Rescues (6 of 6)

We’re accustomed to thinking about drysuits as garments that provide physical comfort. In fact, they also have a strong psychological effect.

We saw this in action during a course this past weekend, when the water was cold and a little bit bumpy. One of our students had no drysuit, so we brought one for him and encouraged him to wear it. At first, this unfamiliar garment was a little bit uncomfortable, with its latex wrist and neck gaskets. But he got used to it and had a productive day on the water, including plenty of time in the water working on rescues.

At the end of the day, he told us that knowing he wouldn’t get cold if he fell in the water enabled him to work on the rescues, and working on the rescues made him feel less fearful of capsizing. Feeling less fearful of capsizing allowed him to be looser in his boat and use more of an edge during his turns. In other words, the psychological comfort provided by the drysuit facilitated better performance.

As coaches, we think about T-T-P-P every time we coach. Those letters stand for the technical, tactical, physical and psychological components of learning paddlesports, which are all essential and interrelated. It’s easy to focus too much on the technical (how to execute a stroke or maneuver), the tactical (how to vary it in response to conditions) and the physical (flexibility, stamina, strength) and overlook the psychological, but a student’s mental comfort and concentration are critical to their learning and accomplishment.