kick you out and debrief once your club is no longer paying for pool hire.

Wasting pool time used to be a common problem in my old club, I always insisted my trainees were ready on pool side ten minutes before the hire period for the brief.

[Ron MacRae]

Well that sentence is the obvious answer how to double in water time. Kit up and get ready to hit the water as soon as your hour starts, stay in until they kick you out and debrief once your club is no longer paying for pool hire.

Wasting pool time used to be a common problem in my old club, I always insisted my trainees were ready on pool side ten minutes before the hire period for the brief.

Agreed. When your hour starts you should be ready to get in the water.

I'm afraid that until you complete OD you are very limited who you can dive with. It needs to be an instructor or an Assistant instructor with an instructor present. However if you've done the drysuit bit and are ready to get into open water it shouldn't be too long until you qualify.

Hopefully then you'll get more opertunities.

N.B. the training never ends, look on OD like passing your driving test.
You will learn a lot more once you are "out on the road".:)

Have fun..

Ron.

[Mike Halligan]

Hello All,

I'm a new diver undergoing BSAC Ocean Diver training. I'm just going through my drysuit training prior to hitting the open water for the first time.

I'd like to be able to do lots of practice to make sure I'm confident with things like; buoyancy control; practicing getting out of sticky situations (e.g. inversion); tweeking kit configuration; etc..
However, my branch has just a 1 hour pool session a week ... which usually ends up being 1/2 hour in the water, given kit-up and debrief times. If I don't make much progress one week then I have to wait another week to get another go.

I was wondering if people had any suggestions on how I can get in more practice time per week?

My weekends are usually free. Unfortunately our branch is not near to the coast but there are some inland dive sites fairly accessible. I like the idea of 'nailing' my drysuit in the pool first, which would give me less distractions once in the open water training. Or maybe I should just go find some shallow and sheltered open water and practice there. Obviously, where ever I do it I'd want/need to be there with someone else to watch over me and advise. Maybe one of my own instructors? Maybe a 'buddy pairing' scheme? Maybe pay a commercial dive school for pool time?

Are there pools that would allow me this kind of practice time (e.g. those practice pools at some quarries)? Has anyone known public baths let divers in at times other than scuba club sessions? Maybe just go 3 or 4 meters open water and take my time?

I will be asking these questions of my branch Training Officer but I'd be interested to get a wider field of opinions.

Thanks in advance ... Matt

Well done you, for asking. There's not much you can do without a qualified instructor present, except one vital possibility -

Have all your kit (and if it comes from a club lock-up your instructor's kit) assembled, tested and ready for donning on the poolside 10 minutes before the hour begins, so that a briefing (note the spelling) and helping each other on with kit results in two splashes on the dot of the hour. :D :D

Nothing is more frustrating for a volunteer instructor than delay in starting the session, be that wet or dry. :eek:

[Matt Cook]

OK, I see the point about getting the most out of the hour. We could certainly improve on this. Although isn't it a little rude to be clattering around the pool side whilst another session is going on? Hyperthetically, maybe it's a kids or women only session ... which may not take kindly to us hanging around.

Even so, it's still only a short session once a week. If you want to tweek something or fix something there's still a full week to wait to try again. For instance, my instructor takes me and a fellow trainee in to the water. If either trainee has a problem then most of the session gets taken up trying to resolve the problem ... and neither trainee ends up doing much that week. This isn't a criticism of the instructor or the sessions. I'm simply looking for extra time to practice.

[Ron MacRae]

OK, I see the point about getting the most out of the hour. We could certainly improve on this. Although isn't it a little rude to be clattering around the pool side whilst another session is going on? Hyperthetically, maybe it's a kids or women only session ... which may not take kindly to us hanging around.

Agreed.
Don't do it at the pool side, very bad manners. :)
Do it somewhere else, including the brief.
Perhaps in the changing area or some other quiet spot.
Then walk to the pool, fit fins and mask, and dive in.

Ron.

