When is a skill "mastered"?

[Wookie]

The Groupon thread has degenerated into a discussion I think is important enough to rate its own topic, When has a skill been mastered?

I only accept classes of 2 or less. It gives me time to spend with the student and make sure they know everything I think they should know, know that they won't kill themselves on their first dive out there, and know that when they show up at another operator they will have the skills and abilities so I won't be embarrassed when my name is on their c-card.

PADI tells me that the student has to demonstrate mastery of the skill. Flots am says that that means they can demonstrate the skill at some un-defined time after they were able to mimic the skill. OK, I guess, but in my case, mimicry takes place in the pool and in OW 1 and 2, while kneeling on the deck or platform. By the time OW 4 and 5 come along, I want them diving with me. Kneeling time is over, and it's diving, neutrally buoyant, demonstrating skills back to me. You see, I teach them hand signals for partial flood and clear, full flood and clear, remove and replace, etc. By the evaluation phase of dive instruction, they are no longer mimicking what I taught them, they are doing skills on their own. They are doing what PADI desires, which is demonstrating mastery of the skill, neutrally buoyant, in open water, with real fish, and real wrecks, and real other divers around them. They can go to any other operator the next day and if I get a phone call about them, it's asking why they are so good in the water instead of how come this fool has a c-card.

When do you consider your students have mastered the skill? Or, as a diver, when do you feel you have mastered the skill. I put this in Advanced Scuba Discussions so that divers could comment too.

 

[TSandM]

For OW students, we use the metric you describe. They have to be able to do the skills comfortably WHILE DIVING -- or at least, the ones you can do while diving! But we also accept that there will be losses of buoyancy control when new divers are task-loaded with skills. The deviations just have to be within what is reasonably safe (no corking).

For myself, "mastery" is a much more intensely defined thing. Mastery is the ability to reproduce a skill at any time, under any kind of reasonable (and some unreasonable) circumstances, without anything else changing at all. There have been times in the last eight years where I have approached mastery of a number of skills, but I also know that, without constant practice, I can't maintain that level of performance.

 

[hroark2112]

For me it's when it's more or less "automatic". I can do the skill when I'm not planning to do it and when I do it, it doesn't cause me stress.

If I were an instructor it would be when I felt the student could do the skill properly without advanced warning. Like your just swimming along enjoying the fish and you tell them to spit out their reg & recover it.

 

[Pullmyfinger]

Or, as a diver, when do you feel you have mastered the skill. I put this in Advanced Scuba Discussions so that divers could comment too.

I feel I have mastered the skill once I can perform that skill while hovering comfortably, with no unnecessary fin movement.

Skills are perishable. You have to practice them periodically.

I have a feeling that many feel that "mastery" has been accomplished if the diver can repeat the skill immediately after the Instructor does it.

Good thread......although we already know that "Master" and any variation of that word is very loosely defined in our little diving world.

Cheers,
Mitch

 

[ajtoady]

To me "mastered" means no or little thought is involved in the skill. The action becomes more instinct than thought process, such as breathing or blinking. Have I mastered any skills? I would like to think so, but as a reference I practice the nuances when diving, such as; mask clearing, switching regs to equalize tanks, oral inflation of my BC or wing and as always, monitoring my air and computers. I probably missed something but you get the idea. This is however just my $.05 !! $.02 is out the window due to inflation!

 

[chrpai]

If you only want an instructor to instructor answer, there is a forum for that.

As a lay person (not an instructor ), my definition of "mastery" is the brown stuff has hit the fan or some other situation where a skill was really needed and you were able to instinctively take care of business and it wasn't a big CF. You feel real good about your performance after the dive instead of that sinking feeling of "oh my, that almost didn't end well..."

I expect that's not what is suggested by the official course standards.... but in real life I think that's where I need to be.

 

[Wookie]

Interesting response from divers. You guys are harder on yourselves than I think that the training agencies would ever give the instructors time to provide. Yes, mastery implies that you can do a skill upside down, in a cave, in the dark, with sea monsters coiled tightly around your legs. That's cool, but it takes way more time than any OW class can properly provide to get to that level. It's a little more pedestrian to me. Mastery is achieved when, as an instructor, I tell you to shoot a bag. You prep your reel, pull out your bag, unfurl it, and shoot it to the surface without too much drama. The bag is fully inflated or almost so, you are heavy enough to make the bag pop upright, and you can perform your hang/deco/Safety Stop without the bag laying over. I don't need you to demonstrate that for me in a 2 knot down current with a blown diaphragm in your regulator while breathing from a free flow. Could that last scenario exist? Sure, I've seen it. But, at that point, the bag becomes an encumbrance and is better abandoned. I don't expect any OW diver to demonstrate mastery while the S is HTF, I just expect them to show me the skill with no drama. From either of us.

 

[chrpai]

I hear you. I'm not really all that hard core and hard on myself like some that I know. But I do realize that the day I "need" to pop a bag, something will have caused that need. It may not be as crazy as your scenario but whatever it will be, it'll be inducing a certain amount of stress and task loading. Therefore the bag skills need to be instinctive. As does the ability to switch to a backup mask, switch to my pony bottle, maintain the delta position and so on...

After all, it's my life and I'm the only one responsible for it. I really don't want to have to listen to my wife nag me in heaven about how I left her alone with the kids for 30 years.

 

[maniago]

*Muscle memory has no mastery. It requires continual practice.

In my current teaching job, I define "satisfactory demonstration of a muscle skill" as being done 3 times in a row without error. That's where my teaching responsibility ends and their practice responsibility begins, caveat as noted *. I'd say that's consistent with what PADI intends as mastery, but I hazard that this is a poor use of the word. If they truly mean mastery, then OW should be a year long course.....just saying.

 

[DevonDiver]

Repetition until it becomes boring. Continue until you feel the boredom of skill repetition is excruciating and intolerable.

You can 'know' a skill in 00's of repetitions.

You might ingrain the skill in 000's of repetitions.

Mastering a skill... where it happens without you realizing it... takes 0000's of repetitions.

Be aware of skill-fade. Skills diminish far quicker than they grow...

If I want to 'learn' a skill, to a level that is trustworthy, I will break it down into individual components/actions. Each component/action will be repeated 500 times. Put it together into sub-phases (if appropriate) or a complete action (if appropriate). Repeat 500 times. That's before I even get in the water...