Where to Start With Instructor Development?

[beester]

Good luck on your endeavors...I do believe you might be a bit green yet but hey go for it and live and learn.

Imo an instructor needs 3 basic skill pools... whether it's teaching how to dive, how to assemble a weapon, how to program in SAP or higher math at university level...

1) Didactic skills. When teaching you are transmitting a message and to do so in the clearest and most productive way can be hard to do. Some people are naturals, other get it very hard. But fortunately you can learn this, and most teaching/instructor courses will spend a big part of the curriculum on this. (as is the case with OWI)

2) Personality. Part of it is used in your teaching (how you come over, interact, are you extravert or introvert, etc). Part of it is how you react unders stress, how you take decisions, etc. (This is something that's your natural you... but you can acknowledge your own traits... your good and neg points)

3) Experience and knowledge in the course you're teaching. For some courses or fields this might take years of education or work. For others less. More experience is not always better. If you've been diving the same hole for thousands of dives it won't matter much if you are teaching potential wreck divers. Fortunately with diving all you need is good companions with alot of experience and alot of passion for the sport. Just dive.. in every and all circumstances. Dive winter and summer, dive in **** holes, rivers, quaries, dive undeep and very deep, deco dives, wreckdives, tropical dives, current, tides, shore dives, boat dives, cruises... just dive . And when you're doing that take from it what you need and discard the rest. If you have good dive buddies they'll help you in sorting out the need and discard part.

The last part.. experience you don't have in abundance. But hey... if you have passion and are willing it will come with time. As long as you don't see the cert as quick bucks but as a way to dive.

Btw I'm no dive instructor... but an IT manager who teaches from time to time ;-).

 

[erikc]

To those naysayers I would point out that the military has 21 year old kids flying fairly complex aircraft in 6 months. Everyone has to start somewhere. Just because these old hippies took 20 years to get their divemaster certification does not mean you have to. Go for it, you have your whole life to get your experience. Focus always on serving your students well first and good things will follow. Remember you are providing a service so its not about you it is about them and their safety.

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

I wanted to add one more thing Matt. Make sure that you know what your tuition covers. The brochure for my program led me to believe that everything in the program was covered in tuition except the books. I got to my last week and was given a sheet that I had to fill out choosing which certifications I wanted to have processed. After several thousands of dollars, I still had to pay extra for my cert. cards. They don't cost much to get processed but that wasn't really the point. You would think that after paying so many thousands of dollars the cert. cost would be included.

Overall just be very careful about learning everything you can about your specific program before jumping in head first. It sucks to learn all of this after the fact.

 

[Mike Ange]

While I agree with a lot of the post here regarding experience - at the same time I appreciate your enthusiasm and determination to get this done! Our industry needs more professionals with your passion and a lot of us tend to forget we were all green once too! There is a lot of good advice here and I agree with some of it. You definitely need a lot of background in physics, physiology, dive procedures and safety. FAR MORE than you will probably get in your course depending on the student pool you will be teaching in. The more background you have the better instructor you will be.

However, one of the pieces of advice I would add to most of the above is SWIM. As an instructor trainer who has literally trained hundreds of instructors, one of the most common issues I see in the water is candidates who cannot focus on the material presented pool side or in open water because they are overtaxed physically. You should swim 1000 meters in mask, fins and snorkel and 500 meters free swimming 3 or 4 times a week if possible. Test yourself - you should be able to complete an 800 meter snorkel swim in less than 14 minutes (comfortably) and a 500m free swim in less than 12 minutes comfortably. Also practice swimming 25 m or farther underwater on one breath. Then grab your gear - an instructor candidate should be able to hover motionless for at least 2 minutes at a set depth (+-1 ft) in a normal face down swimming position. You should also have a superior skill level for all other basic dive skills.

DIVE EVERY CHANCE YOU GET until your course begins (and of course during it as well)

Aside from that read everything you can find both from your course materials and other materials. Review all of the diving accidents you can find and analyze the causes of the accidents - learn from the mistakes of others!

Good luck with your class and even though I am not an advocate of the xday wonder classes - if you are committed you can come out of the course as a pretty good instructor. So do not let anyone rain on your parade - keep your enthusiasm - and enjoy your program. Finally, never accept short cuts not from yourself and not from your instructors - do not cheat yourself and do not let anyone else cheat you out of effective training!

Safe Diving,

 

[rrweather]

I am usually one of those people that says if you want to do something, go do it. There is nothing stopping most of us (except maybe money and time) from going all the way from OW to instructing in minimal time. As long as whoever does it is realistic in what is expected when the program is completed, then who cares what people say. If the dive agencies didn't make it possible, then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

The one drawback to dive instructors is that if you have the money to pay for the program, there is little stopping you from doing it. Obviously you have to pass tests and different forms of evaluation along the way but there is really no one telling you that you need more experience just to finish the program. This is because in the end, completing the course doesn't guarantee you much. You still need to find a dive shop to hire you and/or build a client base that trusts you. This is where the dive community can either approve or disapprove of your training/experience.

