Lesson 1

The last two Thursdays I have been instructing at the pool. I have had the pleasure of introducing two new students to the delights of scuba diving.  'OS1' is the first practical lesson for the British Sub Aqua Club Ocean Diver grade.

The objective is to build confidence in the water and introduce some basic skills. This needs to be broken down into a safe and manageable lesson. It is chock-a-block with information, some would say an information overload. Safety, lesson discipline, hand signals, finning techniques, mask and snorkel fitting, names of all the parts of equipment, buddy checks, more safety and applying each situation in the pool to a real life situation in the sea, as well as the skills and techniques of scuba diving! Confucius' proverb comes in handy when teaching such a large volume of information.

Tell me and I'll forget,

Show me and I may remember,

Involve me and I will understand.

It is important to positively encourage the students. Learning a new skill requires the student to be attentive and to want to learn, as well as clear instruction which is understandable and mimicable  Further down the line the skills get tougher and the student (unless he or she is a reincarnation of Jacques Cousteau or a diving prodigy) will inevitably make mistakes, not understand an instruction or even possibly make a dangerous error. It is no good shouting or berating a student that makes mistakes no matter how serious - intimidation is not an effective form of teaching. I find that a condensed form of the R.E.A.P. debrief is a good method of coaching in this instance. Let's say a new skill is not being understood correctly. Review the skill by demonstrating once more or breaking it down into smaller steps. On the surface, verbally Encourage the student in good aspects of the skill or their progress in general, Assess the elements of the skill that require fine-tuning and suggest how to Progress with improvements.

It doesn't take long for everything all to click into place, and you realise that everything is inter-linked and it comes naturally as if the equipment was an extension of your own body, similar to learning to  drive a car.

Becky and Ollie have been great students, and although I occasionally have to backtrack on some elements of a skill due to my temporary rustiness, they have been very patient with me. It has been a pleasure to introduce them properly to the sport, and I look forward to seeing them signed off as fully fledged Ocean Divers this summer!