Photo above by Josh Reuck.

Everyone needs a booger friend, the one person who will discreetly say, “Hey, you have a booger hanging out of your nose.” You may feel a slight tinge of embarrassment and wonder how many others noticed it yet said nothing, but fortunately, you have this trusted friend.

As an instructor, you need a booger friend. The metaphorical booger they point out might be that you forgot to check for your student’s autonomous performance at the end of ground prep, or they’ll remind you that you are talking and practicing for your student instead of letting them learn by doing. Having this booger friend you can trust to gently tell you when you’re off track is invaluable.

Here are three simple steps you can take to set up and maintain helpful peer relationships for improving your training skills and maintaining accountability:

1. Invite Collaboration.

To take advantage of collaboration, you have to start somewhere. Ask if you can watch a peer’s training session, or if that feels uncomfortable, ask a peer to watch your training session. It’s important to maintain professionalism and the process, so agree that one person leads and the other does not interrupt. Then the two of you can talk about it privately afterward.

Once you have started a back-and-forth process of watching each other's training sessions, you might extend the collaboration by team teaching. However, you must have an agreement on how the team-teaching session will play out. For example, if one person’s strength is seeing the big picture and applying skills to real situations, make that person the one who introduces topics, relates the objectives, keeps pace and ensures  evaluation of student performance. The other person—whose strength might lie in watching for details—could be the one to provide ongoing feedback for student performance during the guided practice and who makes sure the student demonstrates every critical point. Be sure to plan time to reflect on your collaborative experiences afterward, noting what worked and what to change for next time.

Bottom line: One plus one is greater than two.

2. Use Peers as Mentors

Most people think that mentors are those who are more experienced or have lots of jumps. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines mentorship as “the influence, guidance or direction given by a trusted counselor or guide.” There is no mention of a hierarchy existing between mentor and mentee. Thus, an often-overlooked hidden treasure is peer mentorship.

Using peers for influence and guidance has many advantages. First, your peers will generally be more readily available than USPA Examiners or Safety and Training Advisors. Second, a peer mentorship does not have the difference of levels that can be intimidating and sometimes hinders approachability. Finally, because your peers experience similar context and situations at the same drop zone, there is a foundation of unspoken things that can support deeper discussions.

Bottom line: Trust is critical.

3. Be Open to Suggestions

Being open to suggestions is easier said than done. We are almost hardwired to be defensive when someone points out a flaw. We often take it personally. Or we start measuring who has more ratings or jumps and use that to define who is right and who is wrong. Or perhaps we use the excuse, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and think, “We’ve been doing it that way for years, it must be fine.”

That is not to say that change for the sake of change is the way to go. Be skeptical but listen. There is no harm in listening to another person’s ideas and reflecting on their meaning and application. Listening to them does not mean you agree with them or that you intend to adopt changes to implement their suggestions. Many times, when someone makes a suggestion, they are not even considering that you’re doing something wrong; it’s more likely that they simply want to share some helpful nugget of advice.

Overall, realize that knowledge does not rest inside of us. We enjoy a collective body of knowledge shared among instructional rating holders that is recorded in writing through the Skydiver’s Information Manual and the Instructional Rating Manual, as well as many other resources. No single person owns any knowledge, and we should not want to. It is much easier to reference our agreed-upon documentation than claim to be able to recite resources that constantly change.

Bottom line: Don’t take it personally.

Instructing can be very lonely. Due to the high demand for skydiving instructional staff, you may often find your entire day lacks interaction with anyone but students. Although learning from your students is a fantastic philosophy, it cannot go far enough. Those students are not likely to tell you about that proverbial booger. So, get a booger friend. You need it.

Jen Sharp | D-17516
Examiner Rating Course Director; AFF, Tandem and Coach Examiner