Reasons to take a propulsion/trim/buoyancy class...

[DevonDiver]

I might be missing the point. But I have put off taking AOW for some time because I believe skills like trim/propulsion/neutral buoyancy requires practice to perfect, not something that can be fixed in 1 session. Am I missing anything by not taking the class?

There's an applicable quote, that might guide you:

"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect."
Vince Lombardi, American Football Coach, 1913-1970

In respect to that sage advice, early direction from an expert can significantly increase the efficiency of subsequent self-practice and long-term development.

I mean like... what would be covered in the session that I couldn't get from the mighty internet articles that are written by fantastic instructors themselves.

One critical thing... timely, critical and constructive feedback on your performance, highlighting strengths and weakness, identifying areas for improvement and personalized drills to effect that specific improvement.

The use of video to record and de-brief in-water sessions is becoming an increasingly popular training tool amongst more progressive, quality-driven instructors.

 

[aeweems12]

I might be missing the point. But I have put off taking AOW for some time because I believe skills like trim/propulsion/neutral buoyancy requires practice to perfect, not something that can be fixed in 1 session.
Am I missing anything by not taking the class? I mean like... what would be covered in the session that I couldn't get from the mighty internet articles that are written by fantastic instructors themselves.

I completely agree with DevonDiver. You can practice all you want, but if you aren't doing the skill right and you can't see that you are doing it wrong then you will never learn to do the skill correctly. I thought I had figured out my perfect weight and had decent trim until someone took a picture of me. The time I spent in the pool with NetDoc improved my skills vastly. I was able to watch him do something and then try it myself. When I was having a hard time understanding a skill, he would video me and then have me video him to highlight the differences in what he was doing and what I was doing.

No amount of practice makes perfect could ever hope to replicate a course like a trim/propulsion/buoyancy class with an expert instructor like NetDoc.

 

[The Chairman]

I might be missing the point. But I have put off taking AOW for some time because I believe skills like trim/propulsion/neutral buoyancy requires practice to perfect, not something that can be fixed in 1 session.
Am I missing anything by not taking the class? I mean like... what would be covered in the session that I couldn't get from the mighty internet articles that are written by fantastic instructors themselves.

My first two instructors were horrible when it came to buoyancy. If I was still imitating them, I would still be flailing around on the bottom. My first clue was from the infamous Mike Brady. I was already a Dive Master and I took Mike, Walter and another diver from another forum for their first dives in Blue Spring (Orange City, Fl). Mike was impressed with my penchant for herding the group and not letting them get behind me. I didn't know he was an instructor and he saw that I took my role as a DM seriously. He invited me to become an instructor with the caveat that I had a lot of work to do on my neutral buoyancy. I really had no idea I was that bad as I could do the traditional buddha pose. After all, isn't that what neutral buoyancy is all about? Then I took a cavern class from the equally infamous Rick Murcur and my IDC had none other than Reggie Ross in it. I had three great role models who gave direct assessments of what I was doing right or wrong. They gave me the tools I needed to take it from there and so it became a passion. Sure, I had additional feedback in subsequent cave classes and I learned that slow is smooth and smooth is fast. But I can trace my neutral roots to those three classes and individuals. My aim as I pass on these skills is not to demand perfection, but to impart the skills needed to attain it on your own as well as to challenge and inspire you to get there. After all, it's up to you to develop those "snobbish amounts of trim". I can only show you the way.

Buoyancy/trim/propulsion is not part of the normal AOW course curriculum.

It's actually a part of both my OW and AOW class, but not the sole focus. But then, my classes can be classified as anything but normal. Just ask aeweems12.

 

[scjoe]

I am not sure how teaching on knees ever became "the way to do it" other than it has been perpetuated throughout the years through minimal standards & lowered expectations as SOP.
.

I believe it simply dates back to the time when we did not have BCs. If students in quarter inch wetsuits weren't planted in the sand, they had to be swimming about, which probably made it hard to conduct a class.

 

[mselenaous]

Buoyancy/trim/propulsion is not part of the normal AOW course curriculum. If you want to learn these things, take a specialized course as being discussed in this thread. If you want to do five dives with an instructor that encourage you to think about topics such as depth, navigation, etc., then take AOW.

This is a major part of my AOW course. Without a good foundation of basic good diving techniques, it is harder to task load; which is what AOW dives are introducing: Navigation, Deep diving (gas management & narcosis), Night diving (situation awareness), etc.

 

[TSandM]

Some people master things pretty easily by themselves; the rest of us don't mind shortening the process and making it more efficient, by getting good instruction.

A good instructor will be able to spot where your biggest issues lie -- is your gear unbalanced? Is your breathing not well controlled? Is your kicking technique contributing to instability in the water column? Are you overweighted, or overly dependent on your BC? They can zero in on the place where the problem lies, and significantly shorten the time to better performance. This is especially true if the instructor uses video as a teaching tool, and you don't otherwise have access to someone who can videotape you. There is nothing like actually SEEING what you are doing to bring the reality home. "I DON'T swim with my hands!", says the student, right up until he sees himself paddling on tape . . .

 

[Lorenzoid]

This is a major part of my AOW course. Without a good foundation of basic good diving techniques, it is harder to task load; which is what AOW dives are introducing: Navigation, Deep diving (gas management & narcosis), Night diving (situation awareness), etc.

If only it were made a standard part of the AOW course. That really would be a significant "advancement" over OW. Until then, it seems most divers will have to stumble across discussions like this one before they become enlightened. I can't imagine I am the only one who never heard of these skills as such (well, except PADI's "Peak Performance Buoyancy") until I started reading threads in which DIR and tec folks discussed it. It's good to see more divers are actively seeking out courses to learn these skills--as I myself am!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Buoyancy/trim/propulsion is not part of the normal AOW course curriculum. If you want to learn these things, take a specialized course as being discussed in this thread. If you want to do five dives with an instructor that encourage you to think about topics such as depth, navigation, etc., then take AOW.

... or find an instructor who teaches real skills in every class. They're out there.

Buoyancy/trim/propulsion is definitely part of my AOW course curriculum. I once had an AOW student ask me which dive was our buoyancy control dive. I said "all of them" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[The Chairman]

Lorenzoid,

I can't imagine anyone mistaking me for a DIR diver, and I mostly dive recreational. No, this is not the only way to teach diving, however it's a major part of the way I teach diving. In reality, my OW students who take AOW from me don't have a lot of trim and neutral buoyancy thrown at them: they already do this. We do take propulsion to the next level as I only introduce the frog kick in OW.

 

[dorkito]

One of the biggest takeaways from my PPB class is the ability to compensate when I'm over or under weighted. Here is what my instructor did at the beginning of the course. We started off with simple hovering: vertical, horizontal, upside down. Then he handed me a 2lb weight and we did it again. Then another 2lbs. At first it feels impossible, but after a few minutes you realize you really can compensate with lung volume. Then he had me inflate my BCD until I was comfortably neutral with the extra 4 lbs. Then (you guessed it) he took away 2lbs at a time. When we were done, I could get neutral within an +/-4lb window... 8lbs! And I used to fret over a pound or two! I had been trying to improve my buoyancy on every dive, but I don't think that on my own I would have ever been able to make the breakthroughs that my instructor facilitated.