08.04.14
Private Lesson
Today marked an interesting new branch off for CCMA. My client wasn’t interested in booking a listed service, but wanted to engage me to teach our approach to coaching. This isn’t the first time I have been approached by parties who wish to implement our methods. However, it is the first time it has got past the theory stage. My client is a vaulting teacher who is concerned her students haven’t grasped the feeling or essence of real training. It is a tall order a lot of teachers face. Students are taking on a demanding hobby without realizing how much needs to be done to achieve a level of proficiency. This very forward thinking teacher felt the best thing to do before she booked me to run a session at her class was to book me to run a private lesson, where she could experience aspects of my teaching first hand. Therefore today’s lesson was a mixture of active discussion, exploration and testing.
The first thing we addressed was the CCMA time management process, addressed in “The Hierarchy of Training”. From the warm-up onwards trainees should attach their training to the skills they wish to achieve. You “Begin with the end in mind” to quote a rather trite expression. So we looked at breaking down basic footwork needed in order for students to be able to perform the mount. Starting with a purposeful walk, addressing posture and correct stepping, students can mentally engage and visualize the action required and then gradually increase intensity, adding the various parts to make up the entire movement.
The movement can then be taken off the straight skill development line into attribute building exercises (this is a microcosmic variation on the attribute training method used in “The Hierarchy of Training”). We then did some mirror footwork drills to promote competitiveness, enhance fast-twitch muscle fibres and agility in general. Following off this line I brought in some agility drills, performed using objects (or cones or a ladder), again using appropriate steps found in the mounting procedure.
Branching off altogether into muscle activation and complimentary disciplines, I explored pull-ups and various upper body exercises found in gymnastics. Considering vaulting could be broken down into three disciplines gymnastics, horse-riding and dancing, it makes sense that teaching should look into these areas again to help build aspects of the moves needed.
Addressing the attitude area, I had the teacher perform a tabata. This is a high-end high intensity interval exercise that immediately challenges the mental side of things. The rep cadence must be very high and the onus is on the trainee to push themselves hard for the short bursts required. At the end the teacher then completed 20 squats and 20 press-ups to prove that they mentally can go on and how much the brain works hard to stop us from pushing beyond the mental bar set.
I look forward to helping develop the fitness aspect of her excellent vaulting programme. I felt very honoured and excited to be given this new challenge in teaching. It would appear that Chimera will continue to mutate in many interesting directions.