Range of motion: finding your edges

Range of motion is a drill for finding out how far you can move from a position and still control it. Once you know how much input you have left, you can hold a slot with smaller corrections.

From a stable neutral, move slowly in one direction toward the point where you are only just in control. Notice where that point is, then come back to neutral. Then do the same in another direction.

Why the courses ask for range

Back-fly is checked across a spread of fall rates, from belly speed through fast knees to sit speed. You go to your back to recover from trouble in head-up and in head-down, so it has to work at both speeds. Head-up asks for a ladder of fall rates for the same reason.

If you can fly only one fall rate, you can only fly with people who happen to fall at it. If you can fly a range, you can match the group you are with.

This is often called flying your range. Range of motion is how you build it.

Running the drill

Work one direction at a time, and change one input per jump. The point of the drill is to know which input caused which effect, and two changes at once hide that.

A good way to run it:

• Get stable in neutral, and hold it until you are settled.
• Pick one direction: fall rate, heading, forward and back, or side to side.
• Move slowly that way until control starts to soften.
• Stop before you lose it. The edge is what you are looking for, and going past it is a different drill.
• Come back to neutral and settle before the next go.

The tunnel is the cheapest place for this. There is a net, an instructor watching and no altitude to run out of, so you can explore further than you would on a jump. Rehearsing on the ground costs nothing: five times with your eyes open and five with them closed.

Why the edges are a safety issue

At the edge of your range you can no longer correct. In relative flying, you are often nearest that edge at the moment you are closest to someone else, reaching for a grip.

That is why you get on level, move to your slot and then dock, and why you fly your body to the grip. With a narrow range you arrive at the dock already at your limit. A correction that should be small throws you off balance next to another flyer.

A wide range gives you input to spare on the approach, so you can still fix it if it goes wrong.

For coaches

After this drill, a student can tell you more on the ground. Someone who has found their edges can say which direction they ran out of control in. Without the drill, all they may be able to say is that it felt bad.

Two habits help. After the jump, ask the flyer to describe where their edge was, in their own words, before you give your reading of the video. And treat a narrow range as useful information, because it gives you the objective for the next session.

If you see something you cannot explain, stop the session and refer the flyer to a rated coach. Leave the correction to them.

Further viewing

AXIS Flight School has range-of-motion drill columns for each orientation in its Foundations of Flight series, and short videos of the neutral positions the drill starts from. Start with the neutral position videos, because the drill only tells you anything once your neutral is stable.

Watch: Back-fly neutral position (AXIS Flight School), youtube.com/watch?v=uNgvf6GJgxw

Watch: Head-up (sit-fly) neutral position (AXIS Flight School), youtube.com/watch?v=yGsufy3UIZk

Watch: Head-down basics (AXIS Flight School), youtube.com/watch?v=6M-3f7C2x0o

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Advisory, educational content. Techniques and speeds are guides that vary with body type, gear and conditions. Explore your range with a coach or a tunnel instructor watching, and comply with your federation and drop zone.