(Continuation of “Realization at 200 mph”)

Take Time to Learn Technique built on Foundation

After about eight months of practicing the dive and building my speed to over 200 mph, (“the gate” – the entrance to learn), I was able to start practicing the actual techniques of the Style routine.  This is when I entered “the house” – the next step after learning to “see” from the back of my head and throughout my whole body.

The Style gymnastics (skydiving set) consists of six maneuvers.  There are three different sets within the competition.  A “Right Set” a “Left Set” and a “Cross Set.”   A right set would be a right turn, left turn, back loop, right turn, left turn and end with another back loop.  Each of these turns must be line up on an exact heading on the ground.  Anything that is off that heading is deduction in points or a complete elimination.  The “normal” way to make these turns is by coming out of a tight fall-away to gain speed, then start your turns in this same tight position.  It’s nearly impossible to keep your body tight as it’s natural for your arms and legs to want to come out to maintain your balance.  So the entire competition is about this dilemma of staying as tight as you can, and making the turns as quickly as possible.

My coach always thought there was a better way to make fast turns by using the air to help instead of fighting against it.  His theory was that if you started the Style set from the dive, then you would have an elongated body coming up out of the dive and be able to use that force to work with you, not against you.  He also thought that if you sat up more on a 45 degree angle within the turn, your body mass to the air would not be as great, so you could turn much faster than if you were making turns with the body flat to the earth.  He envisioned a pulsating type of movement where you used your legs and arms on each turn to give you a very quick momentum to turn – just like a top spins.

I became an experiment for this theory.  To practice this theory of the style set, my coach had me go up to an altitude of 12,500 feet so I could have more airtime to start experimenting with this type of turn.  I would no longer practice the dive – now it was about the next component – perfecting the pulsating turn.  At 12,500 feet I had about one minute of airtime instead of the 26 seconds you normally have to do a full Style set.

In order to not waste the airtime, he had me start making the turns sub-terminal right out of the airplane. – - Usually, you need to get some air speed before you start doing the turns, as when you are sub terminal you have no air to work with – no foundation.  This makes you work extra hard.  It seemed – of course – impossible to do this type of turn at first.  It took great core strength, and it was not until I made many jumps over many months did I get the hang of it.

I learned the only way to really develop the technique for these turns was to use the energy from – the “center” of gravity called the DanTian in martial arts, which is about 3 inches below your belly button.   All potential comes from this center.   I learned how important is was to breath from this center, as you could not begin to make this type of turn without the breath coming from the core.  Breathe in,  breathe out, engage the core and turn – Breathe in,  breathe out, engage the core and turn  – over and over again.  For hundreds of jumps.  I built the power from breathing and engaging power from the Dan Tian (core).  I also learned that the body (energy) goes in the direction of the thought.   This energy was then directed (and became coherent) from my head, hands and arms in a very concentrated way, which gave me speed, precision and power.

But ultimately, this movement had to come from the potential from the center (Dan Tian) and the breath (energy) had to come at the same time within each turn.  There had to be tensegrity and coherence.  Coherence means things are functioning together in a clear and efficient way.  It means synchronization between multiple systems.   Coherent energy is effective because a system is pulsing as a unit.  Coherence is wholeness.  Everything is energy and is pulsing.  The frequency of the pulsing affects the form of the energy.

It became obvious why the old way of making the turns (in a tight ball with no breath) in the Style competition never ultimately worked well.  The jumper is fighting with the air instead of working with the air.  Even worse, there is no breathing –  no coherence – it’s like you are holding your breath trying to stay tight at the same time.  There’s no ultimate energy – the right energy.  And, there certainly was no potential in the old form.

This part of the training was where I entered “the house.”  The house is where the potential was manifested because of foundation being built.  Over many years of training with internal alchemy, I always come back to the foundation training.  The foundation is where all sports and exercise should start, you will find great power here.

My Best,

Maria Camille