[Mike Halligan]

OK, I see the point about getting the most out of the hour. We could certainly improve on this. Although isn't it a little rude to be clattering around the pool side whilst another session is going on? Hyperthetically, maybe it's a kids or women only session ... which may not take kindly to us hanging around.

Even so, it's still only a short session once a week. If you want to tweek something or fix something there's still a full week to wait to try again. For instance, my instructor takes me and a fellow trainee in to the water. If either trainee has a problem then most of the session gets taken up trying to resolve the problem ... and neither trainee ends up doing much that week. This isn't a criticism of the instructor or the sessions. I'm simply looking for extra time to practice.

And mine isn't criticism of instructor or trainee, merely observation. :)

When under formal instruction (I am still learning), I was expected to be present, kitted up, ready for briefing 10 minutes before the appointed hour, while the public swimming session proceeded.

Later, I learned why - it is because each session takes a full hour and many of them can only be taught as group exercises (demo & do). When I'm instructing nowadays, I do not wait for stargglers - because I feel obliged for the sake of the timeous to crack on. Latecomers might wait several weeks for their next opportunity - and I waste no sympathy on them. (They might as well learn in their earliest days that time and tide truly wait for no man, or else they'll find out on a hardboat trip and argue about payment. :eek: )

A full hour is as much as many folk can cope with and pool hire is pricey - soon to become more so, I'd guess. Punctuality is not called the politeness of Princes without reason, I'm afraid.

[bootneck]

I try and book the pool for two hours per OD Training, its expensive, £80.00 for the two hours but I do find that you can get more done if your not rushed and the OD seem to get more into it than

If your that keen maybe, get a couple of others and payout for pool hirer for an extra hour and ask if an instructor would like to come along and help you out, all out just concentrating on dry suits skills

[Maria]

I endorse the others' comments re getting you and your kit ready and doing the brief before your precious hour of pool time starts.
Assuming that you have a willing (and available) instructor, you could try phoning round your other local branches to see if you could use their pool session on the odd occasion. We've certainly supported other branches in this manner.
I would normally have one or two pool sessions with someone in their drysuit before venturing in to open water (an inland training site) so this shouldn't be a long-running problem.
Best of luck! By the way, has anyone mentioned that quarries are cold at this time of year? :D

[Matt Cook]

Ron & Mike: I completely agree about punctuality ... I may suggest they are run a bit more strictly. I'd be happy to accept that I'd miss stuff if I was late.

Lee: Our pool is very popular ... not sure if there would be available sessions, worth asking about though.

Maria: Good idea, there is another local BSAC branch that meets on a different night. In a drysuit kitted up for a quarry, the pool gets mighty hot and sweaty. Maybe a quarry can't be that much more uncomfortable? :o

[Ed Howarth]

My 2p.

You have honed your buoyancy and trim in the pool to a standard that the instructor feels you can move onto a drysuit. It's taken you quite a few weeks to get to this standard (6, 7 maybe 8 sessions?) and you now feel reasonably competent.

Then, horror of horrors, you put a drysuit on and you are back to how you felt on week 1. Or maybe even worse. The point is, you've gone through this experience once and it will be easier this second time. Much easier.

I tend to suffer only 1 session with a drysuit in the pool, on the Thursday before the first open water lesson. Just to make sure it fits, doesn't leak too much and the hoses are right. A bit of playing with weighting and a teach of the inflate and dump.

Usually after half an hour in Capernwray, the trainee is starting to get the hang of it and it's almost second nature after the second dive.

Not lost one yet. :eek:

Ed

[Richard Whitcombe]

Wasting pool time used to be a common problem in my old club, I always insisted my trainees were ready on pool side ten minutes before the hire period for the brief.

Same. Ive seen a LOT of lessons when in a 1hr pool slot everyone turns up 5 mins before. Then gets changed, then sets the kit up, then drags it to the poolside, then gets in. Its not uncommon to see 30 mins wasted in this way.

I generally say the lesson starts 30 minutes before the pool time so by the time the gates go up everyone is changed, brief and the kit is ready to don.

When the pool costs £50 an hour do you really want to waste up to 50% of that time ?

