PETER HART MASTERCLASS 

(This Technique feature originally appeared in the August 2013 issue of Windsurf Magazine. Print and digital subscriptions for readers worldwide are available HERE.)

Signing up to a clinic can be a life-enhancing journey so long so long as you do more than just turn up. Peter Hart, who has been running specialist courses since the mid 80s, offers (mostly) impartial advice on the joys of tuition and how to get the most out it. 

Words Peter Hart // Photos Hart Photography

It wasn’t a conversation I was expecting. Brian, our cherished editor, called to say he liked the articles I did about how to get the most out of a windsurfing holiday (May and June issues of WINDSURF). It was right then that I was expecting the classic sh*t sandwich – two platitudes covering the horrible thing he really rang to tell me about – but no. He just went on to ask if I’d like to follow them up with a piece on the advantages of signing up to a windsurfing clinic and how to get the best out of it?  So you’re asking me, a bloke who derives most of his income from luring people away to distant shores to improve their windsurfing, whether or not it’s a good idea to go on a windsurfing clinic? Would a huge bit of paper with word ‘yes’ written loud and large suffice? You’d prefer it to be simple impartial advice, you say, rather than 6 pages of self-fulfilling propaganda? I’ll give it a go, but it won’t be easy …

WHAT is a clinic?
l’m not sure who first coined the term ‘clinic’ in a windsurfing context. For me the word evokes an image of a squeaky clean outbuilding inhabited by serious medics in white coats and rubber gloves treating rare and embarrassing conditions. But perhaps I’ve just watched too many ‘Carry on’ films. The message, I think, is that when you’re referred to the clinic, you’ll find a specialist who has the knowledge and means to treat your unique ailment – for ‘ailment’, read ‘dodgy carve gybe’.

Where ‘a few windsurfing lessons’ becomes ‘a clinic’ is a little blurred but the main difference is that the clinic involves a coach and a tight knit group who sail and play together at a carefully chosen location. Time is essential. For progress to be made, relationships to form and for you to get that individual treatment, it has to last more than a couple of days. The Americans call them ‘camps,’ which stresses the togetherness aspect. Perhaps ‘Camp Clinic’ would be better, although that might just attract a more outré clientele.

WHY go on one?
A good clinic is more like a marriage guidance counselling session than a gym work out. After ten years in a relationship, there’s every possibility that the initial spark has gone. It’s not necessarily as dire as familiarity breeding contempt. It’s just that spontaneity may have given way to routine and sparks to dying embers. Couples who thrive have found a way of continually rediscovering that person they first met and fell in love with. Weekends in a boutique hotel, a crazy night at a Cuban disco – they find places or events full of new stimuli that force them to jump out of the rut, respond in different ways and swap the everyday frown for a face-aching smile. That’s what a clinic should do to your windsurfing.

Apart from growing social and domestic pressures – like a vigorous breeding program – the main reason people drop out of a sport, is because they’ve stopped achieving. Windsurfers are especially prone to ‘topping out.’ The early stages are full of invigorating, life-affirming ‘firsts.’ The first time you hook in; the first time you plane (OMG!); the first waterstart, the first time you get in BOTH straps. But as you bound energetically up the ladder, suddenly the dreaded law of diminishing returns kicks in. More and more time and effort is required to reach each rung – more time than is available through spasmodic weekend sailing, where the primary motivation is just to get out there and fill your boots. The clinic offers that concentration of time and advice needed to boost you to the next level.

But not every clinic attendee is motivated by technical ambition. Same pond, same kit, same people, same move in exactly the same place each time, – it’s still a great experience but predictability dulls the gloss.
I’m sure porn stars feel the same way. But just having someone change your set-up, suggest you try different kit, or try the same moves in a different way, in a different place with different emphasis, can offer a totally new feeling and actually spark new ambitions (I’m talking about windsurfing here).

But for the majority the most treasured aspect of a clinic is that they had a great holiday and returned with new friends who they’ll stay in touch with for the rest of their lives.

