What a coach owns

This page outlines study material for a developing coach. It is informed by the Australian Parachute Federation’s coaching material, and by research into best practice from parallel disciplines such as gymnastics and aviation.

Coaching is the part of skydiving where someone else’s outcome becomes your responsibility. This page sets out what that covers.

Teach within your scope

When you reach the edge of what you know, say so. If a student asks about something you have not done, tell them, and find them someone who has. Watching you name a limit shows the student that naming limits is part of flying well.

Teach the jumps you have flown yourself. A coach improvising a progression they have never flown is guessing, and the student cannot tell.

Stay current in what you teach

If you haven’t flown something recently, you are coaching it from memory.

Coach approvals usually carry renewal requirements: a minimum amount of activity in a recent period, plus a chief instructor’s statement. Those are the minimum. The question to ask yourself is whether you could fly the standard you are about to assess.

Canopy and gear

Freefly coaching stops at deployment. Your duty to notice what a student is doing carries on under canopy.

If a student does something dangerous under canopy, raise it, even though it is outside your discipline. Then refer the coaching to someone rated for it. Refer swooping questions on every time.

Gear works the same way. Do the gear check as a set procedure, the same way every time. Out-of-date documentation means no jump. With a visiting jumper, check everything yourself before you treat any of it as in order.

Your conduct teaches too

The strongest influence you have on a student is being a competent skydiver with a professional attitude. Newer jumpers copy what you do, including the parts you did not mean to teach.

In practice: turn up on time, do the gear check properly, and keep your energy up across the day. Stay sober and rested the night before you coach, and save the party for a night off.

It covers how you talk about other coaches too. A coach with a different teaching style may be the one who makes something click for your student. Running them down in front of a novice takes that option away from the novice.

Take responsibility for your jumpers

If you put someone on a load, you share responsibility for how they behave on it. Screen who you take, brief them properly, and be willing to pull someone off a jump.

Talk clearly with manifest, the drop zone safety officer, and the other instructors and coaches working that day. Organise loads, or at least help with it, because the person who organises the load decides much of how safe it is.

Use the instructors around you

Instructors who teach first-jump and progression students spend all day with nervous people. They read apprehension quickly and accurately, and they have techniques for it.

If a student’s problem is more nerves than technique, talk it over with one of those instructors.

The boundaries you hold

A learning environment lets a student experiment and get things wrong. Some boundaries sit outside that and are not open to discussion. Keep both, and make sure the student knows which is which.

On angles jumps, the fixed boundaries are the horizontal divide, quadrants, no-fly zones, bailing out of the jump, corking, and breaking off incorrectly. On vertical jumps, they are bailing onto the belly and departing from the briefed plan.

When a jumper crosses one, hear them acknowledge the breach and say what they will do differently. A nod does not count as acknowledgement. Expect repeated or serious breaches to be written up, and tell your students in advance that this is how it works, so it never comes as a surprise.

This is the ninety-five-five rule: a jump that was excellent apart from a dangerous five percent was a bad jump. Tell the jumper so.

Know who to escalate to

Most problems are resolved with the chief instructor. Some are not.

If your chief instructor will not deal with an instructional problem, there is a chain above them. In Australia the next step is the safety and training officer. Learn the chain at your drop zone before you need it. Taking a safety concern to the media or social media is the wrong move, and it costs you your standing.

Training descents sit under supervision arrangements that are not yours to waive. Suppose you are visiting a drop zone that does not run training, and someone asks you to do a training jump with a student partway through their progression. Say no and explain why, whatever they offer to pay.

Look after yourself, and them

Coaching is more tiring than fun jumping and carries more risk. A tired coach makes worse calls.

If something frightening happens to you or your student, stop and give it room. A student who has just had a scare is in no state to learn, and pressing on teaches them to ignore fear.

Stick with students when they are struggling, and help keep their enthusiasm up. They chose to pay for this, and a demoralised student stops coming. Avoid comparing students with each other, and discourage them from doing it themselves.

What coaching gives, and what it costs

You gain jumps, some of them paid. You get people to fly with who keep improving. You also get a part in bringing people properly into the sport, with guidance from the start.

It costs you more risk than fun jumping, and the occasional difficult personality. You get fewer of your own jumps doing what you want, and responsibility on days when you would rather not have it.

The load gets lighter as more coaches share it, which is a good reason to help the next one along.

---

Advisory, educational content. Regulatory requirements vary by federation and drop zone and change over time, so confirm the current position locally. Some material on this page is drawn from contributed coach-development notes.