#Dear Elke, When I met you, summer 2011, you were such a baby skydiver. Now I see you winning medals at 2-way Dynamic, and I love to watch you fly. How did you do it? How did you become such an accomplished ninja flyer so quickly?
#Lesley Gale
#Dear Lesley
When I started skydiving 5 years ago. I had never even heard of the concept “skygod” or “ninja flyer”. I just wanted to experience the joy of flying. I wanted to do what I did in my dreams. Struggling to take a grip in head-up just didn’t do it for me. It’s not about reaching a certain status, but rather learning a skill. And the more time and effort you put into it, the better you get at it, it’s that simple.
So that’s how I got going. I started tunnel to get better at skydiving, and dynamic flying sort of drew me in. I didn’t plan on doing competition, but then I met Anna during a tunnel camp, who was looking for a teammate to compete in Charlewars in Airspace. So I figured “why not?” I’ll be there anyways to watch…” We flew 15 minutes together to see if it worked, and then we sat down together to discuss the training schedule for the competition. Team Dynamight was born. And even though Anna got injured during that first competition, it worked so well we continued flying and competing together since then. I love how we push one another to be better together.
Although the greatest thing about a competition is the training, there is nothing like the stress before a battle, when you realise you can’t hold anything back. I don’t really feel like there is such a big gap. I see flyers of all skill levels. And we are all on the same journey. Some more committed and faster, others at a more steady pace and that’s cool too.
##Some advice from a novice ninjaflyer
• Don’t focus too much on the goal. Allow yourself to feel the air, and feel the effect of different movements. Everyone has their own learning curve. You can get stuck on really simple things, and all of a sudden understand a difficult move. I remember putting so much pressure on myself to learn head-down. Once I let go of that pressure everything was easier.
• Find the right coach in the tunnel. Different coaches are good at different types of flying. Find out what you want to learn and go to someone that is good at this. A good coach will love to teach you what he’s best at.
• Learn with your eyes. It’s free! Visualisation is a powerful learning tool. We human beings learn by copying what we see. This makes tunnel camps so cool. If I am not flying myself I can spend hours just watching the other people get coached. Whenever you are not flying in the tunnel, or skydiving, stay involved by watching video, and really visualise the movement and the feeling.
• Fly with others. You don’t have to fly with a coach all the time. Fly with friends, people who fly better than you, people who fly worse than you, people who fly different than you. You will learn something off everyone. A teammate, or just a flying buddy, will allow you to develop together and to push each other.
• And the most important of all: Keep smiling! You’re doing this for fun right?
First article: Crossing the Void by Ninja Domi
Second article: Crossing the Void by Ninja Mikey
Third article: Crossing the Void by Ninja Jasper
Next week: Amy Chmelecki delivers the final article
