Ch. 1: Visualizing Windsurfing for Optimal Learning
Ch 2: Windsurfing Visualization Instruction Protocol
Here in the United States, the sport of windsurfing is generally seen as a difficult sport to learn. It's been reported that 80% of the people who take their first windsurfing lesson fail to continue their instruction. Apparently their first experience left a bad impression!
In Chapter 1, I related my personal experience of failing miserably in learning how to windsurf. I was in the water 98% of the time! The other 2% of the time I was either falling off or climbing back on the board. Then I took a break and remembered the technique of VISUALIZATION and gave it a try. The rest is history.
Visualization is a powerful teaching tool. Small children visualize naturally and learn both good and bad traits from their parents and siblings. Beginning windsurfers who visualize beginners run the risk of learning their mistakes rather than learning from them.
Let's say you sign up for lessons at a "traditional" windsurfing school. Your instructor, using a windsurfing simulator, teaches the group self rescue techniques and board sailing basics . Then each person is given some simulator time to practice. After that, the group takes turns trying to sail a board. Now, the question is, "How much of the verbal instruction did you remember?" In my case, I remembered only one instruction "Keep your back to the wind"! That's what stress does to a person who is overwhelmed with trying to put togetherand do everything they heard!
Research indicates that most people are visually oriented (80%) versus auditory oriented (10%), which means, just 10% is learned from auditory stimuli while 80% is learned from visual stimuli. Moreover, the comprehension rate of verbal material is only 7% whereas with visual material it's 87%. Clearly, a "see and do" teaching technique would be far superior to "listen and do" teaching technique!
Windsurfing V.I.P. "Visualization Instruction Protocol"
In my opinion, windsurfing instruction should be focused on visually oriented instruction techniques. Auditory oriented instructions techniques should be minimally used. With this in mind, I would like to see someone try this approach which I call the "Visualization Instructionn Protocol":
The "V.I.P." consists of FIVE LESSONS, which include:
1. Daily in-store 20-30 minute "Group Pre-Conditioning" for all students consisting of basic visualization instruction and locally produced "Windsurfing Visualization Videos" of expert level men, women, boys and girls enjoying windsurfing ... with smiles on their faces. The videos cover basic board sailing and sequences of students enjoying the excitement of their first successful windsurfing experiences on a tandem board and later on, a solo learning board. If the student has access to a DVD player, you can also loan out DVDs and suggest the student watch them over the over again and "visualize" as they watch them.
But aren't videos expensive to produce? NO! Using an Apple computer (the new iMac Flat Panel/SuperDrive works fine!) and Apple's included iLife software package, anyone can quickly and easily produce professional quality videos and burn professional quality DVDs! You can also use a PC but not nearly as easily nor as quickly! Take a look at http://www.apple.com/imac/and http://www.apple.com/ilife/
2. Five "on the water" INDIVIDUAL LESSONS about 45 minutes in length.
Lessons 1-3 utilizes a wide tandem board which helps guarantee a fun, rewarding, exciting, and successful experience for the student.
The new student, placed behind the instructor, is told to watch the instructor and do what they do. “Keep your front arm straight ... like mine”, “Use your back arm to control power, like I do”, “Put your feet where I do“, etc. and enjoy the ride! For Lesson 3, ask the student to take the up front position if you think they're ready.
Lessons 4-5 utilizes a wide learner board which again, helps guarantee a fun, rewarding, exciting, and successful experience for the student.
These lessons are still one-on-one instruction and concentrate on water starting.
Remember,
to
prevent “negative visualization”, studens should
be remided to “ONLY
WATCH EXPERTS ... DON’T
WATCH BEGINNERS!!!”
Summary
These guidelines are an attempt to increase windsurfing instruction effectiveness by focusing on visual rather than auditory stimuli. We hope the end result is to improve the number of successes while drastically reducing the number of failures. If this visualization instruction protocol works as expected, we should see more and more people going in for the sport. The one-on-one instruction is kept short on purpose to avoid over-tiring and to maximize the potential for the school's financial success.