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Airspeed 4-Way Training Work Book
Understanding Your Slot
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Your position on the aircraft during your exits, dictate the slot you
will have for all the formations in the dive. Since we engineer our dives with
conservation of motion in mind, we like to leave people close to their previous
slot. This means that if you begin in the middle you stay in the middle, if you
begin on the tail or the point you stay just there. Each slot has its own set
of specific traits. Although each person will have to make the same moves eventually,
there are certain skills more needed in one slot than another. Each of the
slots has roughly the same degree of difficulty however the players will become
specialized in their slot making themselves experts. Over the long run, it is a
good idea to train yourselves in each other slots, especially your piece
partners, so you will be able to switch if the draw of the meet makes it
necessary. I will attempt to describe the particular attributes to each slot,
which sets it apart from the others.
POINT
The front floater is most commonly the point of formations. This is
because we have found that exits leave the aircraft better facing up, which
puts the person in the front of the door facing away from his team. As a
result, the point spends most of his dives looking over his shoulder. It is not
uncommon for the point to spend most of his dives looking over his shoulder or
to spend an entire dive without picking up one grip. This requires a specific
set of skills unlike those of the other slots.
Trust is a major issue for the point. Since he cannot see very much, he
must depend on his teammates to be where they said they would be. He needs to
trust himself most of all. Most of his moves are made by feel, with little or
no visual input to confirm that he is correct. He must make his move and fall
strait down, not allowing paranoia to make him correct mistakes that do not
exist.
Knowing what is happening behind him is another issue for the point. We
know that it is important to understand what is going on with the entire
skydive; this becomes difficult when you can see less than half of it. The
solution to this problem is in taking what you do see and filling in the blanks
with your mind. In this way you are constantly running a moving picture in your
mind of what is happening in the part of the dive you cannot see. There is
plenty of information to draw from, to help you with this task, what you do
see, and what you can feel in the grips your teammates have on you. To do this
well, you must know what the entire team is supposed to be doing through the
entire dive.
CENTERS
The two people that exit in the
center of the
formation will also most likely spend the entire dive there. Working in the center
carries a lot of responsibility above and beyond the specific skills necessary
for their slot. The centers are responsible for fall rate, pace, and the
general emotion of the entire skydive. The point and the tail are always
looking to the center to dictate their moves. The
center work
must be precise. The centers must pay close attention to the center
points and the headings. If the center point is off to one side by
a couple of feet or the heading is off by only a few degrees, this will mean a
lot of extra distance for the outside flyers to travel. The centers
must move crisply and with confidence. Is must be understood that the entire
feel of the skydive radiates out from the
center.
OUTSIDE CENTER
The outside center is the one who exits in the
center of most
formations and leaves from the outside of the aircraft. The outside center,
like the point, spends most of his time facing away from the tail and from the
other center. Because of this, he has to master some of the same
skills as the front floater. Many of his moves require large turns, often
giving him a large turn in one direction followed by a large turn in the
opposite direction on the very next transition. This kind of movement requires
him to be fast and crisp, starting and stopping his moves with precision. He
also has to do most of the catching of the point. There is a lot he can do, to
help the point do his job. When catching, you want to get your grips as soon as
you can, and physically place the out facing person in his slot. How far you
can reach is dictated by your personal ability; the bottom line is that you
must maintain your position. In other words you want to help the out facing
person as much as you can but only as much as you can. You
cannot sacrifice your precise center work in order to save the out facing
person.
INSIDE CENTER
The inside center is most commonly leaving from inside the aircraft.
This position has most of the keys in the pool. Because
of this, he has most of the control over the pace of the skydive and is in the
position to make critical judgments about how the dive will progress. We call
this team member the quarter back of the skydive for just that reason. He must see all that is
happening on the dive and know where his teammates head space is, in order for
him to make correct adjustments about the pace and intensity of any given
skydive. Although everyone is responsible to see and know these things, it is
most important for him.
TAIL
The rear floater is commonly at the tail of most formations, for the
same reasons the front floater is at the point. He will spend most of his dives
facing toward the center of the formation. This will sometimes require him
to have the same grips, usually cat grips, for the entire skydive. Again, this
requires a specific set of skills unlike those of any other slot.
Seeing the keys and staying on pace, is something which requires extra
effort from the tail. Where as the centers are in close and making the
keys, and the point can easily feel the instant a formation is keyed, the tail
has to look forward past bodies to see what is happening. The tail must plan where
he is looking, to ensure that he sees the key. He must know who is responsible
for the key and focus his attention there.
Separation is another issue for the rear floater. Since he will
commonly have the same grips for many consecutive formations, it becomes
important for him to focus on showing good separation. He must see the key,
flash with large arms movement, and stay off grips for an appropriate amount of
time. Because he often has the same grips from formation to formation, it would
be easy for him to get off and on again rather quickly. He needs to take notice, during the briefing, of the length of movement
his teammates have on the transitions where he has none. He wants to stay off
the grips, as long as possible, getting on at the same time as his teammates. This will avoid potential
busts where he is off and on again before a teammate, who is slightly behind,
has gotten off the first formation. He should strive to see separation occur
between everyone.
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ã 1998 – Jack Jefferies, Airspeed – All Rights Reserved
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