Well, there are a couple of reasons for the current shift, which I will go into shortly, but that isn't actually what I wanted to write about today. Rather, learning this new skill has reminded me of some of the common elements that go into getting better at something, whether that something is swimming, riding, running, paddle boarding or crochet. Those common elements are what I wanted to talk about today.
But firstly, as promised, why paddle boarding?
Well a few reasons really:
- Firstly, and most importantly, I am enjoying it. It is nice to do something else rather than do what I always do and get constantly reminded of what I can't do. It isn't to say that I don't ride, run and swim, but I am happy for those not to be my main focus at the moment.
- I have a history of water sports, over the years I have swum, rowed (both river and surf), surfed, kayaked and paddled surfskis etc. This is just the most recent version of that. I love being on the water
- It is convenient, I can walk out my front door and be paddling 5 minutes later.
- It is a good workout without overworking my heart. Standup Paddling is quite a muscular sport, that means after 90 minutes my muscles are fatigued, but my heart isn't. It is nice to still feel like you are doing some work.
- It is skill based, the challenge isn't just how hard can you go, but you have to be skillful too, particularly in the surf. I am enjoying the challenge of learning those skills.
That last point is a nice segue into what I wanted to talk about today.
I went out paddling this morning as I do a few times a week. As I was heading down to the river I could see that unfortunately the forecast had been correct and there was quite a bit of wind. The wind meant that the bit of river I was paddling on was going to be rough. Add to that fact, standup paddle boards are not the most fun thing to push into a headwind. In short I knew that the paddle wasn't going to be that fun. I thought quite earnestly about turning around and going home, either having the morning off or going for a jog.
The arguements for either having a rest of going for a jog were quite reasonable ones. I am not training for any sort of race and so I had no reason to force myself out the door. These days I have every excuse to take it easy if I want to. The alternative of going for a jog was also good, I could get in some exercise, but wouldn't have to deal with the unpleasant conditions.
However, instead of taking either of those options I went down to the river and paddled for 90 minutes. I have to say it wasn't a ball, but it didn't suck either. It was a good session.
So why did I bother? There are no sheep stations on my board paddling, why bother go out if I wasn't going to have fun.
Well, I went out because I want to get better. Simple as that. I knew it wouldn't necessarily be fun, but I also knew that today's conditions are the sort of thing I need to get better at. In fact to take a paddle board out into the surf you have to be able to cope with much worse conditions than today's. I know from experience that if I want to get better at this skill that I have chosen I need to practice it and so I went out today and practiced.
This point is really the crux of what I wanted to write about today.
It sounds so obvious, but really I am always surprised by how often this point evades people. In the world of triathlon I have lost count of the people who lament that they can't swim faster, ride quicker or run better. However, when you quiz this person about what sort of training they do it becomes quickly obvious that they aren't doing the practice they need to. They simply aren't training enough.
Swimming is the classic one for this. A lot of triathletes don't like to swim. A lot of them don't come from a swimming background (often from running) and so swimming is foreign to them. Learning to swim is seen as a necessary evil and, therefore, they avoid it. Reasons are given, excuses are made, it only makes up 10% of the event after all, so why bother...
The upshot of this lack of practice is very easy to predict. However, after an event these people are often the ones beating themselves up about not hitting their race targets and soul searching to figure out why.
In my view, skill acquisition really is as simple as that. You want to get better at something, well go and spend time doing that thing. It doesn't matter what that skill is, if you spend more time doing it you will get better at it. True, there are lots of things you can do to make your skill acquisition smarter and more efficient, getting a coach, teacher or mentor for instance will mean you improve much faster. You can also train/practice smarter, training efficiently will mean you get more benefit for the time you spend than somebody who is faffing about and wasting their time. However, all other things being equal, if there are two people training for an event and they have the same coach and the same training approach, the person who does more will improve faster (unless they cross the limit and over train, which is a whole other post).
There are plenty of fine excuses for why you don't have to practice, because it is windy, or the water is rough, or you are tired, or it is cold, or it is raining or, or, or. You might make those excuses and be comfy in your warm bed, which is not a bad outcome. However, if you make those excuses there is one thing you won't be doing, you won't be getting any better.
That is why I went paddling this morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment