Briefing a coached jump

Study material for coaches. It draws on the Australian Parachute Federation’s coaching material, and on research from other fields such as gymnastics and aviation.

A brief works if the student can still use it in freefall. It has to hold up through forty to sixty seconds of working time, stress, a camera and a review afterwards. Working memory holds about four items on the ground, and fewer than that in the door.

Stress also cuts how much a student takes in. Past a certain level they reach sensory overload and stop absorbing anything new. Anything you add on the walk to the aircraft tends to push out something you said earlier.

So keep the brief short, and make the last thing you say before boarding the most important thing.

Plan the breakoff first, then work backwards

Decide the breakoff altitude, the separation plan, who goes where, and what happens if it goes wrong. Then build the working part of the jump backwards from there until you reach the exit. If you plan the working part first and add a breakoff at the end, the jump tends to run out of altitude mid-sequence.

Working backwards also shows the student the order of priorities: the first thing you planned was how the jump ends safely.

Sort what you could say

Sort everything you could say into must know, should know and could know. Only the must-know goes in the brief. Should-know belongs in ground school or the debrief, and could-know can wait for the drive home.

Keep the brief to three or four key things per jump, with the safety-critical information first.

Break the dive into named phases

Split the dive into three or four named phases, each holding its own movements. For example: exit and set up, first working block, second working block, breakoff. Name them, brief them in order, and keep the detail inside each name.

The names give the student a way back in. People store movement sequences in layers, and a name marks the start of one. A student who blanks mid-dive on a flat list of eleven items has lost the jump. A student who blanks but remembers there are four phases can pick up at the start of the next one.

Tie cues to things the student will see

Remembering to do something at the right moment later is its own kind of memory. It works far better when the trigger is something the student will see than when it is a time they have to track. Vivid triggers work better than subtle ones.

Cues tied to something the student will see:

• “When the coach turns to face you, start the approach.”
• “When you see level with my shoulders, stop closing.”
• “When the audible goes, you are already turning.”

Cues that rely on timing, which hold up less well:

• “About twenty seconds in, start the approach.”
• “Count to five, then stop.”

A count uses the same attention the flying needs. A visible event carries its own reminder.

Dirt dive it with the movement

Physical rehearsal helps memory. Dancers who walk through the full pattern of a routine at low intensity perform it better afterwards than dancers who only talk it through. That is the closest research finding to a dirt dive, and it points to keeping the movement and the geometry in yours.

Stand up, move and use the space. Walk the exit, hold the positions, and turn the way you will turn in the air. Low intensity is fine as long as you move.

Run it from climb-out to breakoff three times as a minimum, and again if anyone looks unsure.

Mental rehearsal

Mental rehearsal works better with a few conditions attached:

• Rehearse at real speed, the pace the jump will happen.
• Rehearse the specific cues that matter in the dive.
• Use as many senses as you can: what it will look like, what the air will feel like, the noise.
• Include the nerves. Rehearsing a calm version of a jump that will not feel calm sets up the wrong expectation, so have the student imagine the door as it will feel.
• Pick the viewpoint to suit the job: first person for how something should feel, third person for how a position should look.

Showing video of the skill during the brief helps the student rehearse the movement in their head. That is a separate job from the video in the debrief, and both are useful.

Get the brief back before boarding

Have the student brief the jump back to you, in their own words, without prompting.

What you said and what they heard can differ, and this is the cheapest way to find the gap while you can still fix it. Recalling the plan also strengthens their memory of it more than hearing you repeat it would.

Whatever they cannot tell you back is the gap. Fix that item, and ask yourself whether the brief was carrying too much.

One objective per jump

Give each jump one objective, with its success criteria stated: one movement skill, or one family of transitions.

A jump with three new objectives teaches none of them well, and it takes attention that altitude awareness needs. It also muddles the debrief, because nobody can tell which of the three went wrong first.

Across several hundred goal-setting studies, specific goals with defined success criteria lead to better performance than vague instructions such as “do your best”. Aviation, healthcare simulation and the military brief high-consequence work the same way: a short, structured brief with a small number of specific outcomes.

Over a day, repeat the same objective across jumps. Changing too much between jumps gets in the way of a movement settling until it is automatic.

The shape of a coached jump

1. State the aim of the day and the aim of this jump.
2. Plan the breakoff and work backwards.
3. Sort the material, then brief three or four named phases.
4. Give cues tied to things the student will see.
5. Dirt dive it with the movement, climb-out to breakoff, three times.
6. Rehearse it mentally at real speed, nerves included.
7. Have the student brief it back.
8. Do the gear checks, then board.

All of it happens on the ground, before the jump ticket is spent.

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Advisory, educational content. Techniques and standards are guides, and the authority to train and assess belongs to your national federation and your drop zone. Some material on this page is drawn from contributed coach-development notes.