The first topic is brain locks.
Brain locks happen to pretty much everybody, and for sure to us as well. One important part of 4-way training is to learn to minimize and deal with brain locks when they happen.
How to minimize brain locks: One great tip we got (amongst many) during an Airspeed camp was from Eric Gin. He helped us realize that the reason we brain lock sometimes is simply because we were thinking of something else instead of the next point. While you are having those thoughts, you miss what's currently happening and what needs to happen next. Now you've lost the dive! It can be from very different thoughts: I was too low, damn they hosed me on that one, wow this jump is going great, huh I see the plane diving at the horizon, ouch my knee just hit the wall in the tunnel and it hurts, etc....
The key is to identify what makes you brain lock in the first place. Next time you have a brain lock on a dive, during the debrief, think back to the dive and what you were thinking about immediately before the brain lock. This will help you determine what types of thoughts get you in trouble. Once you've identified what it is, next time you start to feel yourself thinking those thoughts, you can stop them before they result in a brain lock. Once you start training yourself to control those thoughts and anticipate the next point as soon as the current formation is complete or almost complete no matter what else happens, brain locks become less and less frequent. It takes some practice, but after a while, it becomes much easier.
How to deal with brain locks: Well, here you are with an empty look desperately trying to remember where to go next. First thing: stay calm. Take a deep breath if you feel you start loosing it. Look at the formation and try to recognize what it is. Then, you should be able to identify where you need to go. As you are moving to your position, think about the next point. That's it, you are back in the dive!
Brain locks happen to everyone, so it's no big deal. Never, ever give a hard time to someone who brain locks. It just adds unnecessary pressure that will make things worst. In our team, we actually laugh about it and sometimes make fun eye contact communication
during the next page when we are training. If someone in your team brain locks more often than most, it might simply be because he/she doesn't know about the ideas explained above. Simply talk about it and help him/her find a way to improve. It's just part of the learning process. Everyone on the team will have many things like this to overcome, and it is usually different for everyone (brain locks, certain blocks, etc). Help each other and focus on your areas for improvement.
A few additional hints for minimizing and dealing with brain lock are:
- Knowing the formation by letters and numbers: we found it so much easier to remember a dive that way: B-C-D is easier to remember than Stair step Diamond-Murphy Flake-Yuan
- Visualization: If you read any article about competitive edge in any sport, you will find this. Since our time in the air is limited, it's a really powerful way to get familiar with the formations (and it's free training). The more familiar you are with the formations, the easier it is to recognize where to go when you brain lock.
We would love to hear your comments/questions and experiences with this. If you have other tips you'd like to share, they are more than welcome.
JaNette, Brian, Steve, Laurent
, and usually leads to lower scores. Plus when you go at a speed you can't control, it's difficult to stay calm and confident. But flying well below your capability is also not that great either. Last year, we never really focused on speed but pretty much entirely on doing the right things (proper moves, proper stops, key discipline, proper techniques, eye contact....) and the speed came by itself.
