Tracking is considered a fundamental skill in the sport because it allows multiple skydivers to gain separation from each other prior to deploying their parachutes.
[citation needed] Tracking is regarded as an essential life saving skill for all freefall skydivers engaging in relative work with others, allowing the jumpers to gain horizontal separation after building a formation and before opening their parachutes.
This serves several purposes; first of all, the other trackers will have a target to chase, gauge their relative horizontal speed on and potentially take grips upon.
Tracking dives are often planned at the end of the day, and with less emphasis on quantitative results (formation skydiving), or on holding difficult and new body positions (freeflying).
Tracking and Atmonauti dives are considered by most skydivers (wingsuiting notwithstanding) to go the furthest towards the feeling of ‘true flight’ due to the large horizontal distances covered, the low terminal velocity, and the fact that at such heights the ground does not appear to be approaching at all.
[3] On October 5, 2012, the Swiss Marc Hauser set a first world record in speed tracking, a discipline he founded.