We had a great time in Scotland recently on the OC1 Creeking Course and I was reviewing the pictures today with the intention of posting a Blog. It occurred to me that some of the pictures showed an aspect of paddling we often ignore the importance of; psychological skills. As skills they are learned and take time to develop, so require some deliberate practice.
Here I will give you an example using the concept of attentional focus. If we focus all of our attention on the target attainment we are paddling to, we should be able concentrate on the outcome and use autonomous skills to achieve it. In other words if we stare at the target we seem to get there automatically without being conscious of how we did it.
Here you see a sequence of pictures that show Jan using attentional focus in a skilled way to achieve an outcome. He is paddling from the eddy between the first and second drop on Triple Falls on the Etive.
Even before he leaves the eddy he is focussed on the lip of the next waterfall where he needs to perform the boof to make a successful descent:
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