Worst Coaching Ever?

[Horton]

What is the worst coaching you have ever heard?

 

I know I said some things 20 years ago that were really really really wrong : - )

[bbirlew]

One day I was out trick skiing and completely wiffed on my backflip and landed on my head. My 3 year old looked over the side of the boat and told me “hold on tighter dad!!”

[Ilivetoski]

“If you don’t look at the buoy how will you know when it’s time to pull to the next one”

[skibug]

try harder

[C5Quest]

“Don’t suck”. Ok....how do I not suck?

 

[ntx]

I once heard Ken White ask a skier if he ever considered playing golf.

[Dirt]

20 years ago? What about whoever you coached 20 minutes ago?

[david_quail]

I was (am) a beginner and was struggling at 15 off 30mph and the driver shortened the line to 28 off so that “I’d actually work harder” even though I’d never experienced 22 let alone 28.

OTF through gates —-

[Drago]

"Pull longer". From a well know coach, about 20 yrs ago. I told him that it didn't make sense

[klindy]

@ntx Jack Travers asked me the same thing after I skied inside #1 on three consecutive passes (buoy cut loose all three times). It was a rough “first set” of the season!

[Orlando76]

“Let’s try an RTP”.

[lpskier]

Pretty sure this was good advice upon arrival at ski school for my annual spring tune up: “Remember what I’ve been telling you for the last three years? Well, forget it. We’re not doing that anymore.”

 

I guess that makes the prior yesrs’ coaching some of “the worst.”

[6balls]

Pull harder. It's not bad advice for some...but for a comp powerlifter who pulls too hard already? It worked in PP days...not in ZO days.

[Wish]

Most of the coaching that took place after I passed through the entrance gates. Thank you @AdamCord and @adamhcaldwell for opening my eyes as to what is a great gate setup and the profound difference it makes in how that corrects most everything after the entrance gates.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

That Horton guy really knows his stuff!

[tjm]

A couple of years ago our club brought in a well known coach from Florida. When it was my turn he watched my first pass and told me I was going a bit flat into the wake offside to onside. I told him that I knew that and was hoping he could help me fix it. His tip was “Just don’t do it”. Wish I had thought of that, would have saved me $250.

[mopowpow]

Pull! Pull hard! All the way to the ball! Then start your turn.

[jimbrake]

Cut late and kick it.

[thompjs]

@ntx Ken White said that to me. Of course he had not seen my golf swing.

[mwetskier]

personally, the worst coaching -in my opinion -is where the coach spends any amount of time dwelling on what you're doing wrong. my reasoning is this: the odds are the thing you're doing wrong is not a conscious action its an automatic reaction to whats happening in the moment. typically this mistake can't be corrected by simply pointing it out without a positive action being coached to correct it. So why not just focus on coaching the correct action instead?

 

for example, instead of coaching ' you're separating from the handle too early", why not coach 'keep that handle as close to your hip as possible until you've passed the white water on the other side '? Providing a positive mark or goal to reach for is almost always far easier for the skier to envision and therefore embrace. again, imo.

[vernonreeve]

To expand on what @mwetskier was saying, this applies to all coaching. I've read where the brain doesn't understand negatives, so when you say "Don't Miss", or "Don't Fall"...the brain only hears and imagines missing and falling.

[Bookm_dano]

"You're just gonna have to commit harder to your offside" ..... True statement; not very helpful.

[skiermanbrad]

Not coaching that I received, but a statement that I overheard at a boat show from some dude talking to the group that he was with: Waterskiing is the opposite of snow skiing. The better you get, the shorter the ski you want.

[JackQ]

We all have dumbs&&$ moment. At the last Nationals in Texas, as I always do, I checked my fin post flight. Fast forward i chose to run 35 in a strong tailwind so i can have a headwind 38. I had a good start, but got later and later a ever buoy, feeling fast at each turn and fought all the way to just going inside 6.

 

As i was walking down the shore i heard a rattle from my ski every step, I looked and my wing was flopping back and forth. I said out loud “you Dumb S$&@, you didn’t thighten the wing” i then wondering how i even ran what I did without killing myself.