I recently saw a thread which included a brief debate on whether or not an instructor should spin a student at the beginning of a lost line drill. I thought I might start a thread with a post from the perspective of a student who is also a specialist in educational theory.
Although it may seem obvious that instruction is supposed to prepare students for their assessment (especially a real life "assessment"), in reality many instructional practices not only fail to provide the best instruction, they may actually be counterproductive. Students can actually be better off without the instructional activity in which they are engaged. An example is what you see in a typical youth soccer practice. Players stand facing each other in pairs, passing a ball back and forth. If you examine everything they are doing carefully, you will realize that this is absolutely nothing like what happens in a game, and this drill teaches and reinforces bad habits. A simple keep away game teaches much better because the players learn to move, look, anticipate, and touch in the ways it is done in a game.
When I did my first lost line drill, I assumed I would be spun, so when I was not, I essentially spun myself. I did not pay attention to the way I was being led while blind, and when I was left alone I intentionally erased any thoughts of where the line might be and started off blindly. In retrospect, I think I chose my starting direction based on what would work best in relation to my clumsy tie off. I found the line, but, in the words of my instructor, it was not pretty.
Eventually my instructor was able to impress on me that a critical skill is taking the time to make a decision about the most likely location of the line and acting accordingly. That meant thinking about my body orientation, my previous direction of travel, and the location of the line when I had last seen it.
Spinning the student removes that learning. You have no choice but to strike out blindly. A lost line drill of that kind does not teach a critical skill and in fact teaches the opposite.
It is true that a diver may indeed become disoriented and will be unable to make that decision. In that case, the diver has simply lost a step in the process. There is no benefit to training that way because there is no additional skill gained by being disoriented.
In summary, as a student who wants to be best prepared for such an emergency, I would argue for no spinning because it teaches an important skill, whereas spinning adds no benefit and does not teach that important skill.
Although it may seem obvious that instruction is supposed to prepare students for their assessment (especially a real life "assessment"), in reality many instructional practices not only fail to provide the best instruction, they may actually be counterproductive. Students can actually be better off without the instructional activity in which they are engaged. An example is what you see in a typical youth soccer practice. Players stand facing each other in pairs, passing a ball back and forth. If you examine everything they are doing carefully, you will realize that this is absolutely nothing like what happens in a game, and this drill teaches and reinforces bad habits. A simple keep away game teaches much better because the players learn to move, look, anticipate, and touch in the ways it is done in a game.
When I did my first lost line drill, I assumed I would be spun, so when I was not, I essentially spun myself. I did not pay attention to the way I was being led while blind, and when I was left alone I intentionally erased any thoughts of where the line might be and started off blindly. In retrospect, I think I chose my starting direction based on what would work best in relation to my clumsy tie off. I found the line, but, in the words of my instructor, it was not pretty.
Eventually my instructor was able to impress on me that a critical skill is taking the time to make a decision about the most likely location of the line and acting accordingly. That meant thinking about my body orientation, my previous direction of travel, and the location of the line when I had last seen it.
Spinning the student removes that learning. You have no choice but to strike out blindly. A lost line drill of that kind does not teach a critical skill and in fact teaches the opposite.
It is true that a diver may indeed become disoriented and will be unable to make that decision. In that case, the diver has simply lost a step in the process. There is no benefit to training that way because there is no additional skill gained by being disoriented.
In summary, as a student who wants to be best prepared for such an emergency, I would argue for no spinning because it teaches an important skill, whereas spinning adds no benefit and does not teach that important skill.
- this looks like a really interesting thread IMHO.
