2007 Skydiver's Information Manual
A United States Parachute Association Publication

Section 4: Articles

Mental Relaxation: The Key to Body Flight

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In the early Categories, like a magic mantra, you'll hear over and over again from your instructors: "Altitude, arch, legs, relax." Managing all four points at once is the key to controlled freefall.

After altitude awareness, relaxing is your key goal. It takes only a little push from the hips to get an effective arch, and you usually need to extend your legs only a little to get use of them in the wind. But you need to relax your other muscles a lot.

So how can a brand-new skydiver relax in such an adrenaline-charged, exciting, and new environment?

Sports psychologists all recognize the value of staying loose and mentally relaxed for peak performance. Many describe ways to achieve a state of prepared relaxation. Each athlete learns to develop one technique and uses it to gain that state before and maintain it during every performance.

Almost all the techniques begin with slower, deeper, controlled breathing. Learn to breathe from deep in your lungs, using the muscles of your diaphragm. Practice breathing in slowly until your lungs are full and then emptying your lungs completely when you breathe out.

While you practice controlled breathing, you can use one of several suggested devices to relax your mind and your body:

• Imagine yourself in a familiar, comfortable place, trying to visualize every sensual experience that you can associate with it: sight, sound, odor, taste, and touch. Picture the colors of the background and the details, try to smell the air as it would be, imagine you hear the sounds, and feel the air on your face. Imagine you just took a sip of your favorite drink.
  
  
• Relax your body part by part, starting with your toes, then your ankles, calves, thighs, hips, abdomen, etc., spending five to ten seconds in each place while continuing your controlled breathing.
  
  
• Count up to ten with each breath and then backward to zero.
  

There are many other relaxation techniques you can borrow or develop, but choose one and practice it until you perfect it, even when you're not skydiving. That way, you can relax yourself quickly and effectively whenever the need arises--such as just before a skydive.

You should continue controlling your breathing as you're getting ready to jump. Move slowly and deliberately in the aircraft as you approach the door and get into position, not only for safety but to help you maintain your relaxed, prepared state for the jump. Take another breath just before you actually launch from the aircraft and again to help you settle into freefall as soon as you let go. Make breathing part of every sequence, especially as you go through your "altitude, arch, legs, relax" sequence.

While skydiving is inherently a high-speed sport, you'll notice that the best skydivers never do anything in a hurry.

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Did you know that done properly, visualizing what you're about to do can be as effective as practicing it for real? Studies show that the only part of an athlete's performance that visualization won't help is gaining the strength necessary to perform the task.

Exercise is hard and skydiving is expensive, but visualization is cheap and easy. To begin, go where you can relax and where distractions won't affect you. (Potential distractions may be all around, but you can train your mind to tune them out.) Breathe rhythmically and slowly and recall or imagine a pleasant experience or moment where you are calm and very comfortable.

Then, imagine your upcoming performance exactly as you want it to occur. Start from the beginning, which includes moving to the door of the aircraft, and imagine your actions through to the end. You should even visualize your descent under canopy.

Visualize every detail: where you will place your hands and feet in the door, the cold air rushing in, the noise of the plane, the clean smell of the air, the feel of the aircraft metal on your hands, and everything you can associate with the upcoming experience.

Imagine how you will move every part of your body during the count and exit and how you will feel as you fly away from the plane. Think of where you will position your hands, feet, head, and torso, particularly as you explore techniques for maneuvering in freefall. Visualize every move, including looking at the ground, checking your altimeter, and seeing your instructors.

Some athletes visualize the upcoming performance from their point of view, while others visualize as if they were watching themselves on TV from above or alongside.

Visualize in slow motion or real time, but no faster. See your performance as one continuous flowing action, rather than as snapshots. As you visualize your actions, associate the motions by feigning the small movements with your hands or your legs with each action ("twitch") as you mentally rehearse the performance.

Leave yourself a few minutes to take in the sights and sounds on the way to altitude, but keep your performance first on your mind. The jumpers who succeed best all practice their routines on the climb to altitude, so you shouldn't feel out of place. Just look around at the others doing the same thing!

At this stage of your training, your performance requires as much of your attention as any skydiver training for competition. Use these same visualization tips that help top athletes in skydiving and other sports to help you improve your performance and increase your overall satisfaction from each jump.

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Before earning a USPA A license, you are expected to learn to spot in routine conditions. "Spotting" simply means choosing the opening point and guiding the pilot to the correct position over the ground for exit. You can calculate the spot from a winds-aloft report. FAA Flight Service provides these reports, which you can get from the pilot.

When you're in the door before exit, spotting starts with determining exactly what's straight down and how the plane is moving across the ground. A good spotter's training never ends.
Here are some tips for beginners:

1. Be familiar with the DZ and surrounding area, including the correct exit and opening points for the day's conditions. The USPA Instructor will simply tell you at first and then show you how to figure it for yourself later.

2. Look out of the aircraft, obviously done best with the door open and your head all the way outside. Small aircraft give you more opportunities to practice spotting. In larger aircraft, your instructor will arrange some door time. First, just get comfortable looking out. Put your head all the way out into the windstream.

3. Identify the DZ, the climbout point, and exit point from the open door of the aircraft. Point them out to your instructor or coach.

4. Look straight down, using horizon reference points. Avoid using the aircraft as a reference. On jump run, the plane is often climbing, banking, skidding, or crabbing.

5. Determine the track of the aircraft. Once you can identify two points straight below the plane on jump run, you know the actual path of the aircraft across the ground. If you see that it will take you too far to the left or right, suggest a correction to the one supervising your jump, who will relay your corrections to the pilot.

6. Allow enough time (distance) for your climbout and set-up to separate you from other jumpers. Learn when to climb out.

Soon, you'll give directions to the pilot under supervision. After a while, the USPA Instructor or Coach won't interfere unless your spotting appears unsafe.

Your spotting training will require several jumps, and the staff will log your progress. Spot as often as you can during your training as a student so you'll feel confident later when you're on your own.

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Skydiving is a sport for individualists who like to do things together. In the first portion of the USPA Integrated Student Program, Categories A-E, you focused on the skills required to survive independent freefall: stability control, deployment at the correct altitude, landing in a clear area, and how to use the equipment.

The remaining three categories, F-H, prepare you for more advanced freefall control. More importantly, you get ready for skydiving in groups-in freefall and under canopy.

Your education continues in canopy flight, equipment, and aircraft skills essential for safety. Soon, you'll graduate and become independent of supervision. Detailed review also continues on the emergency procedures introduced in the first-jump course.

With the direct assistance of other qualified staff members, such as the USPA Coach, the USPA Instructor continues to supervise your training and monitor your progress during all remaining student jumps until you obtain your USPA A license.

The freefall portions of Categories F through H address group flying techniques and skills. Under the supervision of a USPA Instructor, A USPA Coach may train you for the freefall skills in these last three categories and accompany you in freefall.

After completing all training and jumps at the end of Category H, you may sign up for a USPA A-license check dive with a USPA Instructor.

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