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Airspeed Formation Skydiving Advanced Skills Camp Work Book
Freefall Communication… Eye Contact
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Four great skydivers, each capable of regularly performing at their
personal best, do not, on their own, make a great team. Until they develop
sharp, clear and understandable freefall communication, they will still be only
four great individual skydivers. The best teams develop their communication and
timing so accurately that they appear to be glitch free in their movement,
functioning like clockwork, like four parts of one machine.
The team’s ability to perform at their best is a direct result of this
communication. Many teams train under the assumption that communication will
result naturally by simply having enough airtime together. They do not develop
this communication into their training plan. Not only must you dedicate time
and training to this, you must do it from the very first jump.
Simply enough, the main tool we use for this is EYE CONTACT. We know
everyone uses eye contact. It is the first and most basic thing you are taught
when you become a skydiver, but the difference at this camp and on Airspeed is…
we mean it.
Eye contact is not just looking in the general direction of the person
across from you. It is looking straight into their eyes. Seeing their thoughts,
reading their mind. Calming each other down. Firing each other up. Making well
thought out decisions together in a fraction of a second.
Look straight into each other’s eyes whenever you can. Obviously when
you are facing out this will be a problem. But if you can see the eyes of the
person across from you, then do so. Do not just sit with a blank stare waiting
for a translation. Make an effort to read each other. The language is not
complex. There are only a few thoughts that come up during any jump. You will
be communicating the same thing over and over again. Thoughts like “calm it
down”, “control”, “let’s light it up”, and “better stops”. These things can
easily be seen in each other’s expressions. Deep philosophical or political
conversations will have to wait. But everything you need to communicate about
in order to get the most out of every move on every jump can be done in a
flash.
We cannot see everyone’s eyes all the time. For this reason we also
communicate through our grips. Taking solid, clean grips, without fumbling
around, will signal to the person that you are gripping, what your condition
is: your readiness, or lack there of, to start the next transition. This is
essential for the key people to make the correct decisions on keys and pace
that will enable the team to continue moving in synch with each other.
One last thing: the ability for a team to really communicate this way
is one of the best parts of Formation Skydiving. Your personal and team best is
a direct result of this.
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