Fun as a Training Standard...

[The Chairman]

This was actually mentioned in a thread on arrogant tech divers and I thought it was a worthy discussion on its own.

Why isn't "Fun" a part of industry training standards? It's definitely a part of mine.

Last night while driving home, I had a call with Richard Black, a good friend and confidant. Richard and I were bemoaning the fact that many, many instructors teach students on their knees. He went on to bemoan the "fact" that training has been dumbed down and I think I surprised him with my "no, it hasn't" response. It's my most humble opinion that training has indeed been smartened up, not dumbed down. Is it less onerous? Certainly. Are there fewer skills? Maybe, but the truly essential skills remain and some others are still evolving. In fact, the most essential skills, trim, buoyancy and propulsion, have never had this much emphasis during OW training in my lifetime.

It's my belief that current dive training practices are only accidentally giving what our customers want: fun. Sometimes they actually detract from that fun. I believe it's time we actively focused on putting the fun back into the fundamentals of diving. Yes, I believe that training should be fun, fun, fun. That doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be thorough or pertinent. In fact, I think training should be adjusted to maximise fun at all times. I believe this so much, that my second rule of diving is nicknamed "The Rule of Fun". It states that you can call a dive at any time, for any reason, with no questions asked and no repercussions. IOW, if you aren't having fun, you should stop and figure out why. I emphasize that this applies to training dives just as it does to regular dives. If you're not having fun, call the dive!

How do I make sure my students are having fun? First I try to keep everyone busy in the pool. OK, OK, I learned it as a Boy Scout leader, that if your kids aren't busy, then they're bored. Consequently, I try to limit my classes to four or less so I can always keep my students engaged. A class of two is perfect! If I have to remedy a skill, I give the rest of the class practice skills. Yes, a lot of that is simply doing laps, but fun laps with a purpose. Everybody has to have something they are working on: no exceptions!

Secondly, and again something I learned as a Scout Leader: make training a game with a purpose. It can be simple like my finger game. FWIW, my students aren't allowed to lie, kneel or stand while on the bottom while on Scuba. They have to remain neutral in the 'Scuba Position'. If they find themselves about to hit the floor, they are allowed to use only one finger to support themselves and they have to pretend that they are touching a dead spot on the reef. However, a finger only gets to be used once! Ergo, they have only ten touches for the class. so far, no student has run out of fingers so it works. I also require my students to play underwater Jenga, where we build houses with soft weights. How many stories can you manage? This teaches them to hover, to deal with fluctuating weights in their hands while using their lungs and not their BC. Boy do they laugh. It's a game with a purpose.

Thirdly, and sorry for the repetition, yet another thing I learned as a Scout Leader, is that training has to be challenging. Fun and challenging are not mutually exclusive but rather go hand in hand. This also means that my training has to be adaptive. Nervous divers are going to do some buddy breathing and in fact, we'll be buddy breathing and swimming the length of the pool. Any skill that uncovers a deficit, is going to get special attention. Exceptionally quick learners are going to be pushed to do even more. Yes, I teach the frog kick in my classes and if you're very adept with it, you'll learn to kick backwards too... yes in OW. That means none of my classes are exactly the same and I like it like that. In additinon, all of my students have to be able to maintain perfect trim and buoyancy throughout their dives. Their graduation from the pool means they can pick up at least four pounds and breathe that extra weight neutral without having to touch their BC. Challenging is fun, and I challenge my teaching skills in every class too. No need to get bored myself.

Fourthly, and you'll never guess where I got this from, OW sessions are not about training: they are about my students showing off the skills they learned in the pool. Yeah, this needs to be fun too, so one gets to OW without "passing" CW. That means they have had to master all their skills first before they get to go to OW. After all, if their skills aren't great, then they are going to be scared in OW and that's not fun! I also have to admit that I hate it when I see other instructors park their students in a circle and go through all the skills they did in CW. What's the point in doing these skills in a serial fashion? No, I want to see my students using those skills as they are needed, in situ. Their "training" dives should be reflective of all their following dives: one descent, a dive, and one ascent with a five-minute safety stop. Set the example you want your students to follow and show them how to dive. Verticle CESAs fly in the face of this, and I'm glad that the agency I use doesn't allow them. It's my opinion that the best thing an instructor can do for their students is to set a great example. This includes trim, buoyancy, propulsion, situational awareness and having fun... oodles and oodles of fun.

