Note submitted by Pure Surf

Hello everyone, my name is Marcelo Castellanos, I am a holistic surf coach, I am from El Salvador and today I want to share with you some tips and advice that can help you continue training during these days of quarantine and continue taking your surfing to the next level.

To begin and be able to do a holistic surf training, what we must do is try to put our mind, our spirit and our body in the best possible place.

1- BREATHING

Bhastrika is a breath and starting our days by breathing is the best way to start since we are going to energize our body, we are going to get rid of that cloud that we have in our mind and we are going to start our day with more clarity.

2- POSTURE

Posture is essential for us to be able to develop good surfing and have good stability on our board and these days we spend all day on the phone or on the computer, we do the opposite of working on our posture, we have our shoulders forward, our head down and that is the opposite of having a good posture, so we have to work on our posture.

3- STABILITY

We also spend a lot of time sitting or lying down and we must work on the stability of our hips to have strength. There are some muscles that are called muscles with amnesia, they are the muscles that give us stability and the hips are one of those that we must work specifically to feel more planted on our board and have more power when surfing.

4- LEG STRENGTH

Basically when we surf, we are doing leg curls all the time, compact, extend, compact, extend, hold, extend, so we have to work, the more we strengthen our legs and those movements, the more power we will be able to put into surfing and the more stability we will have.

5- ROTATION

It is basically our core and it is what connects the upper part of our body with the lower part, it is what gives us torque in our maneuvers and makes us much more explosive when surfing.

So if you notice, these are exercises that no matter what your level is, the better this is, the better your surfing will be, so they are extremely important to work on.

There are several exercises on the Internet, thousands of routines, there is one that Mick Fanning just released that is really good, I recommend it to everyone, it is quite complete and it works on all of the things that I just mentioned.

6- TECHNIQUE

Display: Basically it's about using your imagination and being able to practice specific movements and specific techniques over and over again. You just have to make sure when visualizing how to do the technique. Let's watch our favorite surfer doing it. We can watch it in slow motion, make sure how he puts his hands, how he puts his back, where he's looking, what part of the wave he's doing the maneuver in, and then we can take the time to visualize and see ourselves practicing that maneuver over and over again.

The brain and body cannot tell if it is reality or just imagination, so our entire nervous system and all the muscles are working as if we were really doing it.

Flow Motion: It is practicing the movements of the technique outside of the water, it can be done with a skateboard, with a simulator, or it can be done without anything and it is basically repeating these movements over and over again until they become automated. The learning process takes place in three stages: (i) the first stage is learning the technique, (ii) then the second stage is perfecting these movements, there we can film ourselves or ask someone to film us to make sure we are doing it right and once we are sure we are doing it right, (iii) the third part which is the automation or the creation of muscle memory of the movements which is done through repetition, that is why it is important to make sure we are doing it right, we do not want to create muscle memory of a movement done wrong, since when we go into the water, that is the way we are going to do it.

General advice

Eating well, breathing well and meditating well will help you start your day with a clear mind and feeling good. You can also take a shot of ginger or a shot of vinegar. By doing this, you are not only helping your body balance its pH and helping your immune system, but you are also starting your day psychologically in the best way possible.

It is important to make a training plan, on paper or in Excel. The thing is to put it in a place where it can be seen, and stay motivated, marking and completing the exercises that you said you were going to do.

Now that you know these tips on things you can do while in quarantine, I only encourage you to do it, to put it into practice, because the difference between the intelligent and the wise is that the intelligent knows what he has to do, but the wise does what he has to do.

"The intelligent man knows what he has to do, but the wise man does what he has to do"