Discover how to overcome your natural biology which resists movement pattern changes in rowing technique.
Timestamps
01:00 A coach was frustrated his athletes forget from one workout to the next. The cause is not necessary wilful, it's not your coaching skill - it's biology. We are hard wired to keep to the muscle memory we already have.
Rowing Muscle Memory and neural pathways
The solution is multiple repetitions of a drill during an outing is important. Your brain prioritises familiar patterns when under stress. Automaticity means we revert back under pressure.
- Insufficient repetitions is the cause.
The challenge here is inconsistent reinforcement - if you can self-coach this can help. Understand what the coach is teaching - ask questions. Provide drills to the athlete to isolate or exaggerate the movement you are teaching. Increase stroke rate or the power through the water to test your skill under pressure.
Cognitive overload leads to frustration
The solution here is to practice both thinking and doing. Row for 10 strokes without thinking about anything. During those strokes the athlete is maintaining the new movement pattern. Check after 10 strokes if you are doing it right - if not, adjust and do 10 stroke more not thinking.
05:00 The competence model of unconscious competence is your goal. Train yourself by managing your cognitive overload. The challenge is you can think you are regressing because it feels different and awkward. Learn to overcome this to achieve the end goal.
06:00 Athlete receptiveness
You must test your skill under pressure with increasing challenge so that when you're at your most pressurised in a race you are also tired and stressed yet you maintain the technique.
Fear of failure as the new technique is untested. Overcoming this is hard - athletes try hard to perform well.
Poor communication undermines an athlete's ability to take up what you're trying to teach. Explain what you're trying to do and why as well as how to do it.
