Learning blocks in the tunnel

This is a bit of a spin-off of the last post about learning blocks. I was wondering what kinds of blocks are recommended to try in the tunnel, since I have not been flying in the sky this year. Also, which blocks are not possible to do in Perris' tunnel due to lack of flying space?

Is flying my piece partner's slot (I am usually Point) every so often, a good idea? I did this a couple of times because someone else wanted to fly Point, and I think that it really opened my eyes even more as to exactly how my piece partner and I are working together on the blocked moves, when I flew OC.

I've flown the following blocks in the tunnel during 4-way, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 21 (21 was with 3 people...it was a little funny!) I would like to try more. Any more recommendations on flying blocks in the tunnel?

Thanks everyone!

You've just about covered it for blocks in a 12 ft tunnel. You missed 3, 5 and 15, I've seen those done a few times. You can also do a three person 22 drill, where the cat piece spins and you can do either of the two solo flyers.

If you roll down to Eloy, you can fit 1, 2, 8, 10, 18, 19 and a full 4 way 21 as well. You can even put a full 22 in there, but get ready to man up for that one.

Find smaller and smaller teammates until you can do the whole pool.

If you check out skyleague articles, Kurt showed video of a few of the bigger blocks working in AZ-SV. Good teams appear to be able to do (at least a version) of all the blocks in there.

For Perris you can also do 17.

Great for making the back piece a bit happier!


Bill

Depending on how much of a tunnel team you are you can do 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21

18's can be done in the Perris tunnel, although not super realistic. I've seen smaller sized teams do them more easily Chris - didnt Topher have you guys do 18's?

At Eloy we did everything except straight 1's, 4's, 19's and 13's.

Yeah we have done 18s in the Perris Tunnel. It is possible and actually not unrealistic. HOWEVER, they have to be hugely staged and the clones must make their moves and stop HARD!!

If you guys ever come over to the UK, get yourself to the Bodyflight tunnel. My team has practised the entire pool, without a problem. 1's had to be cheated a little at the top(I'm 6' 5"!) and 2's, 4's and 22's required careful placement at the top of the block to ensure minium carnage, but other than that, we are spoilt for space.
If anything, you have to work hard to keep the orthodox tunnel blocks (5, 6, 7, 9 etc) in the centre of the tunnel to ensure pieces don't drift apart.

My knees still shuddder at the memory of 14's in Perris, and Pat McGowan will tell you why it's not great having a 6' 5" guy in the tunnel with you! ;-)
(...I'll never live that WWF session down!)

I am new to 4-way and thus far my new team has only done 2-way and 3-way drills, but soon we will be stuffing all four of us in a tunnel. We have access to a quality recirculating 12' tunnel.

Is it worth the expenditures to travel to a location with a 14' tunnel to practice blocks? I wasn't sure how big a difference 2' makes. Ditto - worth the cost to travel to the 16' tunnel in North Carolina? Or would we be better off putting the travel funds towards more time in a local 12' tunnel?

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

It depends on how tall you all are :P

(Are you doing single A (2 4 6 7 8 9 19 21)? Or the whole dive pool?)

USPA Intermediate dive pool. 5'8"; 5'10"; 5'10.5"; 5'9"

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USPA Intermediate dive pool. 5'8"; 5'10"; 5'10.5"; 5'9"

My team was all in the 5'9"-5'10" range and we trained in a 12-footer locally on the training weekends we did locally (we also traveled to a full-time training DZ for more intense weekends). Some blocks are easy as long as you have four stable flyers: 7, 9, 14, 15. Some fall into the not slam-dunk easy but not that hard if you have four confident flyers who can communicate with each other reasonably well, like 6 or 11. Some teams can pull off 18 or 21 in a 12-foot tunnel, but they're not ideal. If I'm remembering correctly (and it's been a few years since I trained 4-way), everything else falls into the category of "you can train pieces but not the whole block because it just doesn't fit."

I'd say it depends on where you are in your training and what your goals are this year as to whether a trip to Paraclete is in order. If you do decide to travel to do a tunnel camp or two at a bigger tunnel, definitely do it with coaching even if your team is not getting coaching, to maximize the value of the trip. If you've got a 14 footer in closer range, that might be a good option, too - to get more of the blocks as options (and to make training all of the ones that you can do in 12-footer even easier).

Your best use of the tunnel will be to do randoms. Randoms win meets. Blocks in the tunnel often have to be modified to fit and that is just a waste.

So:
1. Randoms.
2. Blocks that can be flown without modification.
3. Block pieces that can be done without modification.
4. Blocks flown with modification.

Randoms win meets. If I had 100% of tunnel time, 70-80 percent of that time would be doing randoms in the tunnel (and random like blocks 7, 9, 14, 15, with maybe 6, 11, 18.... in that order. If you can't do a 6, don't bother trying an 11 or an 18) If Advanced or Open throw in 5, 16, 17.

I was on a team in 2002 and we did 10 hours tunnel and maybe 50 jumps and did a 14.9 average with an alternate after round 8.

So save yourself some grief and focus on randoms. Blocks in the tunnel look cool... But unless you can fly randoms well in the tunnel you are wasting time (unless you just enjoy it). And every glitch costs more time.

And if you don't have a coach.... This goes double.

So my vote is spend that money in a 12 footer if you have one local.

Those that have already replied to you have a LOT more experience than me so listen to them first, but I'll add that it depends on your team and coach. I've trained for a few years in Orlando (12' non-recirc), but we still got a lot out of it because our coach knows how to train that tunnel, and put us in the right mindset before we got in. Those blocks that don't fit in a 12' can still have the pieces broken up and have them practice their moves. If you go in with the right mindset, you'll get your value.
That being said, flying to Chicago this year was worth every penny.