Another difference with Pure Paragliding is that we don’t just look at the technical side of flying. We go deep into the technical aspect of the pilot and the wing’s movements, and we use bespoke software during the debrief so we can zoom in on the video, draw on it and record our voices alongside it.
Alongside the technical side, we add the mental aspect as well. Without the mental training, you can’t unlock the technical knowledge. We have to take that technical knowledge and pass it through a human filter.
We spend a lot of time looking at how people learn under stress and making sure we understand exactly where your level is. We don’t know what we don’t know, and one of the biggest strengths we can have is starting to understand our own level of ignorance.
Part of my job as a coach is understanding where you are as a pilot. Are you naturally cautious? Are you naturally confident? Once we understand that, we can start looking at how you take everything you’ve learned on the course and integrate it into your everyday flying.
We’ll talk about box placement at your local site. We’ll talk about the different height requirements for different manoeuvres and the internal and external factors you need to check before you start practising by yourself.
You might only have fifty metres at your local coastal site, and there’s still useful training you can do. Or you might have a few hundred metres at your inland site. Depending on the wind strength and wind direction, you’ll have the knowledge to know what is appropriate and what isn’t.
It’s important that you go away and put this into practice because this is a progression course. It’s part of a much longer journey. We go into enough detail during the course that you’ll understand what’s going on, and that means you can continue learning effectively long after the course has finished.
We’ll also spend a lot of time talking about mindset. We’ll look at positive mindset, the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset, and different aspects of sports psychology that you can take away and continue working on yourself.
One thing that’s really important to understand is that the technical and psychological aspects of flying are two separate things.
As we progress, our technical knowledge grows, but a scary experience can suddenly knock us backwards mentally. You can be technically better than you’ve ever been and still lose confidence because of one event.
That’s why we have to work on both.
Most pilots spend a lot of their flying career scared, but they don’t have any tools to deal with that fear. Technically, they may know exactly what they should do, but when the moment comes, the fear response blocks them from doing it.
That’s why we spend so much time talking about how we work under stress and how fear affects the decisions we make. Fear starts as a mental response, but it dictates the physical response that follows.
Ultimately, the goal isn’t just to become technically safer. It’s to become a safer, more confident and happier pilot.