Coaching from the boat

[cragginshred]

Compared to the folks I was skiing with the last 2 summers I am super blessed to have guys who can recognize stuff that needs to be addressed from the dock or the boat. Here is at the caveat though. Last night I am being told three different things each one valid but 2 were symptoms of a cause. Usually it is the rider giving the feedback to the skier but sometimes it is the skier on the dock who has better discernment as to what needs to be adjusted. For this thread, if you are coaching and you see 3 thins or more technique glitches that look off how to do you triage and tell them the biggest aspect that needs to be tweaked? Also I have found short phrases (as opposed to paragraphs) are helpful, and don't tell the skier something different each time they drop.

What have you guys found helpful to triage what to say to your buddies in the water and what methods to communicate that vital info have you used?

[ski6jones]

Not an answer to your question but go see a good ski coach. You'll be glad you did.

[Craig]

When coaching, brevity is important. I also try and think of something to tell the skier to do/focus on as opposed to something NOT to do. I also try to analyze for a bit and took for repeated trends. Giving someone advice based on one bad buoy is really frustrating to the skier.

 

I also try not to step beyond my coaching reach. If I do not see something, I am not going to make up something for you to work on. This is particularly relevant when skiing with people at skill levels that I do not have a lot of experience (both behind and in the boat) with.

 

From the skiers perspective, I have found it useful to have a plan for each set and make that plan clear to your boat crew. If they know what you are working on, they will tend to focus on that. Since I also find it useful to work on the same thing for many sets at a time this will help keep your sets focused and help keep too many stray ideas from clouding the issue.

[Wish]

http://ballofspray.vanillaforums.com/discussion/10374/what-makes-a-good-coach#latest

[PBD]

1st a caveat, I'm a piss poor skier, usually one of the worst on the dock on any given day. So there is a whole lot of stuff I'm always doing wrong and all sorts of advice to "help" me and as you said, too many things to work on means you really don't work on anything, I've found he best thing is just before I drop off the swim step to announce what I'm working on for this pass. Such as, "I want to make sure I let the ski finish and I don't close off to the boat when I'm behind the wakes". This gives those who are in the coaching seat a specific aspect to look and and offer insight to. In the event they want to give advice on other parts of your skiing you can simply direct them back to the topic of the day, or let them give you tips on other parts of the run and table the initial area you wanted to work on to another set.

 

It gives you control.

 

This approach has also enabled me, the local hack, to help the better skiers. I might not be able to look a full pass and give constructive criticism, but I can easily tell one of the -38 guys where they are hooking up off the ball or what kind of angle they are generating on the off side vs their onside.

 

YMMV.

[gregy]

@pbd I like you idea. I usually have an plan of what I want to work on or do differently each day out. If I have observers in the boat I might even ask them to look for some specific action. I sometimes ask the ski what they working for the day. If they're working something particular I don't want to through another idea in the mix.

[thompjs]

Pull Hard -- Turn Fast

[andjules]

I'm a big believer that one of the biggest blessings of individual sports/one-on-one coaching is that you don't need a one-size-fits-none approach.

In general, of course, coaches should focus on one skill/theme at a time, and be brief and actionable.

However,

- if the student doesn't 'get it' right away, it can be valuable to hunt around for a different way to say the same thing. The phrase that your coach used to help you learn something may not be the phrase that will resonate with your student today.

- as for brevity, remember that a significant minority do best when they begin to really understand how and why something works. If you know you've got someone who loves to break down the mechanics, you can usually spend a little more time with them; then again, that's often best left for post-set conversation rather than when sitting in the water between passes.

[ToddL]

It depends upon the skill level of the skier, too. As @Craig said, a coach should always focus on what TO DO differently vs. what not to do. From a triage standpoint, body position comes first followed by timing of effort. However, they may swap places. Finally, it depends (or did I already say that). I try to consider what 1-2 things will most affect a positive change for the skier. For example, if a newbee skier is holding a leaning edge too far past the second wake that they can't get the ski to turn, I'm may choose to give guidance on starting the transition to the turning edge sooner, even if the skier's stack is not yet ideal.

 

I also like sequential instructions/tasks. For example: 1 thing to think about before the lean out to the gates, a 2nd thing to think about during the glide, a 3rd thing to do to initiate the turn-in with better stack, 1 thing to think about on the off-side turn. So, the skier is not constantly monitoring 3 things but rather doing three thoughts in series. Between the entrance and exit gates, only 1-2 things.

 

If you have multiple coaches, try to consider the common elements in their suggestions. Are they all focusing on your stack to some degree? Are they all trying to improve your space before the buoy, etc. Whatever it may be, there should be some common ground among the skilled coaches. From there, just pick which coach's word speak to you the most effectively. When, the other coach said his or her words on that common thing, just use that to remind you to do whatever the effective words were telling you.

[cragginshred]

All great stuff fellas! @ToddL I like how you began the pass at the beginning of it. Although the body position is foundational because I was coming in to one ball to hot (with my best stack) this was the CAUSE, but the SYMPTOM was what happened afterward and that was what was being coached thus I wasted two pm sets and drove home frustrated. Tomorrow will be different!!