The FlowState Way: Training Philosophy, Policies & Procedures

FlowState Divers does not train in classes. Every training runs through one of exactly two pathways, and the ratio between mentor and diver never extends beyond what either pathway defines.

One-on-One

The default pathway is a single mentor working with a single diver. This is not a premium tier offered above some standard group format - it is the standard format itself. Every observation described elsewhere in this document, the close reading of a diver's breathing, hesitation, or drift under load, depends on a mentor's full attention being available to notice it. That attention does not divide cleanly across multiple divers at once, and we do not ask it to.

Dive Teams - Maximum Three

Where a diver trains alongside their own regular dive team rather than individually, that team may include up to three participants, supervised by a single mentor. This ceiling is identical to the maximum team size set out for diving generally, and for the same reasons: a mentor supervising a team of three can still maintain genuine, continuous awareness of every diver's execution, positioning, and state throughout a session. A mentor supervising more than that is no longer mentoring individuals - they are managing a group, and the quality of observation this training depends on does not survive that shift.

A team training together is not assessed as a unit with a single outcome. Each diver's evaluation record, as described elsewhere in this document, remains individual - shared conditions and shared drills do not mean shared results. One member of a team of three may be certified-in-substance on a given skill while another is not, and the mentor's attention across the session is expected to catch that difference regardless of how the team performed together.

No Pathway in Between

There is no third option. FlowState Divers does not run trainings for four or more participants under a single mentor, regardless of how experienced the group, how simple the skill, or how much demand exists to train more people at once. A larger ratio might be more efficient to schedule. It is not more effective to teach, and efficiency has never been the metric this institution optimises for.

Where a diver arrives without a regular team of their own, they train one-on-one. Where a mentor is asked to take on a group larger than three, the answer is not a larger class - it is more sessions, run at the ratio this document actually permits.