Words and photos:
Chris Evans

Chris Evans

Lead Paddlesport instructor at
Plas y Brenin

Thanks

Huge thanks to PeakUK who sponsor the Plas Y Brenin centre.

Coach’s top tip…

If you’re going to use this concept of ‘the feel of flow’ (all stolen from the inner gamebooks, the inner game of skiing being the closest to paddling), allow the learners time to ‘feel the flow happening’. The biggest example of this is the coach stating when it’s time to move on, instead encourage ownership. You’re going to tell me when you’re ready to move on/look at the next thing.

The Meccano in the shoe

Confidence is like a domestic cat; sometimes it’s there, comfortable and purring away. Sometimes it just needs a little love and affection, and sometimes it’s disappeared for days on end.
Pete Catterall 2015

With confidence, you’ve won before you’ve started.
(Google search, unknown origin)

Confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur of what is known as PARK LIFE!
Blur 1994

I love statements like these because they can stick with you and become something to aspire to or live and breathe, having said that the practicalities of using ‘one hand washes the other, I FEAR NOTHING! (Fear and loathing in Las Vegas) are fairly limited (I say fairly because there is a strong element of positive self-talk in there).

One of the main themes or golden threads I end up working towards with people is confidence; I know articles have been written previously. However, some (not all) pieces feel a heavy bias that leads from the author/coach, e.g. ‘confidence is all about…’ Or ‘the best way to encourage confidence is…’ Instead, I intend to talk through some of the tools you can use to boost confidence in your ability, place within a social group (a bunch of mates going paddling) or the building of self-belief within your ability to do the task in hand (could be paddling a rapid, leading a group or coaching a group yourself). By exploring these ideas and methods, you can decide what works for you towards your chosen goals and ignore anything confusing or an unnecessary process to go through.

Why do you go paddling?

There is a notion that resilience and confidence can go hand in hand. This resilience isn’t ‘bounces well’ this is the idea that someone is invested enough to be better capable of accepting the rough with the smooth. This often gets described as an addiction to the activity, becoming a way of life they live and breathe it. Hopefully, you’re not visualising the long-haired, bearded, shoeless kayaking hippy that’s spent their entire life in the Himalayas (all said out of pure, green-eyed, jealousy). Instead, see the sort of paddler that turns up first, is the last to leave and can dismiss the knocks when things don’t work.

To achieve this, ask yourself this question, why do it? Why go paddling? What does it mean to you? Any answers to this are personal. There’s nothing wrong with going paddling for the social or being the person that will go paddling on their own because they need their fix. Ask the above questions to accept and understand. Once you’ve found out your drive, do plenty of what you enjoy to build upon on your motivations if you haven’t already. There’s the big key, the thread that has the potential to make someone tirelessly practice, motivation.

What does the confident performance look like to you?

I’m asking this question to you as the individual. It is not what someone else thinks or what you think I, or any other coach, might want as a reply. When this question first gets asked you might not be aware of the answers yet and that’s fine, exploring what the confident performance looks like to you is incredibly powerful, it’s yours, you own it and can build upon it.

The answers could be based upon an idea or feeling, e.g. I’m happiest when things feel effortless, smooth, linked, controlled or comfortable or along the lines of small changes. Another example: I’m now in the best equipment and boat for the task in hand or more significant changes like I need to be lighter and stronger to achieve the goals I want.

Coach’s tip here, don’t discard or put down any information you get back if you ask the above question. Sometimes the reply is “it’s the paddler, not the boat” or “varied practice is key” (the ‘varied’ in this example being the variety of boats being paddled) or even “that’s the boat I paddle, and it works for me”. I compare this to when my brother walked a couple of miles with a piece of Meccano in his shoe; there was no end of ‘these shoes hurt, it’s not right, I’m not comfortable.

As he was eleven at the time, it was met with ‘get on with it’ (he was known for being vocal about his dislike of hillwalking)! Imagine the horror on my dad’s face when the shoe came off, and the damage done by the Meccano was visible. You may not see the damage your comments make (we all do this; I’ve done it in the past) but imagine if the ‘wrong feeling boat’ is that persons mental Meccano in the shoe…

The feel of the flow

The feel of flow again is different from person to person. To simplify this, it’s when things become effortless, easy or executed as reflexes or reactions rather than due to a thought process (completed consciously). Again, this is a personal thing, it can range from a simple ‘felt good’ to ‘silky codpiece’ or ‘rhythmical’ (all answers I’ve had as replies to ‘how should it feel’) as well as the above key phrases like linked, controlled, effortless or smooth.

To achieve this, find an environment you’re happy in, could be a pool with a simple jet or flow to execute moves within your capabilities (entry and exit of flow, for example). Does it feel like any of those lovely key descriptive phrases already described? If the answers yes then the feel of flow is there and you’re potentially ready to move on. If the answers no, examples of this are things like it feels wobbly, clunky or arduous, continue with the task until it feels comfortable, controlled, relaxed and so on (put your own key descriptive words in here).

There’s a couple of downsides to this to be aware of, the first being sometimes it just might not feel ‘silky’, or you might feel like finding this ‘flow’ is holding everyone up. Be aware that this could become your focus, e.g. ‘I’ve been doing this for a while, and I’m not making progress or ‘no matter how hard I try; my edges don’t seem to work for me’. The last two regularly mentioned themes (and felt by everyone, even the bravest and best) can be a negative thought process that gets remembered.

Instead, base your decisions on that ‘feel of flow’. If you’ve got that fantastic glide feel happening where you feel almost weightless (there you go, there’s mine), it’s arguably the day to push things. If it doesn’t feel like things are flowing it could be the day to have a chilled run (more portages perhaps), or it could be the day to get off the water and drive shuttle/do something else. Please don’t dwell on this instead be proud that it takes self-awareness and situational confidence to say it’s not for me. 

