How to Progress From Belly-Flying to Freestyle

Skydiving is an exhilarating sport where competitors jump out of a flying plane, performing tricks and dives in the air before ultimately deploying a parachute and drifting to the ground. Because of the moves in a freestyle jump occurring thousands of feet in the air, it is important that a jumper progress properly through the different elements of freestyle jumping, as opposed to attempting to rush beyond basic belly-flying too quickly.

Instructions

    • 1

      Practice angling your body in order to move forward and backward or side to side while belly-flying.

    • 2

      Learn to control your carving while belly-flying, in which you move both forward and to the left or the right.

    • 3

      Jump with an expert freestyle diver and practice using tracking techniques to alter your speed and move horizontally. With practice, you can learn to move nearly as fast horizontally as you are falling, and strong tracking skills will make you a more effective freestyle rider.

    • 4

      Progress to back-flying when you are comfortable with your belly and tracking maneuvers. Back-flying can be intimidating at first, as the wind will be hitting new areas, producing an alien feeling compared to prior jumps, and you will not be able to see the ground as you fall.

    • 5

      Practice flying in a head-up free-falling position, with your feet pointed down, as if standing. Head-up falling requires different body motions to alter direction and speed because you are oriented drastically different than belly- or back-flying, and an instructor should always accompany you as you begin a new style to teach you how to control your body.

    • 6

      Learn to fly head-down, as if doing a headstand as you fall through the air. Head-down can be scary at first as you are staring straight down at the ground, but makes your freestyling more dynamic, as movements come easily in head-down falling once a diver is comfortable.

    • 7

      Progress to jumping with multiple other experienced jumpers to create formations only after having more than 100 jumps solo or with a coach. A diver should have between 300 and 500 jumps before progressing to groups larger than three jumpers, and more than 500 jumps before jumping in a group larger than five jumpers.