Tag: surfing
surf simply
July 18, 2016

Surf Simply, part 2: What the World’s Best Surf School Can Teach You About Exercise

In Part 1 of this series (read that first if you haven’t yet) we discussed the core pieces of effective training programs. Today, we’re going to look at how the world’s best surf school applies them, and show you how you can use the same principles to build great workouts and fitness programs. You’ll remember from the last article: In the beginning, learning feels slow and clunky. We can only do small pieces at once. Over time, we integrate these pieces and “get a feel” for our new skills. Past a certain point, doing something over and over will only get us to “good enough”. To get truly good at something, you have to practice deliberately. When we’re doing things deliberately, we have to regress — to break things back down into slow, conscious learning and smaller parts again. But which parts should we do first? How? And why? The answers… read more »

Craig Weller No Comments , , , , , , ,
Do you want to receive updates from us? Fill in your name and email.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
World's Best Surf School
November 12, 2015

Surf Simply: What the World’s Best Surf School Can Teach You About Exercise Programs

  July 4th, 2014, Pacific Ocean, Costa Rica It’s early morning, and already it’s been a great day. I’ve just ridden a massive wave, paddled back out through the surf, and am sitting on my board resting and waiting for the next one. On his board nearby sits Ru Hill, the founder of Surf Simply, known as the best surf school in the world. He’s been my instructor all week.   As I scan the horizon for incoming waves, the sense of elation that I feel from my last wave mixes with a feeling of… I’m not quite sure. Sadness? Regret? Astonishment? Relief? You see, in the past week I’ve learned more about surfing than I had in the previous ten years of trying. I’ve wasted a lot of time, and a lot of effort. Surfing is a curious thing. It’s a truly honest sport. It’s what skiing might be… read more »

Craig Weller No Comments , , , , , , , , ,
Do you want to receive updates from us? Fill in your name and email.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Implicit Learning
February 26, 2015

Chickens and Airplanes: Implicit Learning

It’s Easy: Don’t Fall Down Take a moment to consider a physical skill that you’re good at. Snowboarding, perhaps. Or surfing, riding a bike or even slacklining. Now, think about what you would say if you had to write down a step by step guide for how to perform that skill. “How to ride a bike: Step one: Start pedaling. Step two: Don’t fall down.” Most motor patterns are stored as unconscious subroutines, or implicit knowledge. We know how to do them, but we don’t quite know how we know. I’ve been on snowboarding trips in which new people would be along riding for their first time. Naturally, they would ask for members of the group to teach them how to snowboard. The standard practice is to explain the theory of how the board’s edges, sidecut and camber work and how that relates to turning and stopping. After that, one makes sure that… read more »

Craig Weller No Comments , , , , , , , ,
Do you want to receive updates from us? Fill in your name and email.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Play

Play – Do Something Novel Today One of the biggest things lacking in American culture is play; doing something unscripted, unregulated, solely because it’s entertaining. By this I don’t mean video games. I have no doubt that people spend plenty of time staring at repetitive flashing lights on a screen. I’m talking about the sort of physical play that gives you a sense of flow. Flow, as defined by Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Think of an activity like snowboarding or surfing. In these sports, you’re generally there just for the simple pleasure of moving through and responding to a changing environment. There is an inherent element of novelty to each ride and each wave. The snow or wave will never be exactly… read more »

Craig Weller No Comments , , , , ,
Do you want to receive updates from us? Fill in your name and email.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Do you want to receive updates from us? Fill in your name and email.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.