Mike Ferraro and Ryan Jones give exclusive training to UK wakeboarders

As global wakeboarding standards just keep rising with bigger sponsors and larger prize money pots up for grabs, it’s little wonder that the pro’s at the top of their game are seeking the help of specialist wakeboard coaches, training at amazing facilities, to keep themselves at the top. Mike Ferraro and Ryan Jones are widely considered the best of the best with an impressive wakeboarding ‘A’ list on their coaching books. So in between coaching Dallas Friday, Phillip Soven, Nicola Butler, Rusty Malinoski and the like out in Florida, they took time to head over to the UK for an exclusive 2 day seminar for a few very lucky invited UK wakeboarders!

British Water Ski and Wakeboard invited Mike Ferraro and Ryan Jones over from the USA to share with the UK wakeboarders some of their insight in a 2 day seminar of both practical and theory coaching. This 2 day seminar was a fantastic opportunity organised by Performance Director for BWSF John Wood to see what techniques these professional trainers use to help their students to understand the physics behind using your body most efficiently, creating solid foundations from which to develop tricks easily and injury free.

The practical day was EPIC, hosted by London’s premiere circus and acrobat training facility The Circus Space. Myself, Kirsteen Mitchell and Tor Young were the female riders invited to take part in the hilarious exercises to demonstrate their techniques. They used bungee harnesses, trampolines and dollies as training devices where the emphasis was to learn tricks off the water, then once learnt, and only then, make the transition to the boat or cable. We were like big kids in the playground, this was the most fun I’ve certainly had in a long time!

They stuck to basic techniques of front roll, back roll and spins, but in intricate detail, showing us how technique above and beyond brawn, guts or glory, was the key to comparatively effortless results. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well, you’ve all heard us tell you to ‘never neglect your basics’, and this just compounded that idea. It soon became obvious that to take on their techniques, we were all, without exception, having to over ride years of habit!

The bungee harness was far from comfortable, and it was fair that the boys were a little distracted by this obvious discomfort! That and being suspended in a swinging harness that made them all look like over grown babies in a door frame baby bouncer! Naturally the girls excelled where the boys struggled. They claimed that as we went last, we had more ‘observational experience’ and as that may have been slightly true, we mastered the new front and back roll techniques in a fraction of the time. We were better than the boys. End of.

The statistics that Mike and Ryan offered us for these new techniques were the equivalent of expending only 30% effort as opposed to 70%. There’s no doubt that the tiniest adjustments made huge differences for some of us. If that kind of energy reduction could be applied to most tricks, just imagine how much longer you could ride, how much quicker your recovery time would be, and how much you’d reduce injury risk. This was all good. The techniques explored in the bungee harness were then transferred to the trampolines, where once again the old habits took over and a few comical ‘mal-co’ moments and landing on heads took place before once again everyone grasped the new techniques.

Then it was onto the dolly for spin practice. The challenge here was get us to maintain line tension throughout the spin by using our body differently. Again, the initial brain farts showed up, but revelations once we understood!

Like looking into a secret treasure chest full of little gems of insight, the ideas and food for thought certainly made me excited to get out on the water and give them a go. But more than ever, the practical day reinforced the value of dry land practice and training, perfecting those tricks before the water.

Theory Day

Day 2 was all theory, going over the techniques and ideas of the previous day. Like repeating a trick over and over to build muscle memory, this day was compounding and reinforcing the ideas of the day before, strengthening the mental space of a trick and understanding physical efficiency. Hearing the same basic theories repeated over and over in a number of different ways allowed all of us to ‘get it’ ! Mike and Ryan used video playback from yesterday’s practical day to galvanize their teachings.

They also showed us interviews with some of their athletes like Dallas and Nicola and parents of the Soven brothers to give us an insight into how parents help can sometimes be a hindrance, what motivates the riders and how girls learn, respond and are inspired differently to the guys.

From my point of view, I was thrilled to learn that the likes of Mike and Ryan both fully understand and endorse the idea that girls learn differently and they were very supportive and encouraging of the work we’re doing here at Wide-a-Wake and all the girls only sessions being held.

A big thank you to John Wood and his team at the BWS for organising this event and giving us a taste of what some professional wakeboarders get to experience on a regular basis.

Dates of 2010 girls only boat and cable sessions coming soon. Keep checking the site for details.

Friday 12 February 2010 | Permalink