Anxiety Impairs Beginner Surfers
Anxiety Impairs Beginner Surfers as they try to learn something new. The oceans seems intimidating. Learning is intimidating. Learning to balance on a surfboard as a beginner is not easy and falling seems threatening.
Most new surfers taking their first lesson are anxious. This anxiety goes away quickly with coaching and after their first day. After a lesson progresses, a student learns to be more poised and relaxed.
The Impairment of Anxiety to Learning to Surf
Surfing looks easy in the movies and most beginners think anyone can do it. Learning the sequence for popping up is new and then to have to perform it in the water when riding a surfboard the first time is intimidating.
it might be like teaching someone to fly in a classroom and then putting them in a small plane by themselves and saying take off, fly around and come back. You don’t know what to expect. Some people have no anxiety or manage it and pop up on the first ride.
People of all ages have surf anxiety and it is easy to spot. When I observe people trying to surf that have not have lessons it is most evident. They paddle for a wave and try some crazy pop up before the wave has even reached the board. In the water, I tell students their mind will go “gaga” and they will forget everything we learned on land.
When I push students into the first wave, they have a count to say out loud and a sequence to follow. I say I don’t want them to think or rely on their instincts, but they do both and ignore what we just learned on the beach. They often forget to paddle when I push them and say paddle and they try to jump up on the board in some uncoordinated fashion.
I then find that the instructor’s challenge is to get them to slow down. 90% of the time, unless people are overweight, once they slow down they start getting the timing and rhythm. Overweight people frequently don’t have the strength or flexibility to get it even with the right timing.
How to Slow Down and Get the Timing
I tell students there are three good steps for success. First, they have to do the count for the stand up sequence out loud. That sequence is paddle, stop (put your hands in a man’s push up position flat on the board), push up, back foot, (put the back foot flat on the board under your butt so you can stand up), stand up, front foot. As you stand on the back leg, you raise your hands and put your front foot on the board.
It looks easy when I demonstrate it. Most people can do it on dryland. Then when students get in the water they forget everything. The faster I can get them to start counting out loud, the quicker they improve.
The next thing they avoid is the stopping part of placing their hands flat on the board and stopping. They want to go right to push up position and then the ride is over. I often have students just catch a wave and paddle and put their hands in the stop position and ride to the beach. This shows them how much time they have.
The third thing students don’t take the time to execute is putting their back foot flat on the board under their butt. They are in a rush to get their front foot on the board. They paddle, go to a pushed up position, rush their feet and fly off the front of the board.
When students start counting out loud, remembering to stop, and getting their back foot flat on the board, they find success. They come to the realization they can’t improvise or rely on their instincts, but have to follow the proper sequence.
Read a good book to be a better surfer and more fit.
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