Violinist from Malta speeding across the waters of Lake Bled
Right in the middle of Training in Paradise summer, during the hottest week of the season, we hosted Melanie Waite for a week-long paddling clinic on Lake Bled. Melanie is an acclaimed violinist and also an avid athlete with experience from various sports. She only started paddling in a sprint boat a year ago, but she fell in love with the sport and is planning to have a strong shot at seeing how fast she can paddle in this skinny boat. Mostly used to very high-level athletes it was a great challenge for us to organize a clinic that would offer a strong base for Melanie to work from in the future. We believe we have done a good job and gained a lot of experience too.
With Melanie, we worked to establish a good paddling technique base so she can build water and dryland sessions around it in the future. During the first days of paddling on Lake Bled, we have tried to show her how does a perfect stroke feel like – what kind of mobility, control, balance and strength it takes. But also how does it feel when the boat glides, how do we accelerate it, where does the energy for the stroke come from and where does it go. In the second part of the week, we have looked into her gym programs to try and see what could she do better to get more gains and more transfer to the water performance. And we wrapped up the week with a great late afternoon paddle on the biggest Slovenian Lake – Bohinj!