Possum

That would be true for the first dive. However, as randoms got "eaten up" to fill what would previously have been 5 point dives, the odds of drawing 5 randoms on subsequent rounds would decrease in comparison to where they are now.

And if they did happen to draw five randoms, would they then have to draw another random for the sixth point? Obviously drawing from the whole pool would probably result in a 7 point dive, which would deviate from the six point rule.

I've been flying mantis for about a hundred jumps or so, and there are lots better mantis flyers in here than me, but here's how I learned. First, I was very lucky in that a friend of mine who has done a couple years of four way (who, for the sake of this post, we'll call "Karl") and his wife (who we'll call "Cherie") gave me tons of help with flying mantis, as well as 4 way coaching in general, and I was able to ask them questions, and did allot of 2 ways with Karl in which we just worked mantis. Obviously, the tunnel is the best way to learn this body position. However, I believe the second best way is to do 2 ways specifically focused on mantis flying, preferably with a coach and video, but even just with another stable faller to lay base is better than trying to learn solo or in larger formations. The problem with solo jumps is that you have no frame of reference to your turns and slides. The problem with larger jumps, or even 2 ways not focused on mantis, is that while you are worried about turning points, maintaining eye contact with your clone and other cool, fun, important belly flyer stuff, its almost impossible not to slip back into the position you find most comfortable and easiest to fly, often without even knowing it. So I found that doing some mantis specific jumps made it much easier for me to transition to that position. As far as ground training goes, for about 3 months I religiously got on a flat bench 4-5 times a week at the gym and practiced mantis turns. I would hang my chest of the front of the bench, raise my shoulders, and spread my knees out past the side of the bench. Then I would kick Mantis center turns, usually in sets of 40. I found it to be a good lower back exercise and an easy way to work up a sweat. (A word of warning: if you are a dude, it is important to make sure the jewels are pointed south during this drill.) I think doing this helped me get down the muscle memory for flying mantis, and once I started the position, I never really went back to flying a box. However, when I did finally get to the tunnel I found 2 problems- 1) I had my legs spread to far apart. 2) I was using much larger inputs than I needed. Since it seemed pretty obvious to me that these were habits that I was reinforcing with my drills, I stopped doing them and just switched to back extensions. On a related note, I would recommend some kind of lower back exercise to any type of jumper, but most especially to my fellow belly flyers. Helps allot with that next day lower back soreness. That and stretching. Anyway, back on the subject, Karl does his mantis drills in a swimming pool. This might be more beneficial than what I was doing. I asked Thomas Hughes what he thought about ground drills and he said that they had limited use early on, but that you have to get into a column of air and drill in order to relly learn to fly the position. Hope that helps.

Absolutely. I am very interested in getting with a team. I have actually been looking since around December, but was not able to put together anything solid at my home DZ (Chambersburg, a great place to skydive). I don't have allot of jumps, but I have got some coaching and some tunnel time, and I spend a borderline obsessive amount of time on NSL's website. I also memorized the intermediate dive pool, since that was the class I wanted to compete in. Anyway, I decided before the camp that I was willing to train at X Keys if I could find some people who were interested in doing a newbie team, and I talked to Michelle who I noticed in her parachutist appearance was interested in putting a team together. Any help you guys could give in terms of hooking me up with some other people would be immensely appreciated, and thanks again for the camp. ( For those of you who don't know, Jetstream did the camp for free, including Dave here who flew up from Florida for it.) Lastly, JumperPaula, I apologize for hijacking your thread for the purely selfish purpose of finding myself a 4way team. I swear it won't happen again. And in any event, I blame Mr. Weidner.

5:11:1 (First jump at X-Keys) Also I possibly owe for my first post, after a couple months of lurking. Did Jetstream's 4way camp over the weekend, and had a blast. Learned allot about exits, and different ways of leaving the plane, depending on the slot you are flying. Joe, my coach for the weekend was cool, and the other guys came off pretty righteous as well. It would have been nice to do some more jumps, but Sunday's rain ended the camp prematurely.