Get coached from anywhere in South Africa or the World!
In our South African President’s “family talk” on Monday he made no changes to the current counter-COVID restrictions. Even with our curfew being moved back to 5am, the prohibition on surfing and the use of beaches that doesn’t even allow us to go on a “Dawn Patrol”; especially with the military and Law Enforcement Officers doing their own patrol at that time of day!
As the Head Coach of the German Surfing Federation (DWV) I was in a fortunate position to be able to remotely coach my athletes during the first lock down. The DWV has kindly allowed me to use their in-house technology to enable this approach; it’s this experience in remote coaching I’d like to share with you.
Under the trying circumstances that we currently face, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to be able to offer to work with you remotely and am looking forward to helping and guiding you using technology.
Through my capping this offer of remote on-line coaching to 10 people, and thus create only a small number of training slots, I will be able to give my trainees the very best service.
The approach I will take with you and the remote online coaching will be to hone in and focus on specific manoeuvres depending on the level of your surfing.
Due to COVID and the cancelation of events, it currently seems as though the earliest I will be able to travel again will be in March; this gives us two months to focus on your surfing.
This is how I see the remote coaching being structured.
The remote online coaching can start this January and end in March. This will give us more than enough time to work on your surfing and at the same time monitor your progression and improvement.
The first block of training will start in mid-January and finish in mid-February. The second block will run from mid-February till mid-March. The aim is to spend eight hours a month on your surfing, and you as an individual, which is about two hours per week.
With the continuation of lock-downs around the world, restrictions on travel changing on an almost daily basis as different “hot spots” are identified, the cancelation of events and the uncertainty of the contest calendar ahead, the best thing we can do right now is to improve your surfing through focused, technology driven, surf sessions.
With this remote coaching approach there are a few things we have to take into consideration. Firstly it takes quite a bit of time to improve a turn as there are different elements in a turn to improve. Secondly, we also have to consider what surf conditions, if any, are available to you on a regular basis and which turns can be worked on and improved in those conditions. Lastly will there be someone who can film the majority of your sessions to be able to give me regular video footage.
Another major challenge that we face is the fact that you are an individual surfer with your own style and certain techniques which are ingrained in your muscle memory. This will be hard to modify and your new motor skills will be a challenge to implement but with the video coaching, combined with a few other techniques which I share below, you will improve.
For those of you in South Africa with the current lock down and closure of the beaches it will be a challenge to supply me with regular footage.
For those of you joining my online remote coaching program from abroad I look forward to working with you and receiving your video footage on a regular basis.
Week One:
Step 1:
Send me 5 or more video clips of you surfing your forehand and backhand on a variety of waves for me to get a big picture of your surfing abilities and capabilities. I will spend up to an hour analyzing and assessing your surfing. I will then upload your videos into the coaching software.
Step 2:
We get on a ZOOM call after I have spent time analyzing and going through your footage. The initial call is to talk about your surfing, what level of surfing you are at, what level you want to take your surfing to with regards to the surfing repertoire needed to achieve the contest goals you have set yourself. We will then go through the video footage together online, using zoom, and identify specifically which turns you want to improve; we will divide the turns according into two categories. The first category covers foundational surfing and linking manoeuvres. The second category is progressive surfing; this of course is dependent on what level of surfing you’re currently at. This step will all in all be approximately an hour.
Step 3:
I will spend a further hour or two finding similar turns that we are working on, cutting them and importing them into the coaching software. I will now use mirroring and analyse the turns we are working on after which a link will be sent to you with the analysed video for you to go through.
It will be very important for you to go through this video regularly, especially before sessions, to help you stay focused during the surf session on what your goal is and what you want to achieve in that surf.
- Visualisation is the best way to speed up the process of improving your surfing and specific turns.
You can do this in three different way.
- Watch the video repeatedly and get a good perception of what it is you need to do
- Visualize (close your eyes) and consciously ride a wave in your mind using the correct technique
- Visualize (watching a wave) yourself surfing a wave doing the turn you’d like to accomplish with the correct technique
- Another great tool is to physically practice the manoeuvre/technique on the beach over and over
- You can of course use your surf skate type boards to also practice and improve
- You can of course also practice the surf over and over in the surf.
Week Two:
We will simply repeat step 1 and step 3
The footage sent can be a bit more specific to the turns we’ve decided to focus on for the month whether it be backhand or forehand. Best is to try find the waves that will allow you the opportunity to work on these turns.
Week Three:
We will repeat steps 1 through 3 and include and zoom call for this week. After working on certain identified turns we should start seeing and improvement at this point which we will point out in the zoom call. We will now at this stage push hard for that last little bit of new motor skill improvement to be able to complete the entire improvement so we can potentially move onto the next manoeuvre for month two.
Week Four:
Again repeat steps 1 through 3 but conclude the month with a zoom meeting. We will then assess where to next for your surfing for the 2nd month and re-start the process from your, by now, improved surfing ability.
Other benefits:
WhatsApp: I will be available during the week for brief what app calls and WhatsApp texts Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm only (my curfew!) This extra benefit will allow for any questions or consultations.
Instagram: I’ll be following your progress on Instagram and keeping an eye on your surfing. I’ll also use this platform to motivate you in the comments and also share your stories on my story to help get you more followers!!!
Cost:
The cost for this individualised service is R3000 per month. Allowing for training and interaction through Zoom and WhatsApp over approximately eight hours, this works out to R375 per hour.
If paid in US dollars, the cost will be $195 per month and in Euros €160.
