Meet one of our coaches: KELLY SCHOUTEN, she tells you what she likes about the coaching at our kiteboarding camps. – Her favorite Dakhla is coming up again, and the spots go fast ;) –
The coaching idea started when me and Maroean where talking at a kite-event in 2015. We were chatting about kitecamps and coaching at the camps. I have been kiting for a while now and had my ups and downs. In 2014 I became Dutch Champion and i’m still really happy with this result but besides this i especially understand the struggles and all the effort that comes to learning a new trick.
When i started kiting in 2008 the sport was very male dominated and there were almost no girls at the beach,this is why i ended up kiting with the guys for the most of the time. I have been learning a lot from them but also discovered quite a few differences between the way of learning a new trick for guys and girls. I think a lot of girls that kite with the guys will recon these words : “ aaah thats easy just do this “ ok i will try, no it’s not working… so you go and ask them what you have to do different. And then they just say :”just go bigger and faster” And this is just not how we girls work, we like to actually understand and fully analyse a trick before we try it. In this part i missed the company of other girls trying to learn new tricks and improve their kiting skills.
I was really excited to go on this journey together with Maroean to motivate, push, explain and help all the girls that are willing to progress and grow. It makes me happy to see all the improvements and happy faces after all the hours off coaching, filming and video-analysing. All the good vibes of girls that never imagined how much they are able to learn in such a small period,from actually kiting their first meters to the first jumps, downwinders and even unhooked s-bends!! Coaching doesn’t only make me happy as a coach but especially as a person. It gives me the feeling i can give the other girls what i’ve been missing to try and learn new tricks.
Hope you all have a great time on the water and I’ll be your coach one day,
Cheers Kelly
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