OrangeCountyScuba
Registered
Hey Guys, if you are on here interested in taking a scuba class, congrats on your first step to lifelong fun!! (Yes, I am well aware how cliche that last sentence is but I openly admit I am a nerd.) I was speaking to a group of students that I had (teaching) the other day and one of them posed a question to me that I never needed to really rehearse a concise response to. For those who are not intimately familiar with the scuba industry, many instructors have common core beliefs depending where they live, how they were trained, so on and so forth. These common core beliefs are usually well rehearsed because it is a stance that usually needs to be explained on a semi regular basis, usually for the uninitiated.
Ok the question, student asks:
"It seems like if you were to only teach private classes most students would have an easier time passing the course, so why do you and the rest of the industry teach group classes? I understand you make a living from teaching people how to dive and that there is an economic reason for you to have group classes. However, if money was no object would you teach only private courses from this point forward?" Much of this is paraphrased for your sanity and possible boredom.
My answer: Yes and No. I believe the general response from most instructors and the one this student was looking for most likely, is YES I would love to only teach only private classes and make just as much money. However, the money is, for arguments sake, irrelevant.
Private classes are great because the student controls the speed of every detail of the class for the most part. In the event a skill needs special attention you will have someone solely focused on you. When you go to the beach diving portion, you have the best dive buddy you can possibly have, an instructor. At the end of the class, you will have put in a fair amount of time and effort to hone your skills and typically you will have a very positive experience because you never had to feel pressure to perform in front of your peers, you were the star of the show and your safety blanket that is the instructor was there holding your hand the entire time(figure of speech). You only needed to focus on yourself, no need to check the instructor because he/she knows what they are doing. I could go on more bit it will start to sound redundant.
I have broken down the benefits of taking a private class many of times, but when I thought a bit more about it, I realized many of those positives could be negatives. Ok, let me elaborate. Taking a private class for the academics portion is non applicable here, I understand that some people have difficulties with certain aspects of dive planning, gas management, etc, but that can all be ironed out by talking to pretty much any one at the LDS or instructor over email. It really starts to become apparent when you move to in water training whether that be pool or ocean. There is a certain level of paranoia that occurs when you dive with someone you are unfamiliar with, which can be the case when you go anywhere in the world without a friend/family member. I feel that one of the most important aspects to learning how to dive is being comfortable enough with your own skills that you can then spend a bit of time worrying that the person you are diving with may have an incident that may require you and your ability to compose yourself to help them. In a private open water course, this is something that you will never encounter. Now I know that some instructors will say that they make any diver taking a private class lead the instructor around so on and so forth. However, the student will by no means have the same level of stress to check on the instructor, because if anything goes wrong you know the instructor will correct you. Team skills/Buddy Awareness are developed by, hate to say it, trial and error to a certain degree. Learning to be a good buddy takes time and practice or sometimes getting kicked in the face repeatedly haha. With this time diving with others you will develop confidence in your skills and confidence in your ability to lead, assess risk based on your limitations, and confidently do buddy checks prior to diving.
Sorry to make a short story long, but if I was asked again today if I thought it would be better for a student to take a private class or a group class? I would respond that I would like to only teach 2-3 students at a time giving the students plenty of personal instruction but also enough leash to make mistakes to learn from as a group. In my honest opinion, any class you take should force you naturally to deal with stress created by others that are learning at the same time you are, under supervision of course. All students need to learn how to "dive", not just follow an instructor around and be expected to figure it out once the class is over.
I understand this is very long winded but I have actually restructured my classes already to accommodate this type of learning and experience. Feel free to add or ask anything that you feel may be constructive. This is just my honest opinion on a subject that rarely craves much attention at the Open Water level, but it should.
Ok the question, student asks:
"It seems like if you were to only teach private classes most students would have an easier time passing the course, so why do you and the rest of the industry teach group classes? I understand you make a living from teaching people how to dive and that there is an economic reason for you to have group classes. However, if money was no object would you teach only private courses from this point forward?" Much of this is paraphrased for your sanity and possible boredom.
My answer: Yes and No. I believe the general response from most instructors and the one this student was looking for most likely, is YES I would love to only teach only private classes and make just as much money. However, the money is, for arguments sake, irrelevant.
Private classes are great because the student controls the speed of every detail of the class for the most part. In the event a skill needs special attention you will have someone solely focused on you. When you go to the beach diving portion, you have the best dive buddy you can possibly have, an instructor. At the end of the class, you will have put in a fair amount of time and effort to hone your skills and typically you will have a very positive experience because you never had to feel pressure to perform in front of your peers, you were the star of the show and your safety blanket that is the instructor was there holding your hand the entire time(figure of speech). You only needed to focus on yourself, no need to check the instructor because he/she knows what they are doing. I could go on more bit it will start to sound redundant.
I have broken down the benefits of taking a private class many of times, but when I thought a bit more about it, I realized many of those positives could be negatives. Ok, let me elaborate. Taking a private class for the academics portion is non applicable here, I understand that some people have difficulties with certain aspects of dive planning, gas management, etc, but that can all be ironed out by talking to pretty much any one at the LDS or instructor over email. It really starts to become apparent when you move to in water training whether that be pool or ocean. There is a certain level of paranoia that occurs when you dive with someone you are unfamiliar with, which can be the case when you go anywhere in the world without a friend/family member. I feel that one of the most important aspects to learning how to dive is being comfortable enough with your own skills that you can then spend a bit of time worrying that the person you are diving with may have an incident that may require you and your ability to compose yourself to help them. In a private open water course, this is something that you will never encounter. Now I know that some instructors will say that they make any diver taking a private class lead the instructor around so on and so forth. However, the student will by no means have the same level of stress to check on the instructor, because if anything goes wrong you know the instructor will correct you. Team skills/Buddy Awareness are developed by, hate to say it, trial and error to a certain degree. Learning to be a good buddy takes time and practice or sometimes getting kicked in the face repeatedly haha. With this time diving with others you will develop confidence in your skills and confidence in your ability to lead, assess risk based on your limitations, and confidently do buddy checks prior to diving.
Sorry to make a short story long, but if I was asked again today if I thought it would be better for a student to take a private class or a group class? I would respond that I would like to only teach 2-3 students at a time giving the students plenty of personal instruction but also enough leash to make mistakes to learn from as a group. In my honest opinion, any class you take should force you naturally to deal with stress created by others that are learning at the same time you are, under supervision of course. All students need to learn how to "dive", not just follow an instructor around and be expected to figure it out once the class is over.
I understand this is very long winded but I have actually restructured my classes already to accommodate this type of learning and experience. Feel free to add or ask anything that you feel may be constructive. This is just my honest opinion on a subject that rarely craves much attention at the Open Water level, but it should.