WHERE TO GO!
Such a massive question. It may depend entirely on the needs of a significant other who demands a certain level of luxury and the proximity of a retail therapist. However, if it’s all about the windsurfing, well obviously try and choose the venue that both suits and challenges your ability. If you’re keen about really improving and taking those skills home to hone, maybe favour a spot that mirrors those conditions rather than the hero flat water venue that may fool you into thinking you’ve improved. 

Mauritius – the flat water lagoon by the beach and the waves on the outside keep everyone happy.

The north of Rhodes has been described by one Essex boy as Southend plus 20º. It’s side-shore and lumpy (but nice and blue). It’s not flattering but great for coaching because when people learn to tack and gybe here, they can really tack and gybe. 

Basic or Remedial Advice? When do you buy in?
The sooner the better – almost. Just as you wouldn’t go to Michael Schumacher for your first driving lesson, nor would you, as a complete or near beginner windsurfer get the most out of an elite coach. In those early stages, you’re like a toddler learning to walk. The instructor’s role is chiefly that of attentive mother, picking you up when you fall, dragging you upwind out of the bushes, creating an arena where you can locate the accelerator, brakes and steering wheel, gather some instincts and put some water miles under your feet without getting into trouble. But after that and as soon as you’re directing a planing wind into the harness …

Many go on clinics for remedial care. “Help me, I’ve been windsurfing for 30 years. I’ve never had a lesson. I have dreadful habits.” It’s fine, we can help – but it’s a shame. It takes far longer to unlearn and relearn something than it does to learn it from scratch. There’s more and more research into brain mapping, the nature of habits and how hard it is to change certain behaviours once a neural pathway has been established. Not my field so I’ll stop there but daily I see the results.

My wife went on a women’s clinic in the US when her career was 3 weeks old. Six months later she joined me for an advanced fortnight in Maui. She had NO bad habits and as a result was very easy to teach, did her first carve gybe after day 4. It may be cultural. Some people and nations automatically seek out expert help. Her brother took up the guitar 3 years ago. Every spare moment he takes himself off to Bluegrass or Blues camps in Naishville or wherever where he gets to jam and learn from iconic players. As a result he’s already better than me and I’ve been playing since I was 6 (so damn nearly 25 years?)

Instruction vs. Coaching
This far in it might help to distinguish the difference between instruction and coaching. You can turn up at a windy centre and ask for an hour lesson on say the carve gybe. The resident tutor will run through the sequence, probably on dry land and instruct you where to place hands and feet etc. And maybe they’ll watch you have a go. At the end of that hour you’re unlikely to have completed one but leave armed with the tools with which to go away and practise. Now the coach … he too can instruct a new skill, but where he earns his money is in not so much in telling you what to do, but it knowing how to make you, personally, do it.

The chief difference for me is that instruction is a one-way process. Teacher gives out, you take in – and obey. Coaching is much more of a two-way relationship. You should always be chatting – the coaching listening to your feedback, discovering what you’re feeling and where you’re coming from – and then suggesting rather than dictating a plan of action. Lets not forget that a huge part of improving is psychological and the harder and faster the skill, the more psychological it becomes. For you to be persuaded into crazy areas, you have to believe and trust the person who’s persuading you. It could be a personality thing.

HEADING  for the WAVES
A first wave clinic is a big, big step for most people. The options are, to head for an established wavy centre, or go for a ‘bring

The camp up in Kerry. Make no plans, bring everything, including an umbrella and some sun cream.

your own kit ’ road trip to Ireland, Scotland, Wales wherever. There are big advantages of a centre. You get to try lots of kit, it’s probably tropical and there might be a rescue boat. There are also big advantages to the wild west. You get to tune and use your own gear, you learn a lot about the conditions and how to look after yourself. But you’ll need a wetsuit. More important is to research what sort of wave sailing you really want to do. For example if you really want to jump, then don’t go to Cape Verde which is all about wave riding on reefs. If you want to try down-the-line riding for the first time, maybe don’t go to Pozo in the Canaries where the wind howls onshore. 

