The Law of Primacy- Kneeling on the bottom
Most scuba instruction begins with the new diver breathing from a regulator in shallow water on their knees. These are the first few breaths that transform thousands of people every year from pavement praising pedestrians into aquatic adventurers.
Over-weighted, the negatively buoyant student diver begins to grow more comfortable with the workings of a demand valve regulator. It is from this kneeling position on the bottom of the pool that students are introduced to various skills necessary for learning to scuba dive. DIR education is trying to change this behavior and enlighten new divers and instructors to the logic behind neutrally buoyant skill development.
For a student diver, the position of kneeling negatively buoyant on the bottom of the pool becomes a basic ready position. Stable and rooted, the student learns to remove and replace their regulator and partially flood and clear their mask. Eventually, more advanced skills are introduced like full mask clears, mask removal and replacement, air sharing, etc., all learned on the bottom of the pool, negative and upright. Much like in martial arts, the ready position associates the body with comfort and control. However, the diver is not in control and is only ready for sinking and falling. In the three-dimensional world of scuba diving the only position of universal control is the prone, balanced, neutrally buoyant position.
Unfortunately, neutral buoyancy is a skill that is usually presented somewhere towards the middle or the end of a course. Instead of being taught to associate neutral buoyancy with comfort, control and basic skills, new divers subconsciously fall into a head-up, knee down negative position every time they perform a skill. This is why we see divers plummeting to the bottom while clearing their mask, clutching the mooring line with a death grip while making an ascent, kneeling in a cloud of silt while tying a reel or perched on top of brain coral while trying to take a picture. The learning law of primacy tells us that we should start these new students the right way. Start with a base of balance, buoyancy and positioning; on top of that we can build personal regulator and mask skills.
This is one of many ways where DIR education differs from traditional scuba training. The law of primacy tells us that the first thing a student learns is the most remembered. Subconsciously these are the natural responses that occur when we are forced to react to a situation underwater, where conscious decisions cease and instinct takes over. DIR education introduces the student to the underwater world with neutral buoyancy, weighting, balance and positioning. Through this building block approach the student then learns additional personal skills. Regulator removal, recovery, mask clearing, mask removal and replacement, air-sharing, etc.… are all done while maintaining neutral buoyancy, with proper trim and body mechanics.
As the year 2009 comes to a close, the time to reexamine how we present underwater education is long overdue. The law of primacy upholds the DIR educational model. The building block approach not only gives the student a solid base to grow as a diver, but also reassures the student and instructor both that when faced with a problem underwater, whether it is a mask clear or an air share, subconscious instinct is to remain neutral, stay in trim, breathe regularly and solve the problem.
James Mott
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I find your article of great interest. I think you are right about divers remaining comfortable on their knees and or with their head up.
I am curious as to how long it takes to move a non-diver to open water diver with the techniques you mentioned?
Hi Dean,
The length of time will be subjective to your students however I find it to be about the same amount of overall time. I put my students underwater and get them comfortable with breathing first. If you don’t put them over-weighted on the bottom of the pool and the first thing they see is you… neutral, horizontal and in control, they will associate touching the bottom as wrong. My students see me hovering motionless in mid-water and immediately try to copy what they see. Many actually get it before I even have to explain it.
I have not taught a single skill on the bottom of the pool in more than 5 years.
James
that is awesome.
Great article…..thanks for opening my eyes to a wider world.
well i am glad to see others have gotten the wake up call. we use a program called compression teaching that uses comfort , control, confedence in all phases of training and this builds a better dive student able to learn because of the reduced stress. it is not the agency its the instructor you can be an old salt or a new instructor if you use the tech. we teach you will be that jedi instructor if intrested give us a buzz well open your eyes and as a shop or instructor fatten your wallet . have a safe day buck @dive911.com 770-652-7401
Really interesting article – might have made all the difference to me when I was learning and having terrible problems clearing my mask!! Look forward to reading more.
Nice one James; like it! I was reading an interesting article in NAUI’s Sources Magazine recently about the primacy of learning and how it can be applied to better teach Stress & Rescue classes. The thrust of the article was encouraging teaching in procedures in reverse – i.e. CPR/1st Aid etc first and then stepping backwards to egress followed by 1st aid, then rescue procedures, followed by egress followed by 1st Aid.
Of course, training agencies do not necessarily proscribe the order that skills should be taught, so this is something that could be practiced by many instructors. Indeed, I have always taught buoyancy first, for most of the reasons you mention above. However, I think kneeling also has a place; not everyone takes to the water like a duck, perfect buoyancy is not always easily achieved and it can be a Holy Grail that is sought over many dives of practice and improvement.
We should go for a beer sometime – we live close and someone with lamb chops like yours must surely have a more refined palette than your average countryman?! “All Aboard! Tiggits please!”…