An Organic Skydiving philosophy would have to have some basic truths.  Skydiving isn’t Relative work or Freestyle or Style or Freeflying.  Those are all things that you do while skydiving.  The basic truth is: Skydiving is you in control of your body while falling through the air in freefall.  And while that may seem to be over simplified, well, it is.  We have a tendency to make skydiving more complicated in our minds than it need be.  Being in control in freefall  has many aspects that we build on as we move forward in our skydiving pursuits.  If you are going to try and be the best at any one of the skills that I listed, then you need to focus on that skill.  But what about cross training?  Do some of the skills cross over?  Yes they can.  But before we get into how that can happen lets make it even simpler in our minds.  On a jump, once we have left the craft we are using to get us to altitude, we start to accelerate to terminal velocity.  Depending on how much surface area we are exposing to the air will dictate, more or less, what that speed will be.  To fall straight down we seek a balance of all the surface areas that are exposed to the air rushing by.  A truth: IF there is balance of drag\deflection of this air as we fall through it, we fall straight down.
If there is an imbalance on these surfaces then there is movement.
So whether you are on your head, standing up, laying flat or in a Daffy, if there is balance then there isn’t any movement.  So suppose we are laying flat and wanted to turn.  Then by deflecting the air with your arms, chest and legs you can go out of balance and create a turn.  Simple?  Well we didn’t think so at first but now we hardly think about it.     Not a Truth: Turn your head and your body will follow.  Unless you are deflecting a lot of air with the side of your face, this is not physically true.  You may turn your head and your body turns but it isn’t because of your head.  It is because of what you are doing with the rest of your body.  Being aware of this simple premise of deflection of air will get you where you want to go much more efficiently than by just turning your head and expecting everything else will come automatically.
So here is where I would like to bring in the concept of the vertical line.  The vertical line is that line that you can feel as you are falling straight down.  Where the air is coming from is down and where it is going is up.  This is one of those tactile inputs that you get from free fall.  The more aware of it you become the less you have to depend on what you see and the more you can depend on what you feel.  There are times in Freestyle when you will be flipping.  Sometimes so fast that your eyes aren’t a dependable way to tell where you are.  But you will feel the vertical line.  Where the air is coming from is always down and where it is going is always up.  You can depend on that for sure.  This awareness will allow you to anticipate where you are about to be so you can initiate a combination of deflections that will bring you to a stop where you want to stop.  I will write a separate article about the inner ear but for right now,  I would like to add this about the inner ear.  You can tumble your inner ear [the vestibular system] so violently that even if you were to be able to see the face of an altimeter clearly and see the hand and numbers, the information just doesn’t go into your head in a way that you can understand.  I have pulled way high because of this a few times.  I learned a few tricks to take care of this and we will discuss that later.  Even though I couldn’t read the altimeter I could feel the vertical line clearly and maintain control of where I was.  So no matter what you are doing in Freefall, become aware of the vertical line.  If you are sitting and you are totally still with no movement, close your eyes for 2-3 seconds and you will feel the vertical line easily.  If you are on your head or just laying flat, close your eyes for a second or two and you will feel it.  On that same Idea, if you find yourself moving and can’t figure out why, then try closing your eyes for a second or two and you will be able to feel where the imbalance of deflection\drag is.  It will become much more apparent than trying to see where it is with your eye’s.  Remember your whole body is a sensor.  The information is always coming in even if you aren’t conscious of it.  In the beginning of any new skill you are learning, start to take inventory regularly. Where’s my legs? Where’s my arms?.  Am I arched?, Am I flat?.  And I don’t mean just when things aren’t going right. You especially want to do it when you are doing it right.  Think legs and you will feel legs, think arms and you will feel arms.  The information is there for you to become aware of.

I do this to this day.  It’s a routine.

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