I don't necessarily agree with the reference training military pilots. True, young pilots are taught to fly; however, very few pilots are teaching brand new pilots six months after they learn to fly themselves. I am a flight engineer in the USAF. I knew little when I began training. I was taught what I needed to know to meet the minimum requirement. This could be equated to the OW student--learning the minimum needed to perform the basics. After I flew for a while, accumulating hours and experience, someone else decided I was ready to instruct. Once again, the dive community differs because for the most part, you decide when you have the time and money to become an instructor. The Air Force expected me to teach as soon as I was done the instructor program, not get the experience needed to be a good instructor after going through instructor upgrade.

As others have mentioned, the correct aptitude is huge. I have 3 or 4 people in my unit that are just itching to become instructors. Not because they want to teach or pass on knowledge, but because they think there is some kind of power associated with teaching others. In my career, teaching means more responsibility than I knew existed, along with more pressure to do things right all the time. I do it because I love flying and want to help the new people just starting out in the process. All the dive instructors I have had all had one thing in common: they loved diving and that is what drove them to teach. When you do make it through the program, try to be the person teaching because you love the sport and want to help others realize what diving is and the potential that exist. If you teach for any other reason, it is probably the wrong reason and you will probably be let down.

Obviously I am not a dive instructor so maybe my thoughts are meaningless. On the other hand, I've learned a lot in life and do think some of this knowledge applies to diving, teaching, and many other things.

 

[Web Monkey]

I am usually one of those people that says if you want to do something, go do it. There is nothing stopping most of us (except maybe money and time) from going all the way from OW to instructing in minimal time. As long as whoever does it is realistic in what is expected when the program is completed, then who cares what people say. If the dive agencies didn't make it possible, then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

The difference is that if you want to learn to skydive, and you do a bad job of it, nobody gets hurt but you (and anybody you hang on to or hit).

If you want to be a SCUBA instructor and do a bad job of it, you can easily crank out loads of poorly trained students.

Just because a cert agency allows something doesn't make it right.

Terry

 

[RJP]

I'm going to go through this program in about two months.

Please don't think I'm clueless about what I'm getting myself into.

What would be of benefit to look over thoroughly and what should I just skim through and not worry too much about?

You're kidding with this last question, right? I mean, do you really not realize that you're already essentially skimming through the whole friggin' thing?

Thanks for any input you guys can offer.

Please do the diving public a favor and make sure that whatever program you are doing includes one of THESE patches in the materials you've received - and wear it!

 

[Walter]

What's the big deal? Sounds like a pretty typical instructor to me.

 

[SailNaked]

I think I have a different angle for my post otherwise it has mostly been said.

I would like my instructor to inspire me to dive with confidence to handle the many possible situations that might come up underwater. to instruct me in common sense and give me the tools and information I need to be responsible for myself and my buddy in all the dive situations he is qualifying me for.

I would like my instructor to pass on a passion for the water and Scuba so that in ten years I am still diving. and very important I want my instructor to make sure that if something happens to me on the vacation dive of a lifetime and the reason I came to him to learn Scuba, that I handle it as if it were nothing and it does not scare me away from diving forever.

It deeply pains me to hear someone say, "oh ya I got certified ten years ago for a vacation and I never dived again". some of that is just circumstance some of it is a failed instructor. (and if it is in the paper "New diver drowns at...." then almost definitely the instructor)

I plan to be that kind of instructor and will not teach until I am confident that I can do so, if that means lots of dives around the world or taking a course to teach me compassion for idiots then I will do so.

So my answer to the question is read it all as if any part of it might be the part that saves someoneÃÔ life or inspires them to keep diving. Skip nothing, skim nothing, that is for divers that already know the info they are skimming. Diving is both serious and fun, the serious stuff should be second nature hard coded in your brain, the fun part is challenge and wow effect. (for me anyway).

go for it but remember that you are teaching something that is potentially dangerous and you are responsible for the training you give someone not the agency. you will have to forgive yourself if one of your students drowns doing something stupid that you skimmed in class or maybe even skipped. but better to have 100% confidence that your students are the absolute best possible divers thanks to your thorough and complete instruction.

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

You're kidding with this last question, right? I mean, do you really not realize that you're already essentially skimming through the whole friggin' thing?

Please do the diving public a favor and make sure that whatever program you are doing includes one of THESE patches in the materials you've received - and wear it!

Seriously do you have anything positive to say to this guy? He's asking for help and all you can do is make fun? At least he's asking.