Niki,
In order for a person to learn a new skill, it has to be DEMONSTRATED. How else would you know how to do it? Frankly, I have never found this to be a gender-specific method... it works equally well with both men and women.
However, if I am reading your statement correctly, your Instructor may not giving a thorough enough EXPLANATION of how to do a skill or a VALUE to the skill. For example partial mask flood & clear should go something like this.
Instructor: We're now going to do partial mask flood & clear. This skill can be useful [valuable] if your mask fogs up underwater & you want to clear the fog. Or if you laugh and a little water leaks into your mask. This is how we'll do the skill...
At this point the Instructor would explain & show how h/s will be demonstrating the skill. And how h/s would like YOU to perform the skill. (There may be a time element or a distance element involved in the performance requirement.)
A good Instructor will also give you information about conduct, signals, etc.
Then everyone submerges. After the Instructor makes sure everyone is safe, comfortable & paying attention, h/s will perform a demonstration of the skill. A good demo is done SLOWLY, to CLEARLY show all the key components of the skill.
After the demo, the Instructor will come to each student & signal them to perform the skill. If they have not done the skill according to performance standards (or if the student has problems) they will have to repeat the skill.
Other than direct observation, there is no way for an Instructor to tell whether or not a student is having a problem.. unless you TELL us! People can be uncomfortable with a particular skill, but still perform it properly. In this latter case we won't know if you are having a problem unless we hear it from you. Then we can suggest ways to practice the skill to enhance your comfort/confidence.
This is probably a little late in coming, but can you be a little more specific about what is bothering you? What is the Instructor doing that is causing you to be "pissed off"?
Please feel free to email me to discuss this further. This should be a positive learning experience... not a chore!
Take care, eh?!
~SubMariner~
It is ironic that it was not until I asked a lot of very specific questions that the instructor suggest exercises similar to the ones mentioned here. This instructor teaches in more of a monky see monky do kind of way which I think works for most men and does not work for most women.
In order for a person to learn a new skill, it has to be DEMONSTRATED. How else would you know how to do it? Frankly, I have never found this to be a gender-specific method... it works equally well with both men and women.
However, if I am reading your statement correctly, your Instructor may not giving a thorough enough EXPLANATION of how to do a skill or a VALUE to the skill. For example partial mask flood & clear should go something like this.
Instructor: We're now going to do partial mask flood & clear. This skill can be useful [valuable] if your mask fogs up underwater & you want to clear the fog. Or if you laugh and a little water leaks into your mask. This is how we'll do the skill...
At this point the Instructor would explain & show how h/s will be demonstrating the skill. And how h/s would like YOU to perform the skill. (There may be a time element or a distance element involved in the performance requirement.)
A good Instructor will also give you information about conduct, signals, etc.
Then everyone submerges. After the Instructor makes sure everyone is safe, comfortable & paying attention, h/s will perform a demonstration of the skill. A good demo is done SLOWLY, to CLEARLY show all the key components of the skill.
After the demo, the Instructor will come to each student & signal them to perform the skill. If they have not done the skill according to performance standards (or if the student has problems) they will have to repeat the skill.
Other than direct observation, there is no way for an Instructor to tell whether or not a student is having a problem.. unless you TELL us! People can be uncomfortable with a particular skill, but still perform it properly. In this latter case we won't know if you are having a problem unless we hear it from you. Then we can suggest ways to practice the skill to enhance your comfort/confidence.
P.S. if anyone has ever had to go to a diving instruction and been completely pissd off at the instructor and had to get through the session with extream skill and confidence eventhough you want to scream,, please tell me how you did it because I have to do it in less than 3 hours.
This is probably a little late in coming, but can you be a little more specific about what is bothering you? What is the Instructor doing that is causing you to be "pissed off"?
Please feel free to email me to discuss this further. This should be a positive learning experience... not a chore!
Take care, eh?!
~SubMariner~