The vertical recovery position

If you become unstable in a sit, lose your line in head-down, or take a bump at speed, recover to back-fly, in the recovery position. Back-fly is the vertical recovery position, and a wide, reliable back-fly is the first foundation in freefly.

The position

Lie back to earth with your feet close together, knees drawn toward your chest, and arms out to the sides and slightly back. It is a modified sit on your back. Held well, it is stable, on a known heading and falling at a speed you can control. From there you can settle, check your altitude, look for other people, and get back into the position you lost.

The aim is to recover without corking. A cork is a sudden drop in fall rate compared with the people around you, and it turns your own instability into a problem for the whole group. On your back you keep a freefly fall rate, so you stay close to where the group expects you while you sort yourself out. Dropping to your belly slows you hard toward belly speed, under anyone still above you. More on corking.

Why it comes first

Back-fly has to catch you from any vertical speed, so it needs a wide range. If your back-fly only works at one fall rate, it can’t yet do that job.

That is why the early jumps ask so much of it. You hold a heading and stay on level for a sustained count, and you turn 360° each way and stop on the spot. Then you hold level while a coach moves up and down through belly, fast-knees and sit-fly speeds.

Rehearse the shape until you can find it without thinking. A common approach is a set of ground holds with your eyes open and a set with them closed, so the position comes as a reflex at 200 kilometres per hour.

Back-fly also feeds the positions after it. The de-arch you use to speed up on your back is close to the shape your body passes through on the way to vertical. It carries straight into head-up carving and into recovering and re-establishing from head-down.

The long-standing order is belly, then back-fly, then sit, then head-down, and it still holds.

Recovering in the air

The moment you become unstable, or when your coach gives the signal you briefed, recover to back-fly, in the recovery position. Start working again only once you are stable.

On jumps on your own, drill a short sequence: go to back-fly, turn 90°, transition again, then carry on. Turning in place keeps you in your own column of air while you rebuild the position.

The reflex counts most where the speeds are highest. In head-down, the usual recovery on a jump on your own is to go to your back, settle, and only then get back to vertical. If you already have that reflex when you reach head-down, you have a safe way out of the fastest positions. That is why head-up and back-fly come before head-down in most progressions.

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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.