[PeteM]

When the pool costs £50 an hour do you really want to waste up to 50% of that time ?

Out pool cost over £80 an hour three or four years ago, one of the reasons the wasted time used to annoy me so much

[bootneck]

Ouch and I wing about our pool cost, I had my youngest daughter on the course last year under 16 in full time education so the pool was £22.50 per hour. I knew I should have had more kids.

[Richard Whitcombe]

Out pool cost over £80 an hour three or four years ago, one of the reasons the wasted time used to annoy me so much

Jesus! By far our biggest club outlay every year is the pool, its far higher than even the boats. £80 is incredible unless its SETT :)

[OneDragons]

Jesus! By far our biggest club outlay every year is the pool, its far higher than even the boats. £80 is incredible unless its SETT :)


Submarine escape training tank?
Set price?
Banger set?

[Roz]

Part of learning anything is building up muscle memory. It's not possible to do every diving skill "dry", but there is potential to do some. And you don't even have to be in dive kit to do it. Go through some key skills that you are confident about in your head and visualise them. For instance regulator recovery and clearing.

Kneel down in a quiet area, (kitchen floor?). Shut your eyes. Think about removing your reg with your right hand. Then do the body tilt, right arm sweep next to your body, before making a big half circle with it. Next have your left hand sweep up your right arm, "find" the regulator, pop it into your mouth and clear it. If you go through the skills you can practically do dry, visualising the steps that you take, you'll help build muscle memory. Then when you do hit the water your skills will have progressed. It sounds a bit mad but visualising your skills and your diving will help you as a diver. And you'll find that the further up the ladder you go, the more you will visualise your dive.

[Roz]

Part of learning anything is building up muscle memory. It's not possible to do every diving skill "dry", but there is potential to do some. And you don't even have to be in dive kit to do it. Go through some key skills that you are confident about in your head and visualise them. For instance regulator recovery and clearing.

Kneel down in a quiet area, (kitchen floor?). Shut your eyes. Think about removing your reg with your right hand. Then do the body tilt, right arm sweep next to your body, before making a big half circle with it. Next have your left hand sweep up your right arm, "find" the regulator, pop it into your mouth and clear it. If you go through the skills you can practically do dry, visualising the steps that you take, you'll help build muscle memory. Then when you do hit the water your skills will have progressed. It sounds a bit mad but visualising your skills and your diving will help you as a diver. And you'll find that the further up the ladder you go, the more you will visualise your dive.

[ChristianG]

Part of learning anything is building up muscle memory.
Well, yes, sort of. :D

What happens in the real world?

There are all sorts of exercises available to counter all sorts of problems. Unfortunately they're exercises of one sort or another and they tend to not meet the demands of the real world. No-one can predict the antics of a diver met with some form of problem.

I do believe that's called summat like "experience" - no-one, nor you and I, can teach that skill. Edit/: Even then, is the "recipient" diver going to be able to recognise the problem? I've heard talk of many a diver blithely carrying on, blissfully unaware that there is a serious problem immediately adjacent to them.

[PeteM]

Jesus! By far our biggest club outlay every year is the pool, its far higher than even the boats. £80 is incredible unless its SETT :)

No not SETT - mind you that would not be a lot of good for training beginners :)

Just a biggish, deepish council pool. Quiet a good design from a training perspective, starting at 3' and running down to a 12' diving pit and being wide enough to have part of it roped off for swimming

[Richard Whitcombe]

No not SETT - mind you that would not be a lot of good for training beginners :)

Just a biggish, deepish council pool. Quiet a good design from a training perspective, starting at 3' and running down to a 12' diving pit and being wide enough to have part of it roped off for swimming

Sounds similar to ours. 30m long, 4m deep in a "pit". Council looking to close it now and replace with a far cheaper 25m long 2m deep standard thing though which is so much cheaper but also rubbish for us.

[bootneck]

Some of the older pools were brilliant with a decent deep end, particularly the ones with diving platforms, as it is we are stuck with a 1.8m deep deep end. not ideal, but needs must.