So why post this in Basic and not I2I? I think that OW students should have an idea that fun classes exist and how this instructor makes it that way. I invite input on what students liked and didn't like in their class as well as how other instructors deliver the fun in their classes. After all, I wouldn't mind picking up another game or approach to put even more fun into my classes.

 

[txgoose]

I suspect that you have this, so this isn’t a directive at you but rather other instructors that might read along. Your outcome is fun, but it is the underlying foundation that gets it there, games that enhance skills, etc. A huge contributor to that foundation, IMO, will be patience. At one of our local “training” lakes (mud hole) I have witnessed numerous instructors berating their students. “If you aren’t able to do this skill this time, you’ll have to redo the class.” Etc, etc. While I absolutely understand time being money, I also think that if an instructor was worth their salt, they would have six tricks to try for most any issue. Offer tips, tricks, and a calm voice rather than ultimatums. Because, I have also seen an instructor be patient and give my wife a new hobby, and in a way a new life.

 

[Wookie]

Why would anyone learn to dive if it isn't fun? This seems intuitively obvious to me. Even commercial divers have fun in school. There may be a bit of drudgery learning tables or gas theory or deco theory, but it's still fun.

 

[txgoose]

Why would anyone learn to dive if it isn't fun? This seems intuitively obvious to me. Even commercial divers have fun in school. There may be a bit of drudgery learning tables or gas theory or deco theory, but it's still fun.

In my limited experience, it appeared to be peer/money pressure for a big vacation that folks had planned. I suspect more than one of them was thinking, “When we get done in <insert tropical destination here>, I will never do this again.”

 

[The Chairman]

While I absolutely understand time being money, I also think that if an instructor was worth their salt, they would have six tricks to try for most any issue.

Part of it is to anticipate and deal with those issues before they occur. The biggest stopping point in any class is when a student can't clear their mask. It appeared to me that we were asking too much of our students and introduced several new things all at once, any of which can torpedo the exercise. So, many, many moons ago, I started teaching mask clearing off of scuba in the kiddie pool. No scuba, no snorkel and no fins are allowed. Waist deep, I have students fill their masks full of water, put them on their face and stand. Then we have a conversation... how deep is 3 atmospheres? What's Boyles law? All while their mask is full of water. Why? This isolates the biggest problem with people having their mask off in the water: not breathing water through their nose. They aren't being distracted by breathing off of Scuba or being afraid underwater or anything else. Once they can speak without choking, I tell them the mermaid joke: why do mermaids wear seashells? Because B shells are too small! Normally, they snort and clear their mask on the spot. Ah, a learning moment that was kind of fun.

 

[txgoose]

I need a “like a whole heck of a lot” button. On behalf of all the students that don’t realize what you gave them, thank you, sir!

 

[Jack Hammer]

"Fun" should be a part of training. And I've found it in different parts of most my training. It's a mixed bag, though. Some of the poorest trained divers I've witnessed came out of classes that were a lot of "Fun" to take. There needs to be a balance between actual learning and enjoyment. The same folks who ruin OW training by churning out poorly trained divers to the bare minimum standards are the same ones who give me pause about a "Fun" standard.

 

[The Chairman]

Why would anyone learn to dive if it isn't fun?

They expect fun after the fact. I make it fun throughout training. It doesn't have to include drudgery.

 

[Wookie]

They expect fun after the fact. I make it fun throughout training. It doesn't have to include drudgery.

How do you teach deco theory then? Or tables? Or Haldane?

I'm guessing you don't, maybe in pursuit of fun?

 

[The Chairman]

How do you teach deco theory then?

I definitely like online learning in this regard and have no desire to be the sage on the stage. My time with my students is spent on skills, safety and fun. In that regard, I do push the safe use of a PDC, 5-minute safety stops (tissue groups) and gas planning (determining SAC and how that relates to dive planning). At the OW level, I see no need to distract them with knowledge or skills that they can't use right away. There's no need to overwhelm them when I'm trying to produce a diver who simply wants to have fun.