In this how-to we will elaborate about the question: how to get the attention of your students while teaching Kitesurfing?

When instructors want to pass their knowledge to the student, they need to make sure the student is paying attention to them.  This is a principle of good communication that is often forgotten.

In this post we will give you some hints and tips on how to get all of your students attention.

Enjoy reading!

There are many sources of distraction, but one of the most common ones is the kite.

The student is just now discovering how to pilot the kite, so his focus is all on piloting if the instructor tries to give instruction the student is going to struggle to focus on what the instructor is saying if the instruction is given while he is piloting.

This is even worse when the instructor positions himself behind the student and often making signals or gestures. Often explaining what he wants the student to do by saying do it like this or like that. It’s like driving and texting you can’t write and pay attention to the road at the same time. Small repetitive instructions can work, like asking that the student pulls more to the left or right. But as soon as you start using sentences, you need o get the full attention of the students so that he focusses on what you are saying. The chances are that if you do this, you’ll end up repeating yourself often because the student struggles to understand or even follow your instructions.  Also for the student is challenging and difficult to focus on what the instructor is saying as he is distracted by the kite. Another common communication problem is when you try to talk and explain things, but you are too far away from the student, with wind and noise the student probably will not fully understand what you want to say. Often this leads to problems, especially on the launch procedure as instructors tend to explain this while the student is far from them and usually they do not confirm the instruction.

If the student is tired or cold, it will also be difficult for him to focus on your instruction. He will be saving energy due to being tired or using power to keep warm, and this will harm his focuses ability.

So what is the best way to pass your knowledge to the student in a way he listens and entirely focuses on you? First of all, you need to capture his attention. So firstly remove any source of distraction. The kite is the primary source of distraction so make sure to land the kite so that the student can hear you and focus on what you have to say every time you need to give him instructions. You can use the kite to demonstrate your point, correction or exercise because you can control the kite and talk to the student at the same time. It is one of the most effective ways as the student can focus on what you say and also what you do. Make sure you make a clear and short example of your point, correction or exercise and then let the student practice it.

I’ve seen these mistakes often on the courses but also with seasoned instructors that keep talking during all the exercise of the student. It’s not only annoying for the student; it is also very tiring for the instructor. The instructor will be complete without voice if he is talking all the time. This can be even worse if the instructor has a radio helmet to communicate. The radio doesn’t work correctly in the water, and the instructor will tend to try to explain the exercises via radio making it very complicated and uncomfortable for the student to understand. Often students think radio will help as you will be able to hear the instructor, but this is, not necessary and usually works against them. For the instructor to be able to teach correctly, he should be close to the student at all times. So up to water start, this is entirely possible. In the body drag stage, the instructor needs to hold on to the student. This way the instructor is close, and he can see the mistakes and provide adequate correction. If he is at the beach, he often can’t even see correctly what isn’t he mistakes the student has made.

So I recommend that whenever teaching that each time the instructor wants to explain something new he needs to land the kite. This also helps the student to practice landing and launching making him a better pilot at one of the most dangerous tasks kiteboarders do.