How do you incorporate focused practice into your diving?

[kr2y5]

I have said these exact words to some people (LCF I believe might have been one of them many years ago)...

At certain times in every divers development... you need to stop worrying about your skills at that level and just go dive and have fun and realize the world is a big place with lots of people and fish in it (71% of the globe) and that by gaining some dive life experience you will round out what you already know and develop soft skills that you didn't realize were important and just generally remember why you are diving (to see interesting things right?)

After a few dives (5, 20, 50) you are way better prepared to practice again in a more formal or controlled atmosphere. To my knowledge I have only felt like I have offered this recommendation when it seemed like there was a bit too much head banging going on with the practice, too much frustration, an excessive focus on one issue to the potential detriment of being well rounded, and not enough fun which leads to burnout and quitting the sport.

So no, the skill probably won't improve a lot by "just diving more". But does it need to? Is it good enough to go have some fun and fall in love with fish (or wet rocks) again?

I guess a lot depends on how a person is wired, and we are all wired a little differently. Those of us who are wired for problem solving, when faced with a challenge, want to break it down into pieces, and knock them down one by one. Advice that does not feel very actionable or not too specific, and does not seem to want to break into pieces, does not "compute", and can feel pretty frustrating. But, I see your point. One can get obsessed with self-improvement to the point of burnout, and burnout is real...

 

[TSandM]

Burnout is real. And people like you and me are particularly susceptible to it. I have seen all too many people, in the last ten years, march through the training sequence, practicing and practicing for this class or the next class . . . and when they run out of classes, they buy a motorcycle.

Years ago, when I first found ScubaBoard, there were articles on the front page, and one of them was entitled something like, "What do you do when blowing bubbles isn't enough?". The thesis of the article was that you have to find a reason why you dive; diving, in and of itself, is not enough for many people. You can take up photography, or exploration, or do fish counts, or try to hit every dive resort in the tropics. But you have to find something. For the people I've watched, the training and practice IS the reason they dive, and when they run out of reasons to drill, they've run out of reasons to dive.

I also watched someone I know fail to pass a GUE class, and get so discouraged that he gradually dropped out of diving altogether, which is the other side of being a problem-solving, analytical perfectionist. I have had to come to terms with the fact that I'm not as perfect a diver as I would like to be -- but I'm a safe diver, and a happy diver, and that's as much as I can ask.

Don't get too wound up in the skills as a goal in and of themselves. Richard is quite right, and yes, he did tell me that, years ago.

 

[boulderjohn]

At certain times in every divers development... you need to stop worrying about your skills at that level and just go dive and have fun and realize the world is a big place with lots of people and fish in it (71% of the globe) and that by gaining some dive life experience you will round out what you already know and develop soft skills that you didn't realize were important and just generally remember why you are diving (to see interesting things right?)

As I have said before, when my experience was solely with warm water resort diving, I thought I was pretty darn good, and starting tech training was a slap of reality. Many certifications later, I have a more realistic view of where I stand in the spectrum of diving skill. I know I am much farther from the top than I thought I was many hundreds of dives ago. Diving with people like Edd Sorenson, Jim Wyatt, Bryan Kakuk, Natalie Gibb, and too many others to mention has made it very clear that I am not remotely near that level of skill and I can never hope to be at that level of skill given my age and the diving opportunities afforded me in Colorado. As humbling as it is, it also comes with a sense of peace and acceptance. I am good enough to do the kind of diving I do, and I am very aware of the kind of diving I am not good enough to do. I know my skills are perishable, so I practice enough to maintain them, but I don't feel I have to struggle constantly to attain the unattainable.

 

[Storker]

Diving with people like Edd Sorenson, Jim Wyatt, Bryan Kakuk, Natalie Gibb, and too many others to mention has made it very clear that I am not remotely near that level of skill and I can never hope to be at that level of skill given my age and the diving opportunities afforded me in Colorado. As humbling as it is, it also comes with a sense of peace and acceptance. I am good enough to do the kind of diving I do, and I am very aware of the kind of diving I am not good enough to do.

The Danish poet Piet Hein is often quoted over here: "Å vite hva man ikke vet - er dog en slags allvitenhet" ("To know what you don't know is, however, a kind of omniscience". Too bad the poetry of the choice of words doesn't translate).

 

[victorzamora]

As I have said before, when my experience was solely with warm water resort diving, I thought I was pretty darn good, and starting tech training was a slap of reality. Many certifications later, I have a more realistic view of where I stand in the spectrum of diving skill. I know I am much farther from the top than I thought I was many hundreds of dives ago. Diving with people like Edd Sorenson, Jim Wyatt, Bryan Kakuk, Natalie Gibb, and too many others to mention has made it very clear that I am not remotely near that level of skill and I can never hope to be at that level of skill given my age and the diving opportunities afforded me in Colorado. As humbling as it is, it also comes with a sense of peace and acceptance. I am good enough to do the kind of diving I do, and I am very aware of the kind of diving I am not good enough to do. I know my skills are perishable, so I practice enough to maintain them, but I don't feel I have to struggle constantly to attain the unattainable.

I tell two stories of remembering to keep humble. One is of a (very attractive) young woman beating the crap out of me, despite me being 8" taller and 100lbs heavier than her (martial arts class, before you get ideas). The other is of my first day of cavern diving. I was in the top tier of divers (in my own mind) until I realized I had been diving in the kiddie pool.