My technique pieces mainly reflect on how best to go about nailing a certain move or employing a strategy to ‘move on up’. This month however we help you identify the barriers to your improvement. The most important insight I have is you have to WANT IT! I will go onto identify the main areas that may not be maximising your potential and then look at the key moves and where I see frequent mistakes. I am drawing on my 25 years of coaching and also what I observe on many beaches around the world. Understanding much of this will help you become better at self-coaching, which is one of the key ways to improve and enjoy your windsurfing more.
“THE MOST IMPORTANT INSIGHT I HAVE IS YOU HAVE TO WANT IT!”
PHYSICAL
It has to start with this, windsurfing is physical and requires a high level of fitness. If you are fitter, and perhaps more importantly stronger and more dynamic you are able to sail with more power and for longer. In effect you become able to dominate your equipment and be a pilot and not a passenger. I am now training more effectively and harder and have noticed huge benefits in my sailing. My stronger and fitter clients improve the fastest, enough said!
MENTAL
The mental aspect also plays a huge part too. As I said you have to ‘want to improve,’ and in sports coaching this can be called your ‘need to achieve’ or ‘achievement motivation’, which boils down to your ‘motive to succeed’ (how much you want it) minus your ‘motive to avoid failure’ (how much you want to avoid crashing). So yes you have to want it, A LOT, and be willing to crash as part of your journey.
An area which can hold people back is our internal self-dialogue, “I can’t do this,.. I am scared, .. I will never achieve this or that.” If you can change this to “I shall or I will or I can”, then you are already on an upward curve.
I have also seen that visualisation can play a big part in how much we all improve. Some people can see how a whole move works, but visualising, understanding and working on key stages/parts of a move is more effective.
KIT
The main kit areas I see that limit our improvement are below.
Using or owning the wrong kit. It might be too big or too small, too fast or too slow, or just unsuitable for your level.
Wrong combinations. Sail too big on a small board or vice versa, sails and boards too close together in size.
Denne historien er fra Issue 387 - July 2019-utgaven av Windsurf.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 387 - July 2019-utgaven av Windsurf.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
New School
Slingshot’s windsurfing brand manager, Wyatt Miller, has noticed that kids are drawn to playing with wings and puts forward an interesting case as to why he thinks this could help entice them and others into windsurfing.
Changes
Wave sailor Flo Jung reflects on our changed world during his lockdown in Germany.
THE LAST WAVE
Lockdown stirred the creative juices of reader Björn Alfthan, who peers into the future to present a fictional story set in the wild waves of Norway, five years from now.
STILL IN THE GAME
After a horrific fracture in his leg from a crashed aerial in 2018, Alessio Stillrich is back! John Carter talks to the highflyer from Gran Canaria about his move to the Simmer team, recovering from injury and how he learned to windsurf in Gran Canaria!
MOVE ON UP - GET ON THE FRONT FOOT
This month we look at how our front foot weighting can affect and improve different aspects of our main windsurfing moves.
SOUTH' KIPA
Nik tweaking it over home waters.
A NEW NORMAL
On a trip to La Tranche-sur-Mer in France last year, Tris Best estimated over 80% of the windsurfers were foiling. This summer in Portland Harbour, foiling activity has increased dramatically too he reports. With the market offering plenty of choice to recreational windfoilers, our test team check out some of the latest foil offerings.
TACKING – THE SEQUEL
Having given you time to practice, Harty concludes his tacking series by critiquing various tacking options, including the carve tack, as well as offering solutions to common slip-ups.
‘NO VAPOUR TRAILS TO SCAR THE SKY' *
Realising we may be about to enter an extraordinary period in our lives, Harty decided to keep a windsurf-centric lockdown diary. Here are some of his choice excerpts.
REDEMPTION DAY!
Renowned for its windsurfing and variety of spots to sail at, Kimmerdige Bay is a wave sailing jewel on the south coast of England. Timo Mullen gives a guide to its shores while reflecting on why a recent session there was a reminder that there is no place like home!