Choosing the Coach
You surely celebrated in Andy Murray’s win at Wimbledon? It seemed that natural talent and athleticism took him so far. Extraordinary hard work, tenacity and competitiveness brought him to within sniffing distance of the top but, as to what tipped him over into being a true champion, few doubt the influence of coach Ivan Lendl. They appear similar. They’re men who won’t use one word where none will do. Both are apparently quite grounded and serious, but with wickedly dry sense of humours. It’s clear at all levels in the coach athlete relationship that for it work the athlete has to want to perform for the coach and please them. If there’s a personality clash even with the most technically brilliant coach, a strange cutting-nose-off-to-spite-face situation arises where the athlete will almost deliberately mess up to piss him off and prove his methods wrong. Time then to seek out a new pasture.

Windsurfing typically breeds nice people and that includes the coaches. If they’re worth their salt they should be able to adapt their teaching style to the individual – but still some lie naturally at different ends of the ‘puppy dog/Rottweiler scale. Before booking a clinic just because the date and venue suit, do a little human research. Here are some questions to ask both yourself and the coach.

Timetables and Systems
Are you structured?
A few years ago this very magazine put their name to a mass technique week in Dahab, which I ran with Jim Collis and Dave White at the Harry Nass centre. On day one the lovely Elke (Harry’s wife) approached us asking us for ‘ze program.’
“We don’t have a program Elke.”
“You MUST have a program. People vant to know what zey are doing and ven.”
We tried to explain that so much depended on the weather and energy levels but … she insisted.
So we went away and returned with a big bit of paper with the words “WING IT!” written on it.
“Was ist ‘ving it?”
If you see Elke please tell her you’d like to ‘wing it’ and she’ll surely remember the disorganised UK coaches.
The serious point is that some people do like a firm structure and some courses offer that. One guy on that week got very nervous when we announced we had no idea what we’d be doing at 9 a.m. the next morning.
A good coach appears relaxed but has a series of contingency plans to cope with various weather changes and group moods. If you try to stick to a strict timetable, Mother Nature will surely widdle on your parade. In the end, whether you get nervous depends on whether you feel your needs are being met. Read on.

Bullied, beaten or caressed?
Are you a bully?
I used to work alongside a famous ski instructor called Ali Ross. He was (and still is) a dry, grizzled Scot who was extremely passionate about his own teaching system to the point of reducing any non-conformists in his class to tears. He specifically targeted blokes who thought they were a bit better than they were. But having destroyed them, he would gradually build them up again. The thing was he was -  and still is – very successful. People travel from all corners of the globe to be lambasted by Ali.
Some coaches when they start barking just sound plain rude.  Others can tell you you’re rubbish and somehow make it see like a compliment. Some people like to be pushed and bullied. Others I’ve met really hate being shouted at or told what to do. They get enough of that from bosses and partners in their everyday life.
So ask that question – am I going on a boot camp, a holiday or somewhere in between?
But a word of advice – sometimes everyone needs a kick up the arse.
You may think you need a quiet lecture from a smiling face on the exact percentages of foot pressure to mastfoot pressure to maximise your speed in a force 6 – but in fact what you need is a big hairy bloke to sail up behind you and scream “for f*** sake you total wuss, will you SHEET IN!” An instruction method patented by my good friend Jamie Knox in Ireland.

Whitey Top Tip – buy him a beer!

“Buy your instructor a beer, not just because it’s a nice thing to do and he’s probably an alcoholic, but because it gets you some personal time where he can really find out about you, what makes you tick and where you want to go with your windsurfing. If he or she doesn’t really know you they won’t know how to get the most out of you. On a good clinic you’ll gain as much off the water as on it ”

GREAT,  SMALL  and the  right EXPECTATIONS
Ahead of time you should be asked to give the coach a rough idea of what you’d like to get out of the course. A sample of answers might be:
“I just want to have a good time and really not to bothered if I improve so long as I get a few hours in.”
“I don’t have any firm goals, I just want you to look at my sailing, tell me what’s going right and wrong make some suggestions where I might go with it.”
“If I don’t do a loop, I will surely kill myself and all those around me.”
The first guy sounds as if he’d be just as happy on a Club 18-30 holiday and the third one is setting himself up for a major disappointment. The problem with a fixed-in-granite goal is, well many problems really:

1. If it’s an explosive move like loop or a Vulcan or even a duck gybe – you can’t do it all day. Once you’ve crashed as little as two or three times, you have to leave it for a while before you develop deep, negative ruts. You need something else to do in between.

