This blog is intended to complement my coaching business by exploring some of the reasons why participation in sport and outdoor activity is good for our physical and mental health. It will be open in terms of content; it might just be a way to show off some recent trips and courses in sea kayaking, or it might just be me musing about our emotional connection to life’s ups and downs. It’s underlying mission, however, is to expound on my philosophy of coaching. That is:
Learning should be fun, interesting and motivating.
Outdoor activity should be inclusive so that no one is barred from taking part.
Everything should be done in a safe way, both physically and mentally.
An holistic view of our performance is key to progress. Mind, body and soul.
If you followed the clues you will see that I call this my FISH philosophy. This mnemonic was developed right at the beginning of my coaching journey when my mentors Mags Duncan and Steve MacKinnon of set it as a task during core coach training. It just made perfect sense to me then and I have tried to live by it every day on the water since. I have fallen short on many fronts but it reminds me that I need to attend to those shortfalls the next time.
I have had the privilege of developing my paddling and my coaching with some amazing people including Matt Haydock, Nick Blowfield, Doug Cooper, Kristian Cooper, Cailean MacLeod, and, of course, Mags and Steve. What struck me at the beginning of it all was how incredibly supportive, empathic and genuinely interested in my success every one of them was. Having recruited and mentored countless crisis negotiators over the years I suddenly saw how the mindset and approach of these unique police officers was also apparent in outdoor coaches.
Initially my approach to this was while still in the police. This saw the development of the paddlewell initiative, a wellbeing programme which took officers out of the working environment to a local watersports centre and paired them with another officer who was also a trained paddlesport coach. We intermingled several elements of mental health and wellbeing coaching with learning to paddle board and kayak in a great blue space environment where people suddenly felt free to talk, able to let go of their emotions and get a massive boost of cold water therapy by learning to self-rescue!
Uniquely at the time, we structured our coaching around the NHS Five Steps to Wellbeing which I have depicted below. This approach, similar to my own coaching philosophy, allowed us to focus in on areas we were missing out on. For example, we introduced breathing exercises to recover a mindful state after a morning of paddle boarding and one-to-one job talk! Using the five steps to analyse gaps in wellbeing is something I advocate for all coaches to consider.
My aim now is to expand upon this and teach people to paddle ‘for their physical and mental health’. I look forward to a day when I am on the water and ask someone what they like about paddling and they reply, ‘I do it for my mental health’.
Links
Kayak Moray Firth – Mags Duncan
Scottish Sea Kayaking – Doug Cooper
59 Degrees North – Kristian Cooper