“A” license in a week….The mental game

Hi Everyone, I’m MJ….before I dive off into my first post I guess I should give you a little background on me. I started on the road to skydiving through my wonderful husband.  He had 6 Static Line Jumps and 4 free-falls years ago – while I had none.  He thought that I should take a tandem jump, thinking it would be a bucket list thing for me, and boy was he wrong.  I landed, and the first words out of my mouth were “I have to do it again”.  And so I did….another tandem – 2 days later (he went along for this one too).   This was last month, July 11th and July 13th.  Fast forward to today, I am a “A” licensed skydiver – and I finished it in 9 days.  I must say that I could not have done it without my family.  There were days that I thought that there would be no way that I would make it though the program.   My kids told me that I could do it (keep in mind that they are 7 and 4 years old and think its cool), the husband told me that I could do it and that he had faith in me – but the question was really if I had faith in me.  I sat there wondering….What was I fighting?  I was in fact fighting my own fears – my own insecurity.  When I conquered this and let go,  and realized that skydiving was really 90% metal and 10% physical.

To summarize my AFP jumps

AFP Jump 1 It took me a while to actually get out the door….

AFP #2,  I made it out better, and tried unsuccessfully to relax – potato chipping through the sky

AFP #3, the release dive, went completely unstable and tried to swim my way out (much like Nemo in Finding Nemo)   as to the point that my instructor pulled for me.

AFP #3 try #2, They released and I made it though stable.

AFP #4 try #1 & #2, I was still so scared from my mishap on AFP#3 try #1 that I didn’t want my instructor to let go.

AFP #4 try 3 I finally relaxed, and was let go of the entire time -from door to ground – and pulled very stable without assistance.   This is where I found my peace and confidence. After this one, there were no more do overs 🙂 Here was where I came to the realization that I was not fighting the wind, gravity, nor anything else….Just myself and the fear and insecurity that was inside of me.  When I let that go, I was truly free.  That was the realization and freedom that I needed to make my skydiving and my inner self really come together.  When I landed, the grass was truly greener – the sky was bluer, and more importantly, I was truly at peace with myself.  The things that get to you or irk you in life are no longer so troubling – in reality, its just a moment that too, will pass.  This is just like instability in the air, if you just relax and become neutral, it too will pass.   Once one breaks through this barrier in skydiving, or in life, it gets so much easier.

AFP #5-18 were a blast, from flips to rolls and everything in between.  The highlight was, in the end, was a six way graduation jump that was truly amazing, I’ll have to post the video one of these days.  I ended up with my “A” license in about 9 days.   Not to bad. ….Now, on to my quest for a rig…..

Blue Ones!

MJ