Roberta Mancino skydiving hard core and hot

OK, let's get to the reality about Roberta Mancino. She’s a skydiver, she’s very hot, she’s a skydiving coach, she’s been known to skydive nude and she’s a champion. Roberta Mancino is… well, get over it – ok, maybe not completely. So looking at Roberta Mancino from the viewpoint of a student skydiver, lets consider whether you’d really want to learn from someone like Roberta Mancino? Let's see shall we…

We'll use Roberta Mancino to compare some of the things you might lookfor in your instructor so you can work with them to get the best experience of learning to skydive.

How to inspire a winner

Some people decide to get their skydiving licence and they are already confident, successful and they believe in themselves. Others less so. Some people decide to do a skydiving course because they want to improve their lives and do something that others find difficult (or even impossible). But guess what? You won’t see the phrase “inspire your student to be successful and be a winner” written on any lesson plan or on any ground school exam or even discussed in DZO safety meetings. This is one of the ‘added value’ personal qualities that good instructors and coaches build up for themselves, usually over time and by being involved with a number of sports and activities. So, if it were me learning to skydive, I would look for an instructor who also has successful capabilities in more than one sport.

Aren't they just a skydiving instructor?

Your instructor definitely needs to be properly qualified and licenced by one of the Parachute Associations. In this way you can be sure that they are properly trained and supervised. So if we take this as a basic requirement, let's consider how we find a skydiving instructor who will really help us to ‘be all we can be”. We’ve noticed that the best skydiving instructors tend to draw on multiple metaphors and to use their experiences from other sports and activities. So if you are a female who wants to learn to skydive and wants to aim high (no pun intended) then you might consider starting off with some indoor skydiving coaching from someone like Roberta Mancino (Roberta coaches at Paraclete Indoor Skydiving in North Carolina). After that, go on to do your accelerated free fall course and you’ll gain not just in skills, but in a whole new attitude to life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tRDELvjaAA&NR=1

So, does Roberta Mancino fit the bill here? We say yes, not just because of her skydiving capabilities but because she is also a judo black belt and a base jumper. These are undoubtedly activities that require a high level of confidence and personal awareness. Does being a model also help? We say yes here as well. In our view, being a model is not just about being a good looker which surely helps, but its also about having the charisma and presence to project themselves in multiple situations. These are life skills that many people would benefit from. Just imagine walking into that board room to give a big presentation and feeling that you are ‘in control’. Here's an example - one of the 'great' techniques to get started in a high level speaking presentation, is (strangely) called 'the power of silence’ and it always gets the full attention of the audience. Do you think you could stand in front of your audience for 20-30 seconds in complete silence at the beginning of your pitch? Imagine the audience wondering (has she forgotten her lines? has she got stagefright?) Then you launch into the best pitch of your life..... It’s more theatrical than sports and so the modelling link fits very well here. There are many more skills and techniques that an aspiring female skydiver could learn from someone like Roberta Mancino.

Real, hard core talent in skydiving and a passion for the sport

Does Roberta Mancino have this –  again, we say yes. It’s not just about having a wall full of medals – almost every Accelerated FreeFall Instructor can show you their medals and then WOW you with tales of competition and daring. More important than the ego trip is really what those medals symbolise – a genuine and sincere desire to improve your own skills and be better (or ideally the very best) at what you do. If your own skydiving skills are excellent, then the instructor certification courses will develop the ability to teach and demonstrate those skills not just on the ground but also right in
front of the student when they are in in free fall, then stay within arms reach while they do the exercises for themselves.

Isn’t skydiving just for the brave?

Freestyle is one of the newer aspects of the sport and its in what is known as the ‘artistic’ category. It’s much more akin to dance moves and I’ve heard it being compared to figure skating. Roberta Mancino would be one of the first to say that freestyle requires supreme suppleness, strength, timing, agility, precision, focus and rhythm and much more. So if you are female and wanting to develop your skills in line with your femininity, the disciplines of aerial dance could be an excellent option for you.

Freestyle backroom boys

While we talk about freestyle, let’s have a brief word about the backroom heros on the freestyle team. Strangely enough those who have the toughest jobs are the camera jumpers who are full team members and they jump with Roberta Mancino and others like her. Those camera jumpers have a complementary skill set to the aerial dancer and this is why they also win the medals in this team event. There is much more than just keeping everything in-shot throughout the whole free fall dance routine that we call freestyle. Even the famous Roberta Mancino would be unable to get to her level without the support from an equally excellent free fall camera jumper.

What are your aspirations - One skydive or many?

Some people just want to make one skydive, to tick the box and then move on to the next thing on their bucket list. We have no problem at all with this and it probably fits with 90% of the people who make their first skydive. For those happy few who are real searchers – they are looking for a vision of where they could get to themselves. For them its much more than the outwardly attractive (or gorgeous even) Roberta Mancino. Its more about expressing themselves at the highest level in a fringe sport which pushes them to the limits and fits a paradigm of dance, grace and beauty. So can you start skydiving and say to yourself “I’d like to do what Roberta Mancino does”? Could you say I’d like to do what Robertas camera person does? If the answer  is yes, then it’s a very good thing to start with this clear objective in mind and your journey of learning to skydive will be much more fruitful and enjoyable as a result. After all, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Ideally those steps should be taken in the right direction.

The other side of Roberta Mancino

Of course there is much more to being a skydiving instructor/coach and that’s a whole different article. Is this the side of Roberta Mancino that you were thinking about when you landed here? Probably not.

Perhaps you'd like to read more about Indoor skydiving? click here

or find out more about Tandem skydiving? click here

Perhaps learning to skydive on an accelerated free fall course sounds good to you and you'd like to know more?, we have a full section to read on this subject so please just click here