Misconceptions of UTD Essentials & Intro to Tech

Between the misinformation we’ve seen and heard, and some of the questions we’ve been asked, I thought I’d provide some insight into the UTD Essentials, Intro to Tech, Rec 2 and the general UTD teaching philosophy overall.

While the “T” in UTD does stand for “Team”, it’s important to remember that we believe a diver must have solid foundational and personal skills before moving on to team skills.  In other words, if a student can’t perform a modified s-drill (personal skill) without losing their trim or buoyancy (foundational skills), how will they be able to perform a full s-drill with a teammate?   While the “team” aspect is a critical aspect to the UTD approach, that is just one block in the overall structure, and the top block is only as solid as the blocks below supporting it.

This is where some misinformation and inaccurate comparisons exist with the Essentials class.  Essentials is exactly as its name implies.  It teaches the essential skills of safe diving.  It is, by design, a personal skills class, not a team skills class.  We focus on the foundational skills of buoyancy, trim, kicks and balance.  We then move to the personal skills of the Basic 6 and smb deployment.  Team skills are introduced and performed, but again, the focus of this class is to develop the skills needed to become a safer diver and, in turn, a better teammate.

For the reasons stated above, Essentials is a very common entry point into the UTD curriculum.  While divers at any level, including instructors, photographers and experienced divers will benefit from the class, it’s designed to provide a diver who has taken their open water class from outside the UTD curriculum a means of learning the skills required for future UTD classes.

In other words, most open water students wanting to take Rec 2, which is the “equivalent” of Advanced and Nitrox combined, and also where team skills and light critical skills (failures) are introduced would very quickly be overwhelmed, simply because they haven’t built the foundation needed for that class.  They wouldn’t learn anything from the class because they’d be in over their head from the very beginning.

This isn’t to say that every diver wanting to enter the UTD Recreational curriculum must first take Essentials, as we do accept equivalents.  However, Essentials was designed to teach the foundational and personal skills, and introduce team skills, in a non-evaluation environment where the student can focus simply on learning, and not the pressure of passing or failing.

Additionally, there are also only 2 gear requirements for the Essentials class…a 7′ long hose and blade style, non-split fins.  It was important to us to make this class accessible to anyone wanting to take it, without a large investment in gear and equipment.

The UTD Intro to Tech class, while similar to the Essentials class in several ways, does differ in that it is an evaluation class. Intro to Tech is a more robust course, where the student is learning the skills needed to enter the UTD Technical Diving curriculum, in a non-critical skills (failure) environment.  To enter the Tech 1 class, where the student will be entering mandatory decompression obligations, the student must first meet the standards of the Intro to Tech class.  To that end, the Intro to Tech class is an evaluation class, but the student is still learning the required foundational, personal and team skills required to build that foundation needed for more advanced technical diving.

The Intro to Tech class is taken in double cylinders and a decompression bottle.  We feel that teaching the mechanics of gas switches, stowing and bottle passing in a non-critical skills environment allows the student to learn properly the first time and also allows them time to go practice their new skills before entering the Tech 1 curriculum, where failures are introduced.

Upon entering the Rec 2 (after Essentials) or Tech 1 (after Intro to Tech), the focus shifts to team, awareness, problem solving and thinking.  This is because they now have the foundation built, and they can refocus their new extra bandwidth towards those areas, as it is no longer needed for their own skills.

It should be noted that this method is not the only dive instruction philosophy.  It’s simply UTD’s training approach.

Hopefully this clears up some of the confusion.

Brian

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