Your Rider Isn't Ignoring You. Their Brain Is Simply Full.

Have you ever finished explaining an exercise and thought: “Did they hear anything I just said?” You've explained the exercise. You've reminded them about their position. You've explained what needs to happen before the transition. They nod. They look like they've understood. Then they ride into the arena and… forget half of it. It's easy to get frustrated. “They're not listening.” “I've literally just explained that.” But perhaps it's not that simple. What if their brain is already dealing with more than we realise? A young rider isn't just listening to their coach. They're riding the horse. They're thinking about where they're going. They're managing their balance and position. And then we're adding our instructions on top. So how much can they actually take in? How much can they remember? And what happens when we keep adding more? This is something I've been thinking about a lot when working with coaches. Because sometimes we can give a rider more and more information, genuinely trying to help them, without stopping to think about what they can actually use in that moment. Could less information sometimes lead to more learning? And if it could… how do we know what to leave out? That's where things get particularly interesting. We'll be exploring this in much more detail in our upcoming webinar, including what happens when a young rider's brain becomes overloaded and what this can mean for the way we coach. Join us for the webinar:

We're Not Coaching Mini Adults – We're Coaching Developing Brains.

See you there, Amelia Collins Sport Psychologist (SEPiT)

https://www.coachesforthefuture.com/webinar3