The spare room
If you ’ re anything like me , your spare room gets filled up with junk , and things need throwing out to create space ; I found a Beetlejuice wig the last time I cleared out the spare room . We often keep things of importance or things of fondness , photos or objects that bring back memories . My suggestion is to try and do the same with your brain ; why fill it with junk and shut the door when you can keep it clean and full of fond memories .
To be less ‘ hippy ’ imagine that you ’ ve had one of those days where you ’ ve been progressing at a rate of knots , every move you ’ ve made has felt smooth and weightless , but at the end of the day , you ’ ve made one daft mistake that ’ s resulted in a swim . Which do you remember ? If the ‘ cave man ’ gets their way , the swim gets put in the spare room . Eventually , there ’ s no space left and the door bursts open in the form of a mini-breakdown , strop or all your kit being put on e-bay . Instead , with reason and rationale ( the human brain ), why did the swim happen ? Now that you ’ ve dealt with it and understand why it happened , it doesn ’ t need to go into storage . Instead , you can keep and frame the effortless and weightless feel you experienced during the day .
Coaching this can be quite tricky as we ’ re all used to focusing on the things we didn ’ t do well rather than the things we can do effortlessly . To encourage this above idea of training the brain , work with things like two or three things you liked and one thing you ’ d change . One of the coolest things I stole along these lines was the idea of a bin and a video camera . During the interactions ( any part of the day , not just the end ), the reflections from the day that get vocalised are put in the camera if you want to record / remember it or put in the bin if you want to forget .
TRACKING PROGRESS
Apps like Strava have boosted people ’ s mindset towards running or cycling , often putting themselves on a leader board . This tracking allows you to monitor progress and try and beat personal bests .
Unfortunately , there isn ’ t yet an app that does this for performance in a similar vein . This could be done in several ways , from the hard feedback of smoothly paddling the next step rapid or nailing that boof to the keeping of notes or photos and videos from the day .
TAKING NOTES
Written reflections don ’ t work for everyone ; however , the scribbling down of some high points and something to work on next time helps keep a record of progress ; when you have one of those blisteringly brilliant days on the water , record what made it so . It could be as simple as a soul surf on a new wave that you previously thought was intimidating ; jot it down , I surfed that wave ! Mine was the first time I surfed the front wave at Shepperton weir on the Thames . A few months down the line , on your bad day ( we all have them ), when things aren ’ t working , and you ’ re tripping over your edges every time you surf the wave , you can look back and see the progression , even on your clunkiest of days .
PHOTOS AND VIDEOS
The photo and video thing are controversial . Their plus is that they don ’ t lie ; that ’ s also their downside . Video coaching became all the rage a few years ago because of the interactive and precise feedback you can give / receive . The controversial part is the reliance on it for both learners and coaches that appeared . So long as it ’ s not a distraction or the decision-making factor is blurred ( must paddle this rapid for the go pro / camera ), then their uses are powerful . To get the most from the camera , evaluate performance and determine a pattern , in the last three vids I ’ ve seen this , I ’ ll see what tweaking does to performance . Once this information has been gathered and understood , be ruthless , delete them . If
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