The neutral sit is built from right angles

A good sit looks relaxed, like sitting in a deck chair at 240 km/h. Underneath, it is a set of right angles. When one of them is off, the sit goes wrong in a way you can predict, and that makes it easy to fix on video.

The reference angles

• Bend your knees to 90°, shoulder-width apart, with your heels directly below your knees.
• Keep your hips at 90° and your back straight, so your torso stays upright in the relative wind.
• Put your arms out to the sides at 90° for stability, and keep your feet flat with even pressure on both.
• Keep your eyes on the horizon. Looking down drops your shoulders, and the rest of the position follows them.

Rehearse the shape on the ground until you can find it without thinking: five holds with your eyes open and five with them closed. In the air, the wind shows you every angle you missed.

Faults and their causes

Each common fault comes from a particular angle being wrong, so when you watch your video, look for the angle behind the fault.

Backsliding. You cannot feel a backslide in head-up, so you rely on other people in the sky as a visual reference to see it. On a jump on your own you can drift toward the next group without knowing. The usual causes are the wind pushing your knees toward your chest, leaning forward with your arms trailing behind you, looking down, tired shoulders rolling forward, and feet and knees tucked too close together.

Falling onto your back. Usually your toes are pointed at the ground, your lower legs are blowing around, your arms are too far forward or your back isn’t straight.

Falling onto your belly. Your knees are bent tighter than 90° with the heels tucked under and the wind on your shins, or you are arching too much.

Spinning. Something is uneven: more pressure from one leg or arm, legs too close together, heels out of line with the knees, or one thigh higher than the other.

Fall rate comes from the legs

From the neutral sit, the fall-rate ladder runs knee-fly, sit, stag, stand. Each step puts less of your legs into the wind, so you fall faster and the position is less stable. Move one step at a time and get stable on each before you move on.

Your legs do most of the turning too. The arms are there for stability, and big arm inputs are a common way to start a spin.

Once you know the reference angles, you can check your own video. Name the fault, find the angle that caused it, and fix that one thing on the next jump. One correction per jump is the method at this stage.

---

Advisory, educational content. Body types vary, and a coach watching you will see more than any checklist. Train with a qualified freefly coach, and follow the rules of your federation and drop zone.