A dirty secret of the diving industry: the vast majority of divers are not great at diving, but only about half know it. By “not great”, I mean that their fundamental skills (trim, buoyancy, breathing, and propulsion) aren’t strong, or that those skills take a large amount of concentration and mental effort. The half that are aware of this tend to be anxious about diving and can never quite relax underwater, regardless of how many dives they’ve done. The half of divers that aren’t aware of their weaknesses have more fun, but are also much more likely to get themselves and their buddies killed. Obviously, the solution is to get better at these fundamental skills, but the students that don’t think there’s a problem tend to be the hardest to teach.
I’m currently finishing up my Divemaster internship, which means I’ve been assisting with a lot of classes. We recently had two students that the instructor didn’t pass, taking Open Water and Advanced Open Water respectively. In both cases, the problem was buoyancy control. To have effortless control of buoyancy, a diver has to have to have they equipment set up properly. They have to have the right amount of weight (not too much or too little), and it has to be in the right place along their body so that they can hover horizontally without moving a muscle. Both of these divers were using rental equipment, and I doubt their weighting was correct. This meant that buoyancy was going to be an uphill battle.
However, equipment problems aside, it also seemed like there was a communication breakdown. The instructor or I would explain how to ascend or descend, and the student would reply “ok”, but there was no conversation, and no change underwater. It seemed like the attitude was “I’m having a hard enough time clearing my mask/reading my compass/whatever, and you’re here giving me even more to think about”. Of course, having strong buoyancy skills is just as important as being able to clear your mask, but we were having a hard time explaining that.
When students get fixated on the skills they need to pass a course, it’s hard to tell them anything else. I don’t have a perfect solution to this, but I have an idea: instead of telling students what skills they’re going to be performing before each dive, just dive with them. Have them do all the required skills throughout the dives, but also pay attention to how they generally look in the water. Back on the surface, you can say “It looks like you’re having a hard time staying at one depth. Try…”. That way, the student isn’t focused on the class “objectives”, and can pay attention to what matters.