So the long weekend just past was scheduled for the first “Free you Style” event to take place in Kilkenny, sadly a couple of days before the event was to happen the recent very heavy rain fall had washed the weir out and there wasn’t much of a feature left.
As the aim of the free your style day was to encourage and foster an interest for participation freestyle events I had little choice to postpone the event until a further date in the near future.
In contacting the coaches who had volunteered there services for the day they were all really keen to still take part in the event at a later date. I was aware that lots of the people who all set to travel to Kilkenny for the day were still keen to do something regardless of the level so I said that I would run a river trip on the Sunday for the first few who got back to me and would decide what section of the river to use upon seeing the water level on the day.
Sunday morning brought us sunshine and highish but workable levels, we ran a mini rive trip from the Bleach road get on to the weir. We all had a wee chat at the get on and set out what we all wanted to work for the day and set off in good form with every one set to pick up some new skills and brush up on the ones we already had.
On the way we worked on getting the perfect stern squirt, which everyone really enjoyed and people even surprising them selves with just how good their results were. One of the things we focused on was that control & finesse was more important than brut force and that concepts learned in even the most basic of moves transfers to the more challenging ones.
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Once we got to the weir everyone was well warmed up and keen to see what to could do, I was really impressed with everyone and just how willing they were to get stuck in. Again after a small bit of coaching everyone’s rides were improving. One of the things I really like to encourage is peer learning and sharing ideas with each other which the whole gang got into.
I have to say I had a great day on the water and a huge thanks to all those that came along on the day, also a big thanks to Johnpaul Ryan for helping out on the coaching side of things. Also a thanks to Kilkenny County Council who had given us access to set up bank side had the event gone as planned and also to the Irish Freestyle Committee for the use of their event shelter.
To all those that had registered & contacted me wanting to take part in the “Free Your Style” event don’t worry we still have those medals up for grabs and are planning to reschedule for some time before Christmas.
Till next time,
Adrian