2. The goal may not be the right one for you at that stage of your development. Classically people can’t/won’t loop because they can’t jump very well. And they can’t jump because they’re slow to plane and never hit the good inside ramps with any speed. It’s fine to have looping as a distant goal but it might be it was the wrong focus for the clinic.

VIDEO COACHING
Some coaches make more use of the video than others. Personally I think it’s an indispensible tool but there are exceptions. When it isn’t so useful is when people see it solely as a way to show off and record their holiday. The idea is to try the moves you can’t do rather the ones you can. Some people freeze on video, the pressure’s too much. In which case tell the coach to do it secretly. Others hate seeing themselves on film (often blokes with a bald spot) in which case let it be known. If you do value it, work with the coach to get the most out of it. For example ask him where you need to do the move to get the best angle. The most frustrating thing for the cameraman is London Bus syndrome where everyone in the group charges towards him at the same time.

When conditions allow, my favourite coaching situation is to follow and be followed. No chat needed, just mirror. But if you get nervous when someone is rattling up your backside, let them know!

No prizes for guessing that the second is the reply the coach would most like to hear. If you open yourself up totally, you are most likely to improve.

Day one the coach sees you going for a carve gybe. You never really got up to speed, started it too close to the wind and like a million before you, ended up squirting round on the tail. The sticking plaster solution might be a few tips about ‘bearing away more,’ ‘getting forward etc.’ but the longer-term approach might be, OK, forget about the gybe for a bit. You’re not bearing away because you’re not staying upwind. You’re not staying upwind because you’re waterstarts are too slow; and you’re not pointing that high because you tend to go out under-powered and that sail has way too much outhaul  – and that line position is making you over-sheet and a higher boom might help. However humiliating, let the coach poke his wire brush into the darkest crannies of your basic game. Everything from straight-line speed to crazy freestyle stems from being comfortable both physically and mentally. If your coach in a week, gets you planing earlier with less effort, gets you going faster, helps you stay upwind and makes you more comfortable, give him a big kiss and sod the looping.

“ Some coaches have a divine status whereby the attendee pays their money and then sits back and waits for the hands to be laid on them and for them to emerge better. It’s almost as if the handing over of cash relieves them of the need to try. It’s key to grasp that the coach isn’t teaching you, he’s just helping you learn. Without your effort, nothing happens. But thanks to him, hopefully now you’ll now be trying the right skill, in the right place, with the right kit, well set-up ”

GETTING  the MOST OUT OF IT – Speak up!
When it comes to speaking up – the end of the course is the wrong time to voice an issue. The coach is trying to get the best out of you but your positive nodding and jolly smile may not reveal the inner turmoil and confusion. Here are some of the things that need to be said – straight away!

“I really don’t feel comfortable!”
Some coaches really do have quite fixed ideas about boom heights, harness lines etc., which reflect trends and their own style of sailing, but which perhaps don’t suit your shape and build and style of sailing. “This may well be the way Gollito sails.” You say: “But I feel as if I’ve been strapped into an Iron Maiden!”

“You’re putting me under too much pressure.”
In sports science there’s a phenomenon called ‘Assumed Assimilarity.’ Coaches usually perform(ed) to a high standard and tend to be the go-for-it, gung-ho types who are always striving for the next level and they often assume you are too. I mean why would anyone sign up for a course unless they wanted to really push themselves? But some people aren’t like that. They’re good performers but see the comfort zone as a happy place rather than a resting zone for wimps.
For example, one day the coach may have persuaded you to drop board size so you could carve more easily into your gybes. It worked – you did a better one – success surely. But no, you hated it and were constantly anxious about being able to waterstart or uphaul if the wind dropped. It took all the fun out of it. Progress is good – but at your pace.
On a similar theme, the group dynamic is positive in almost every way. Sailing with people of a similar standard and watching them challenge the same moves is inspiring and you’ll learn just as much if not more from each other as you will from the coach. However, if you’re one of the weaker ones in the group, you can be swept into places you don’t want to go. In Ireland on day one of a wave course I had everyone go out one-by-one through the shorebreak, then do a gybe and come back. In the pub in the evening Mark, slightly tiddly, came up and revealed he’d never been on the sea before. He was going to tell me but the longer he left it, the harder it got until in the end, with everyone doing it, he was too scared NOT to do it. On the flip side he was deliriously happy and had never imagined himself doing it, but it’s always best to voice your concerns.

