Our new electronic gates.

[bofh 0]

After me and a friend constantly was slightly high above the entry gate at my first (and his second) competition, I bought a couple of electronic gates to better train. We put them up in the middle of a large grass field without any other markers.

When I tried to hit them for the first time, I was so low into the corner that I went under the beam (1.5m) sliding sideways on my feet after pulling hard on the toggles...

A few jumps later another friend came back all green after doing the same thing but sliding on the body.

Then a third, much more experienced friend aborted slightly higher, but he had also set up too close to the gates and tried to dive into them...

After that we took them down again before anyone got hurt.

I got low because I set up too close to the gate and slowed down the turn to get further from the gate, but of course then I ended up low. I've been low before but then I have noticed it much earlier and aborted in time, but this time I was focusing too much on the gate. Since there were no other objects near it, I guess it was much harder to notice the lack of altitude.

Previously when training we have either just used markers at the ground (thus no real feedback if one was too high) or huge windblades.

So... How should one train safer? Will more course markers help?

[d100965 0]

Sebastian,
Please don't hurt yourself on your new gates!
Training on gates is a serious matter, they have a tendancy to suck you in. Prior to me training on gates I did a lot of coached jumps training on a lane. This develops the sight picture, to train the repeatability of your turn and to bring the turn down to the ground. (Bring the turn down, when maxed out and not the altitude of course).
When you then go to gates the tendancy is to always set up too close to the gates and this causes you to either miss them by going through too high, or usually force a too aggressive/steeper/longer turn which has to be aborted quickly before you lose your knees.
Gate fixation and/or a set up which is too close will kill!
I also did my first gate jumps under 1 on 1 coaching from Brian Vacher.
The only way to remedy this is to bring your set up and turn back. WAY, WAY back from the gates.
Aim to only finish your swoop by taking the very last step through the gates. After you can do this then you can start building the power through the gates and bringing your set up closer.
I use a helmet mounted GoPro pointed down to check my set up afterwards and you'll see the problem everytime.
If this is not the case then you need to re-evaluate your skillset and ask whether you need to go back a few steps. Retrain your turn for repeatability and ensure your are maxed out. Get more coaching.
If you are competing then I would assume by now you have received a lot of coaching and you should know what and where your nill win set up point is located from the gates. You should be able to pace out this set up point and place a marker on the ground (like a flourescent jacket) that can be seen from the air to determine whether or not you are at the right point. You should be able to move this point around in different wind conditions and know that a down wind run through the gates will amplify this set up point exponentially.
You can also place several markers on the ground which can be used as distance markers. In RAPA their swoop pond is alongside the runway. From the air the runway markers can be used to gauge the exact distance back from the gates that you are. If you are too close you can then set up 1 marker back.
All this is not an easy thing to do, taking the gates down for now and re-evaluating is a good decision.
In the UK you are required to have 1000 jumps before competing and even at a 1000 jumps you would have to have done a LOT of dedicated coached hop and pops. This stuff is DIFFICULT!
Brian Vacher at Empuria is a good coach and can help you with this a lot.
I have close to 2000 jumps now and have been swooping for around 1250 jumps. I still can miss gates and have to remind myself every time not to set up too close. My turn is still only a 270 and I keep holding off from going to a 450 (or downsizing to an V84) because there is still so much to learn.

Hope this helps and I'm sure some more experienced guys will chip in as well. Or flame/correct my advice ;-))

[AdD 1]

Personally I don't like 450's ... maybe others would disagree but 630 always seemed easier.

Life is ez
On the dz
Every jumper's dream
3 rigs and an airstream

[morris 0]

No, I don´t disagree, I agree. Do you know why that is?

[Pablo.Moreno 0]

We kind of did the same at our DZ. The only difference was that if we were out by a lot we didn't keep trying to make the gates.
Normally making the gates for us was related more to be in the right spot at the right altitude with the right winds at the start of the turn. We modify our turn ( making slower or faster depending on how far or close we were to the gates) but, if we were off by a lot we kept our dive timing and didn't tried to still make the gates since we were not at the right spot at the beginning of the turn and still trying to make the gate would be really dangerous.
At the beginning our rate was 10% on making the gates, and after doing 150-200 jumps we were making the gates at 50% to 60% and kept getting better. It is a slow progression but once you know your set up at different winds, it gets a lot safer and easier.