The Swoop Fly Position in Skydiving & Free Flying

Video Transcript

"Hi welcome to Expert Village I am Nicholas Daniel. Swoop flying is the next step that you can learn after back flying it is just a little bit more advance from free flying. It is actually in my opinion a little bit more difficult to do then flying head down. Because it is fairly awkward with having your legs towards the ground. This right here is the neutral position that we are looking at. What is very very important here is that you have 90 degree at the hips. If your hips start to come out you would actually induce a very strong forward drive. Also very important is this part back here you want to have a lot of lift at the upper back. The way we can create that is by putting our shoulder blades together. So you almost want to thing about taking your elbows and bringing them down behind you. This right here is just another front view. You want to have your knees about shoulder width apart. Generally a lot of people have the tendency to have them really, really wide and it actually doesn't do all that much good. All you need to do to go forward is just to take your legs to the knee to the ankle. Just go ahead and bring it forward a little bit. Both of them at the same time in a symmetrical fashion. You notice right away that there is a lot of forward movement being produced. You can also later on use your back bring your arms into it. You can also bring your hips out a little bit more and that would just create a stronger drive. For backwards drives you just want to think about leaning forward. You want to feel the wind on your chest. You can bring your arms in front of you a little bit more. You also induce backwards drive. You can also bend your legs by the knee and just kind of bring it behind you. For the slow fall rate which is very, very important in tunnel flying because that is what is going to keep you off the net. Generally all you want to think about is getting bigger as well as you do in back flying or belly flying. Think about having a little bit wider stance. If you can lean back a little bit more. Still trying to stay neutral you don't want to drive forward. Bring your hands a little bit out further to the side, bring your knees a little bit further out, that would make you fall a little bit slower. For a faster fall rate or standing what you are trying to do is basically get really really thin, have less surface area. What you want is basically start trying to stand up. The way I recommend doing it is by having your hands above your head. It is going to make a lot easier to control verses try to bring them down to your side. To initiate a turn is fairly easy All you need to do is just drop one hand down slightly this would initiate a turn. You would generally go towards the direction that you are point with your fingers. You can use both hands. Later on once you get comfortable with that you can also use your feet. All you really want to do is just take one leg and just angle it out a little bit that to would initiate a turn. Be safe and have fun. Always consult a instructor before doing this. For more information on coaching or free flying videos you can contact me at nicholas_daniel@yahoo.com or you can call my personnel cell number at 951-591-0571 "