For coaches
Coaching freefly
Flying well and coaching well are different skills. This part of the site is about the second one: how people learn a physical skill under time pressure, how to build a brief a student can carry into freefall, and how to run a debrief.
What this is for
Coaching is optional, and the jumper pays for it. A jumper can learn with friends over many jumps and book a coach only to show the minimum standard.
So the site publishes the standard, and a jumper learning with friends has the same target as a coached one. A poor session costs a student money and enthusiasm at once, so coaching skill is worth working on in its own right. Make your sessions enjoyable too. A jumper who stops booking coaching can keep jumping anyway, and the rest of their progression then happens without a coach. That is a safety problem.
The material here draws on the topics a coach is examined on, coaching notes from contributors, and the sports science on how physical skills are learned. Where those agree, the page states the guidance plainly. Where the popular version of an idea does not hold up in that research, the page says so.
- Principles of instruction for freefly coaches Preparation, primacy, demonstration, questioning, and why talking less works better.
- Briefing a coached jump Breakoff first, a few named phases, cues tied to what the student can see, and a rehearsal on the ground.
- The debrief Ask before you tell, pick one thing outside tolerance to work on, and always raise a safety breach.
- Reading your student Where a student is in learning the skill, and how much they are carrying today.
- What a coach owns Your scope, currency and conduct, what you are responsible for, and the limits you hold.
- Load organising for freefly Exit order by drift and group type, briefing a mixed load, and when to say no.
- Operational procedures for coaches Gear checks, altitude devices, supervising training jumps, and who to call when something goes wrong.
- Becoming a freefly coach The approval pathway in Australia, and what it looks like elsewhere.