Plain & simple

by Ray Winslow, Allyn International

It won’t be long before football season is wrapped up; the latest invincible living legends, the goliaths of the gridiron (for this season, at least) will reign supreme at the Super Bowl. Then comes the off-season, the football fanatic’s limbo: the “dog days” of boredom and frivolous offerings. For the weekend couch potato it is, indeed, a restless season. “Next year” is a long way off.

Way back, when you could find me in front of a television on Saturday afternoon, I remember watching ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.” Football season was over, baseball had not yet started, and there I sat watching a cliff diving competition from Mexico. When it comes to swimming, I’ve never gone one stroke further than I had to; as for diving, it never occurred to me to do anything besides feet first or the occasional belly flop. Hey, it was Saturday afternoon, and that’s what was on!

I believe this cliff diving took place in Acapulco. The competition was between Mexican and American divers, and they were going off a sheer rock face into the ocean about a hundred feet below. Looking at the waves crashing up against the base of the cliff, I wondered why anyone would want to take that plunge over and over – if I survived the first dive, the trip back to the top would probably do me in!

As I recall, the Mexicans and the Americans alternated their dives, with the judges scoring as they finished each attempt. The American divers were attempting some pretty complicated maneuvers. These guys were performing dives that I can’t even name, let alone attempt: double reverse pike with a twist, difficulty rating 4.9, lopsided somersault with a triple split, difficulty rating 5.2. The gymnastics were amazing and quite complicated. The Mexicans, on the other hand, performed one dive time after time: the Swan Dive, difficulty rating 2.5.

The procession of dives was consistent. An American diver would take on a complicated “quadruple something or other” with a high difficulty rating, and the score would be something like 8.3, maybe a bit higher. The next diver, a Mexican, would step to the edge of the cliff and do the Swan Dive, a relatively simple maneuver with a low difficulty rating. The scores for the swan dives were consistently higher: 9.0, 9.5 etc. At no point did an American attempt a Swan Dive, and the Mexicans never varied from that one procedure.

The Mexicans won easily and they kept it simple. Don’t overcomplicate your demonstrations; keep them concise, working from the point of initial interest. Address the intricate details after the sale, if at all.

Editor’s Note: Be sure to stop in Ray’s seminar during the VDTA/SDTA Convention on Feb. 23 from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. in Room N118 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
He’ll be presenting his famous demos class, and he has lots of tips and tricks to share with you that will keep your cash register ringing!

Reprinted from SQE Professional January 2007