Coach’s top tip…

Please don’t force this. If this is forced, it can become an arduous task as part of the day. Instead of ‘stop the negative’ try things like two things you liked and one you’d change, make sure you remember the things they enjoyed as these could become the agreed positive self-talk threads.

Mind and Body

It’s no secret that these two are linked. How far you go with this one depends on your motivations and your goals. If it’s the social that you’re interested in and paddling is the vessel that allows this to happen then poor food and a social drink or two are part of the experience, and that’s to be enjoyed. Accept that this may not see you at your best and again, that’s ok. An increase in strength, flexibility and or losing weight has known positive effects on self-esteem and can work wonders for the mind games.

There are probably people reading this who’ve known me for a while that are possibly now choking at this comment and seeing it as hypocritical. I’ve been partial to the odd ‘dirty burger’ and sweet treats and have shied away from any exercise that could be construed as training. Following a confidence stealing swim earlier this year and subsequently feeling sluggish and unfit, I changed a few things and am now lighter and stronger. Feeling lighter on my feet and happier in my skin translated to confidence in my kayak in a way that I wasn’t expecting. The boat feels lighter through moves, feels like it skips through stoppers and there’s a heightened energetic feel through being fitter.

This training step isn’t for everyone but if you are that strongly dedicated then considering classes like yoga or palates or doing more, running, walking, gym work or cycling all contribute toward the belief that ‘the mind won’t write checks the body can’t handle’.

Mine was stronger and lighter, for someone else it might be becoming more flexible, for example. These significant changes require determination out of the boat but can work wonders for the mind game. Sounds obvious this, if you are coaching someone and it’s a physical thing that’s become the confidence hurdle, get the realisation to come from them if you can. No one likes being told their inflexible, weak or overweight. You’d be amazed by the things I’ve heard from coaches in the past including you have an overactive knife and fork, once again, this could easily be the mental Meccano in the shoe for someone.

Positive self-talk

This is one that is now well known and has been a coaching tool for a while, maybe you’ve used it or been subjected to it. There’s a reason this appears this far down in this write-up. I believe that positive self-talk is very powerful and is heavily linked to the belief in one’s abilities. Without substance, this theme could arguably become hollow. “I’m awesome” self-high five! Not judging here, maybe that’s all you need. I need a bit more background for positive self-talk to work. If you’re the same why not base your monologue on some of the above points, this rapid will work because my boat is the best boat for me, I’m as strong, flexible and light as I’ve ever been and I feel like I’m gliding all over the river today (I know I can rather than I think I can). Not only have you been positive here, but you’ve reassured yourself with fact and feel. So long as you’re truthful with yourself.

The Primal Scream

So far everything’s been positive and if everything were favourable would confidence waiver in the first place (that feels like the sort of question that becomes a time syphon amongst a room full of coaches)? Negativity happens and frequently happens as adults seem to have a heightened fear of failure compared to adolescents, hence why nerves are experienced at job interviews, for example. As beings, we all have an irrational side; this irrational behaviour can present itself in aggression, frustration, sadness or anger.

Calling it irrational can be dismissive; this doesn’t mean these feelings go away or should be put down, in the wild, it’s kept us alive. We’re programmed to remember the irrational, e.g. I had a nasty experience in a stopper once therefore all stoppers are dangerous, and I’ll avoid them. Although this sounds well thought out and good idea (self-preservation) the rationale here is how do I identify the friendly and not so friendly and how can I utilise the power and shape of stoppers to move my boat around.

Instead of ignoring these thoughts, let them talk! Please give them a voice! Let the irrational scream, shout, bang its fist, rattle its cage and sulk. Soon enough, it’ll be all out of wind and ready to be reasoned with using positive self-talk, again, based around fact and feel. This way, the reasonable and rational human has put the primal, irrational ‘caveman’ back in his cage. When this isn’t possible, the inner child is having too much fun, causing chaos, and this is another tell-tale that today isn’t the day to go big.

Suppose you’ve got this far and I realise this is long-winded compared to the short and sweet bullet-pointed articles out there. In that case, there’s hopefully some useful tools that you can implement to help boost comfort and confidence or at least understand where your confidence comes from. The big point to understand here is that not all these things need to be done to feel at the top of your game; it could be one or two of this article’s elements. If this is the case, then forget the rest as they may hinder rather than help.

Coach’s top tip…

If you’re going to use this, understand that you’re likely to ‘open some flood gates’, do exactly as described above and ask to be ‘let in’ to what’s going on and be ready to listen and understand. This doesn’t mean chipping in when you believe there’s something relevant. Just listen and try to understand what going on, only then can you talk to the rational human. You may even hear personal and home life elements, don’t shy away from this or change the subject and hear people out. The reason you potentially hear all these personal things is you’ve created a trusting, confidence-inspiring coaching environment.

If you’re a coach and these points jump out at you, you’ve found them interesting and want to explore them further be aware that when they work, they can be very powerful indeed. When they don’t work you run the risk of the wheels falling off quite spectacularly. As a hint here emphasises that both parties, coach and learner, are exploring these to find the golden thread that works, it’s a shared journey and shared outcomes. Get a learner feeling as though you the coach has invested in them as interested in their progress and building trust in the coaching relationship. Sounds awful this but it’s that trust that will let you as the coach get away with finding out which of the above elements don’t work for your learners.

Part two

Next article will look at training the brain to focus on the confidence-inspiring themes to reflect upon and remember, and give a few tools to achieve the correct headspace before and after going paddling. Before a coaching session, this could be before putting-in on that standout river or embarking on that once in a lifetime trip.