Trace, there are lots of people who want to be pushed to be as good as they can be. Not all of them learn the same way. I have been throwing myself at the bar since the fall of 2005, but if you lambaste me for poor performance, I'm more likely to crawl off into a corner and mope than to return to try harder. On the other hand, if you remain encouraging and positive, no one works harder and longer than I do . . .
That's what I was trying to say as well. And there is nothing wrong with the "mean coach" style either..... just that it will not work for all people, and I don't like to get the impression that that style is the one or the best. It also seemed to imply that anyone not ascribing to that style must be a "grandma" a "slug" or just not even care how they move through the water (and that cannot be true, as I care, a LOT, and I'm not in the "mean coach" camp by a long shot). Yeah, I guess that's what got to me the most: The assumption that I -- or people like me -- don't care and are just moving through the water like hooked worms, not giving a toot about grace or fluidity or how we dive at all.
The whole discussion was starting to make me feel like I don't belong in diving, but then as I thought about it I felt like "no, I don't think that's true, and maybe what is true is that there is room for people who aren't that one type of diver (that was being touted)."
Blue Sparkle, please forgive Claus. I was at one time where he is. The profound dichotomy between what one sees in resort settings, or in poor quality mainstream classes, and what one sees from folks with more demanding training, makes quite a powerful impression.
I hear what you are saying. And the thing is, I have had a taste of that better quality non-mainstream training You should have heard me bargaining with my dive buddy for us to take some GUE training; I had to agree to take
two sub-par PADI classes and not roll my eyes
at all during them (I was allowed to make snarky comments while we read the books at our lodging though). (Not that all PADI classes are sub-par, but these specific ones were, in my opinion.) But I don't assume that everyone else is a slug-like grandma; actually, I tend to assume other divers are better than I am until I've seen otherwise (and they usually are, since I'm really a beginner).
I also don't like the idea of dividing divers into two camps and making derogatory remarks about the ones who are not in "my" camp. That's what I felt I needed to respond to -- not the fact that some training is sub-par, which I agree with. I'm also a strong swimmer, so it's not like I'm a poor swimmer who is just trying to justify it.
The other thing that made me keep trying to come back to explain was that both Lobzilla and Trace responded as if I were attacking them or their methods of instruction or diving, and I was not. Quite the opposite: I get the impression that both are fantastic. I was just trying to counter things such as Trace's "mean coach" method being the one way, and the way Lobzilla was sounding divisive/derisive about other divers, and that they thought I was trying to be "PC" and coddle inadequate divers, which is not what I stand for at all.
In the end I think I must not have the writing skills to convey my thoughts well, and I'm sorry to have dragged the thread along while people were probably groaning inside. I'll try not to do that again! That's a bit humbling as I have always thought I was good at explaining myself :blush: