Video Credit : The SUP Coach, with drone shots from Skip at The SHAC
It’s not often you get the chance to be coached by one of the sports legends - but that’s what happened last weekend when April Zilg visited The SHAC.
April’s schedule had her in Europe to race in the VAA Outrigger Canoe championships (competing for the USA), and the APP World Tour London. But due to a late change in the dates for this years APP World Tour at Canary Wharf, due to planned rail strikes, April had an unexpected gap. So SUP Junkie and The SHAC came together and organised a rare chance to be coached by April in the UK.
20 lucky paddlers managed to secure a place on two coaching sessions. Each two hour coaching session was split into an hour of land based theory and technique, followed by an hour on the water with individual coaching from April.
Photo Credits : The SUP Coach
April has an infectious laugh and larger than life personality. Her back story of couch to champion is inspiring. And she can take all the science stuff and assimilate it into a language that paddlers suddenly understand - you can almost hear the penny drop as she explains, for example about our energy systems, and how we use each when paddling, and how to train within our thresholds.
As a Personal Trainer, this is the kind of stuff we study and are tested on - but what I love about April is she has an incredible way of explaining things in a clear and simple way - something I’ve sometimes struggled with when talking to clients. So, we all learnt so much; and I might have some new ways of explaining things to my coaching clients!
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