“ In most cases the people know how to do the move, I mean how many times have they heard that it’s a good idea to lean forward and sheet in, in a carve gybe. It’s the coach’s job to MAKE them do it ”

DRY LAND and SIMULATORS
Weather and energy decree that you can’t be on the water the whole time. Many hot places don’t get wind until late in the day so you have time to kill. The simulator is a popular tool. It can be both useful and useless depending on the move and the person. Some people just do NOT do well on simulators. It confuses the hell out of them and they get completely disorientated. If you’re one of those, speak up. Some coaches have a whole act involving multi simulators and it can be quite entertaining. The problem is that it can be a great occasion for information overload. 

For a day’s coaching, like here at Grimwith, a simulator can be a good way to get a few points across. But to be honest, a big group gathered around a board on land is one of my least favourite coaching situations. 

 
Better one or two around one on thegrass in Donegal with a rainbow for company.

 
The simulator is especially useful as a corrective tool. Although you can’t simulate the forces involved, you get good reference points at certain stages of each move – i.e., position of head and just how far you have to commit!

“Too many words!”
During a session in Mauritius, Ed came in to the shallows for a bit of feedback.
“Just hang onto the carve for a bit longer and  …”
“No, that’s enough!” He said and shot off for another hour’s practice.
That is EXACTLY what a good coach likes to hear. At every level from beginner to elite, a good coach should give their charges just one thing to think about.
The problem is that some people do equate words and lots of detailed explanations with value for money.
Especially early on in the course, it’s tempting for the coaches to show off their knowledge.
There are some people, intellectual learners, who do well with words. They tend not to be the most natural but they don’t let themselves do the move until they fully understand it. If you’re one of those then ask for stories and analogies.
Others are bamboozled by words in which case it’s fine to tell the coach to shut up! Let him know if you work better with pictures and like to mirror actions (probably the best way to learn). In a good coaching situation you’ll be amazed by how little needs to be said.
Personally I enjoy a course more at the end. I known the areas everyone is working on and we just need a simple focus. Steve keeps looking at his feet during the foot change. All I have to do is point to my head and he knows what I mean. Even if you do like words, try to do without them when you’re actually performing. You will be amazed at the difference. In the bar or during a video playback, there’s plenty of time for blathering on about the Bernulli effect.

COMMUNICATION!
Wind and churning seas can make communication difficult on and around the water. But it doesn’t have to involve many words or indeed any words. Help the coach by not just sprinting out there as soon as the wind gets up, but have a chat to work out one or two specific points you’re going to work on, then there’s no need for lots of chat out there.

“A word in your ear …” if you have a good chat beforehand and have a plan, that’s all it takes.

When conditions allow, my favourite coaching situation is to follow and be followed. No chat needed, just mirror. But if you get nervous when someone is rattling up your backside, let them know!

“Please don’t change me … too much.”
The amateur golfer goes to the pro for a lesson where he has his swing totally changed and is told to go the driving range, hit 1000 balls a day and not go anywhere near a golf course for 6 months. Fine – if he has no job. But what he really wanted was to say was: “I know I’ve got terrible habits but I don’t have much spare time so couldn’t you work with them and give me a few tips to make me just a bit better.” You have to do the same with the windy coach. If you have a specific discipline in mind and the time and desire to put in the hours, then let him deconstruct you. But if you only get to sail on the very odd weekend and the even odder holiday, insist that he or she goes gently with you!

Well he did pretty well at being unbiased so it’s only fair that we should point out that Peter’s own worldwide clinics are pretty legendary. Find out more from our

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