How do you incorporate focused practice into your diving?

[boulderjohn]

Someone will jump in with the official name of the phenomenon I am about to describe, which essentially is that people who are not themselves highly competent in an activity are not able to judge high levels of competence and will frequently mistake mediocrity for a high skill level. I think a lot of that is at play with the people who scoff at the need for advanced instruction and say "just go out and dive."

If someone learns to dive in a typical resort environment and then spends 20 years diving in a variety of typical resort environments, that person will become accustomed to the various levels of diving typically found there. That person may accurately perceive himself or herself to be among the best of that lot of divers. Speaking for myself, I was an instructor with several hundred dives before I did any serious diving outside of such an environment, and I thought I was pretty good. In that context, I was pretty darn good. It would be very easy for such a diver to think, "Hey, I got to the top by just diving, so anyone else can, too."

But then that diver may decide to go a different route--say real technical diving, cave diving, etc. While laying line in a high silt environment, the tanks scraping the cave ceiling and the stomach an inch or two from the silt below, that diver may realize that the skills required to do that without kicking up a silt whirlwind are different from those required to swim with the body at a 45° angle while 10 feet away from a coral reef. My entry into tech diving gave me my first glimpse of the kind of skills that requires, and I was thoroughly humiliated.

So, yes, if you aspire to be the kind of diver who only dives at vacations at tropical resorts, then you can be among the best with only experience as your guide. If you want to go beyond that, you are going to need some guidance.

 

[KevinNM]

Dunning–Kruger effect

 

[FinnMom]

If you are going to just go diving, you are probably going to spend a lot of time at the same place(s) that is/are closest to home. Enjoy most of the dive to provide fun, peace and postive reinforcement for taking the time & effort to go out and dive. Do spend a little time on each dive practising something.
One idea: As one person said "..rapid deployment of your dSMB using your exhausted air". This is not hard to learn and a fine idea for cold water diving, it reinforces the ideas of not encouraging freeflows by purging air and not removing your mouthpiece without genuine need. Send up your SBM at the end of every dive and in just a dozen dives the only challenging part of using one will be rolling it back up and stowing it while still underwater.
Don't dream up anything crazy or dumb, but every now & then do try something you have not done in a long time. Old threads here will provide many ideas and detailed descriptions of good drills.

 

[victorzamora]

Someone will jump in with the official name of the phenomenon I am about to describe, which essentially is that people who are not themselves highly competent in an activity are not able to judge high levels of competence and will frequently mistake mediocrity for a high skill level. I think a lot of that is at play with the people who scoff at the need for advanced instruction and say "just go out and dive."

And this is what I was poorly attempting to allude to earlier. It certainly describes my first couple hundred dives.

 

[RJP]

If someone learns to dive in a typical resort environment and then spends 20 years diving in a variety of typical resort environments, that person will become accustomed to the various levels of diving typically found there. That person may accurately perceive himself or herself to be among the best of that lot of divers.

Tallest-Midget Syndrome

 

[mhattenhauer]

Being OW certified less than a week, I am thoroughly enjoying this thread. I have been replaying my dives in my head and know that I am nowhere near being a competent diver. To me, the OW class was kinda like putting training wheels on a bike. Although you can ride it, you need more instruction and practice before removing the training wheels. Looking back I know obvious areas I need to work on, but without further training on how to fix these problems I will never be proficient.

 

[AfterDark]

Being OW certified less than a week, I am thoroughly enjoying this thread. I have been replaying my dives in my head and know that I am nowhere near being a competent diver. To me, the OW class was kinda like putting training wheels on a bike. Although you can ride it, you need more instruction and practice before removing the training wheels. Looking back I know obvious areas I need to work on, but without further training on how to fix these problems I will never be proficient.

Just for my own curiosity when you use the words “further training” do you mean formal instructor led classes or practice or as I put it, drills? If a diver knows how to perform the skills formal instructor led classes aren’t necessary. The diver just needs to drill the skills in order for the skills to become second nature.

OP the advice to dive more is often given with the caveat that it be done with a mentor so as to challenge skills by doing dives that new divers may not feel comfortable doing with others of their own skill level. Not “trust me diving” but “help me to learn dives”. Just diving more at ones level isn’t going to teach advanced skills; with drills however it will serve to sharpen those already learned and understood, IMO.

 

[mhattenhauer]

Just for my own curiosity when you use the words “further training” do you mean formal instructor led classes or practice or as I put it, drills? If a diver knows how to perform the skills formal instructor led classes aren’t necessary. The diver just needs to drill the skills in order for the skills to become second nature.
OP the advice to dive more is often given with the caveat that it be done with a mentor so as to challenge skills by doing dives that new divers may not feel comfortable doing with others of their own skill level. Not “trust me diving” but “help me to learn dives”. Just diving more at ones level isn’t going to teach advanced skills; with drills however it will serve to sharpen those already learned and understood, IMO.

I guess it would be both practice and training. Better Buoyancy control would come with more practice since I understand the concept. Getting my trim right would need the help of a good instructor plus practice. I learn better by seeing and doing rather than just reading. I understand the concept of adjusting trim from research but I like to have a hands on experience to lock it into my brain. At the same time I'm sure that being more comfortable through practice would help with my breathing which would in turn help with trim and buoyancy. Thinking about it, I guess it's a mixed bag since an instructor can only do so much. The rest is up to the individual to practice and hone the skills the instructor teaches. To me it would help receiving constructive criticism from a knowledgeable person on my technique. There really is no one way or the other answer to this thread. Instruction and practice goes hand in hand. You need the instruction so you know how to practice and the practice is what improves the skills.

 

[AfterDark]

Instruction and practice goes hand in hand. You need the instruction so you know how to practice and the practice is what improves the skills.

Exactly!

A good mentor would be able to get help get trim right. IMO formal instruction is only for required certifications. After 40 years of diving I decided in order to avoid issues with operators to take AOW, I slept thru the classroom part and was unchallenged by the in water part also, but I got my AOW so now I can go on dives I've been doing for 30+years without issues. I didn't need formal instructors to teach me advanced skills because I had several very experienced and helpful mentors during my 1st decade of diving that taught me more than I would have learned in any AOW class I took.

 

[mhattenhauer]

I don't have any friends or family that dive so my option for learning will be through certifications at least until I make some new friends. Lol