RE: [Paddlewise] teaching styles and gender

People learn differently. Some people can watch someone else do a stroke or
manever one or two times and emulate it immediately. Some people need a
detailed step-by-step instruction. Others need to understand the theory
behind the stroke.  A good instructor must be able to adapt themselves to
these varying styles.

A good instructor must also be able to take into account an individual's
capabilities and help that individual adjust/modify techniques to fit there
ability.  One size does not fit all! John pointed out a good example of
Nigel Dennis teaching varying rescue techniques. Nigel's approach was to
provide people a variety of techniques to accomplish the ultimate goal of
getting a capsized paddler back into their boat. One I found interesting was
a scoop rescue oriented to people with limited upper body strenth.

As a BCU coach my approach is to adapt to the student rather than have the
student adapt to me. The fact that someone is an accomplished paddler does
not mean they can coach well- and vice versa (an excellent example of the
latter being the coaches professional golfers use).

Here's an interesting example of a coach needed to adjust to a student. When
I took my BCU Coach 2 assessement we invite people to come as students. They
are promised they will learn sometime and have a good time (FUN). Three
students were assigned to me for about one hour of training. We introduced
outselves and discussed what they wanted to work on during my session. We
proceeded to the launch area and low and behold one of the students had a
sit on top kayak. Now I had paddled a sit on top a few times but never
taught someone. Out focus during the session was forward strokes and
turning. The techniques are bascially the same and my student(s) improved
during the session.

I have learned to be wary of instuctors who say "do it my way".

sid


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