Teaching it Neutral Style... a paradigm shift in Scuba instruction

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As a newer diver myself I can attest to wishing I had been taught neutral and in trim to begin with. My wife and I were planted on the bottom like so many others and it basically sucked. When we got thru our skills we went on the final dive that was supposed to be a tour of the area we were training in. My wife was doing much better than I was although she was pretty close to bottom the entire dive with her fins kicking up even more silt. As for me, I was up then I was down and then up and down again. I was wearing a 7/8mm one piece wetsuit in 55°F saltwater with the visibility extending to about 5' at best. I was stoked that I was actually diving but aggravated that I could not stay with our DiveCon and my wife. After being here on Scubaboard for a while I found myself reading threads like this one talking about neutral buoyancy being in proper trim. I started trying to learn as much as I could including watching YouTube videos on DIR/GUE/UTD techniques. I even talked to Pete via PM and asked about taking his class. Pete suggested that we would be better served by talking to another Scubaboard member that teaches in similar fashion to Pete but in our local waters that we normally dive. We called NWGratefuldiver and made plans to meet up with him and learn new skills. His skills course was huge for us and it was a fantastic feeling to finally know what is was like to be neutral. Thanks Pete for the good advice...NWGratefuldiver's skills course was great. Now we feel comfortable in both warm water and cold. We continue to dive local and have been to Cozumel for a vacation, next up is Roatan. As far as I am concerned, teachin g neutral buoyancy right from the start is the only way to go.

Dive on, Dive safe!!!
 
I love this thread for several reasons. It's alleviated a lot of the frustrations I have with PADI and new diver training in general.
 
AFAIK PADI has not changed the standards to mandate teaching neutral during IDCs, but rather merely encourage teaching neutral in general? Correct me if I'm mistaken on this. I read that piece in the UJ you are referring to and was heartened to see that some PADI instructors care enough (or know enough) to teach students proper skills, but the shop I did my OW with 2 years taught me on my knees and still do so to this day.

I have been very busy for the last week and just found out about this thread. In fact, as I write, NetDoc is in the chair to my right, Mselenaous is on the sofa to my left, and Jim Wyatt is in the chair to her left, so I am in good company.

No, PADI did not require it, but the degree to which they have advocated it is frankly encouraging. Peter mentioned the publication process we followed. It involved a LOT of discussions with PADI leadership. In that discussion, I got the very clear sense that the idea was new, and they were a bit defensive about the status quo. There is a sentence in the article that was inserted at their insistence, saying that it was OK to introduce skills on the knees as long as a transition was made to teaching the skill horizontal and neutral, preferably in the same session. I accepted it in order to get the article published. I was actually shocked when they advocated the horizontal approach in the new standards less than two years later. I attended a regional forum with our regional director, and he made a strong statement about how much better students learned through this methodology.

Years ago I was a staff developer for a large public school district. My job was to try to convince teachers to adopt revolutionary new (and highly effective) methods. It was like shoveling against the tide. I learned that as long as they are allowed to do what they have always done, they will continue with the familiar routines until they see the difference with their own eyes. The same is true of scuba instruction. Until old-style instructors see it done differently and see how much difference it makes, they are unlikely to change.

---------- Post added September 27th, 2015 at 03:31 PM ----------

Then I met John and several others on Scubaboard who were already doing this in one form or another. We connected and decided to write an article about it. Thankfully John is both persuasive and a bonafide expert in educational theory with a Phd to back it up. He wrote the article, talked extensively to PADI and we were eventually allowed to publish. I guess they must have tried it out because shortly thereafter they announced that the standards would be adjusted.

It had to be my persuasive B.S.--I don't have a Ph.D.
 
John was kind of sceptical of this at first, and now he's one of our poster boys. Instructors, the more you incorporate any of these ideas, the easier your job will become. No one who has tried has given up on it to my knowledge. Even those who didn't have a mentor to help them figure it all out seem to make it work and are pleased with the results. The only issue might be your sore butt from kicking yourself for not trying this earlier.
 
John was kind of sceptical of this at first, and now he's one of our poster boys. Instructors, the more you incorporate any of these ideas, the easier your job will become. No one who has tried has given up on it to my knowledge. Even those who didn't have a mentor to help them figure it all out seem to make it work and are pleased with the results. The only issue might be your sore butt from kicking yourself for not trying this earlier.
I was--that was quite a few years ago.

I began to experiment first with refresher classes. I figured, hey, they're already certified, they should be able to do this. Then I did it with Discover Scuba, and when I realized I could get students in a 1.5 hour Discover Scuba pool session looking better than the students finishing the full confined water sessions for the OW course, I was convinced I needed to make a change.
 
It was doing DSDs as a DM when I first started it.
 
How does this work in a current? Keeping your students firmly planted on the bottom, would seem to simplify things in this type of condition.
 
How does this work in a current? Keeping your students firmly planted on the bottom, would seem to simplify things in this type of condition.

An OW course probably shouldn't be taught in an area with current sufficient to disrupt the class to the extent that students need to be firmly planted on the bottom.
 
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