By Laura Hampton
As our series focusing on progression in skydiving continues, I hope to have inspired you to think more about what you want to get out of skydiving and the many disciplines available to enjoy.
But with so much on offer, it can be difficult to know where to focus your attention. In this article, let’s consider your options; do you want to be a jack of all trades, or a master of one?
Jack of all trades
What does it mean to be a jack of all trades? In short, it means being pretty good at most things, but not necessarily the best at one.
Let’s put this into some skydiving context. You show up at flight line, alone. You look around at what’s happening and ask what people are up to. Chances are, there’s someone doing something you can join in with because, well, you can do it all!
That makes being a jack of all trades a very sociable way to skydive. By ticking off stickers and reaching a passable level across a range of disciplines, you’re more likely to find people to jump with on those quieter days when maybe your usual jumping friends aren’t around, or you just want to get to know some new jumping pals!
How to become a jack of all trades
It’s not as simple as gathering stickers. While someone with TR1 can go tracking with other people with TR1, it’s worth considering what’s going to be safe and where you can contribute to that
Instead, think of being a jack of all trades as something a bit more specific; it’s not enough to be able to do lots of stuff, you have to be proficient at those things, too.
Can you safely track with a small group? Can you easily turn points with other formation skydivers? Can you go on a freefly jump and stay close to other people, rather than just scattering aimlessly across the sky?
When you think of it like this, being a jack of all trades requires a lot of focus, and focus in different areas, which can make it tricky to achieve.
Bringing focus to a jack of all trades
It’s worth, rather than simply saying “I want to do everything,” to instead say “I want to get pretty good at two or three things”.
If you think you’re someone who wants to be able to do lots of different things in skydiving, start by picking one, getting pretty good at it, and then adding another.
There’s no benefit to getting all the stickers but sucking at all of them! But by focusing your efforts on getting pretty good at each thing before you move on, you’ll stay safer and be more likely to find jump buddies on a random day.
It’s also important to think about currency if this is the route you choose to go down. By electing to learn lots of different things, you are at risk of moving on from one and then forgetting about it, or at least becoming less good.
For this reason, be sure to make time for all the disciplines you’ve already become proficient in to avoid “skill fade”.
Master of One
The other route to consider is becoming a master of one specific discipline in skydiving.
The benefits of this approach are clear to see, and are quantifiable, for those who choose to put their dedicated focus toward competition, for example.
If you’re someone who wants to learn, to keep learning and to train and learn until you’re the best, then this is the approach for you. It’s the approach I chose when I decided four-way FS was what I wanted to do with my skydiving time and it’s taken me on one of the best journeys of my life.
How to become a master of one
Becoming a master in anything requires time and focus. You’ll need a mind that isn’t just excited about what you can do now, but what you can hope to achieve in the future. And the passion to make it happen.
If you think this is the route for you, the first step is to choose which discipline you want to master. Or, if you’re like me, maybe that discipline has already revealed itself to you. Is there anything in skydiving that you’ve seen so far and thought, yes, I absolutely want to do that?
Once you’ve got it, you’ll want to set some goals. Let’s take four-way FS as an example; perhaps, like me when I first started skydiving, you want to become the national champion. Believe me, there’s nothing in the world like the feeling you’ll get when you get there!
It’s likely that such big goals come with big journeys of many steps so that’s something to consider. How are you going to get from where you are now, to where you want to be?
You could speak to others who have already made that journey for help. For me, looking again at four-way, my journey was a bit of an odd one to start with (ask me about it in person!) but effectively followed the path that most national champions do: start at the bottom and work up. That means getting a team together, maybe heading along to some UKSL meets and putting a lot of time and effort into the basics like learning the dive pool. From there, you’ll keep progressing up the levels, learning more every step, until you get near to the top and then hyper focus on marginal gains and what you can do to make the difference between second and first.
It’s not just 4 way that works like this, and your goal doesn’t have to be competition. Let’s say you’re really enthused by the idea of tracking and would love to get on something like the multiplane tracking jumps being held at Langar this year. Getting onto those events doesn’t just happen; you’ll need to be a master of TR to get your invite.
Can you do both?
In short, yes! But it’s difficult.
Whether you choose to become a jack of all trades or a master of one first, you’ll need to put the same time and effort into each – so achieving both takes pretty much twice as long.
Using myself as an example, I have focused HEAVILY on FS for the majority of my skydiving to date and that has rewarded me with national championships and world records that I’ll be proud of for my whole life.
It’s also given me the opportunity to coach in the discipline that I love and to host events which welcome new people into it too.
But as a professional skydiver spending so much time in the sky, I have now started to branch out into other disciplines and that’s been rewarding, too. I achieved my TR1 and TR2, plus my FF2 in 2024 and that’s opened up opportunities for me to go flying with people I never have before.
It’s also, for me personally, been the route of some frustration. It’s hard to go from being the master of one discipline to being the total noob in another! And I think my boyfriend, Chris, is tiring of my constant attempts to make even our freefly jumps together into a competitive endeavour…
And like I say, it takes a long time to achieve both, so unless you have a very, very long-term vision, it’s more likely you’ll need to choose whether to master a discipline or get pretty good at them all.
The good thing about all of this? The two options only exist because ours is a sport so full of opportunity and exciting and fun things to do. So whatever you choose, you’re sure to have a blast doing it!
Enjoy!
