You have been on a few backpacking trips, you have rushed down class 2 or 3 rapids, have hit a few drops and jumps on your mountain bike or you might have taken your first baby steps into your first adventure sport. Whether you want to admit it or not its human nature to want to progress! I am going to give you my tips to progress a rapid rate. So listed below is your guide from becoming a joe to a pro.
- Fitness – no matter what adventure sport you are picking up from hiking to whitewater kayaking the best way to perform to your fullest is by creating a solid base fitness. This should be done in and out of the weight room. I try to put in four weight room work outs a week as well as 3-5 days of cardio a week. The cardio training is normally a mix of my adventure sport discipline as well as a different sport for variety. During mountain bike season I might ride three times a week and the other two days of week of cardio will be long day hikes in the mountains. Your fitness program should focus around strength training, core exercises and building your aerobic and anaerobic capacity.
- Education – to become a “pro” I recommend developing your skills to mimic the pros. I recommend watching several pros in the sport you are trying to perfect and mimic their actions. This might not be an exact formula but finding a common dominator between each pro and trying to mimic their actions will help you progress. I recommend reading books and watching YouTube how to videos from several sources. Each source will give slightly different tips by hearing different perspectives this can help you figure out what works for you. An example would be a video I used to watch called “how to American bunny hop on a mountain bike” there are hundreds of videos of showing how to perform this action but after watching several different videos I only seemed to learn from one specific video because the instructor described it in a way that I personally could understand.
- Mentorship – find someone who is more experienced than you. By spending time with this person you will develop your skills. Your mentor will give you tips that only someone with years of experience will know. They will also know your local scene and will be able to give you warnings if there are any dangers or great secret spots in your area.
- Practice – no matter how much you watch and learn the skills you want to perform you have to go out there and practice. Just as the old saying goes practice makes perfect. Video yourself and watch what you are doing and compare this to what you have been watching the pros do.
- Time – once again no matter how much you learn and how much you practice you do. Some skills just take time and experience. Experience, that only time can teach you, will help you stomp the jump you have been dreaming of or the mountain you have been looking at climbing.
- Equipment – I can’t say this enough (there will be a separate blog discussing this topic in the future) but purchasing the correct equipment can save you time, money and frustration. Do your research and talk to experienced individuals in the sport to understand the gear you need. You need to figure out what you want to achieve in the sport and buy accordingly.
- Learn with someone of the same level – learning with someone of similar experience can create a bond that is hard to achieve with a mentor. Learning with someone of the same level can make a life long friendship and a team. By struggling with someone and enduring the challenges that you face will help the experience be more fun and not seem as hard. This teamwork can also create friendly competition and help push each other to progress faster. Maybe one of you is better at a skill than the other naturally? Well being able to explain to each other the skill can help the teams progression.
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