Why it is important to embrace the small successes- Savannah Westeinde

Here at Keeners we have so many amazing coaches to help us learn new tricks or take us down new lines. We also have a variety of different people, with different personalities who learn at all different paces. There may be somebody who comes to Keeners with little paddling background, then by the end of the session they are able to airscrew on garb. Or there might be someone who comes to Keeners who has been paddling for quite awhile, yet by the end of the session it may seem like there has not really been much of a drastic improvement. This can be super frustrating, especially when you are really making an effort to learn new stuff , and it does not seem like any improvement has been made. This is why it is important to embrace the small successes. Just because you don't learn how to do a bunch of new fancy tricks, does not mean that you have not improved at all, For me personally, I get very easily frustrated when I don't get the hang of things right away. This makes it even harder for me to learn new tricks because I get in this mindset where I just start to think that I will never be able to do huge loops, or be able to mcnasty. It is impossible to learn something if you do not actually believe that you can do it. This mindset has held me back in the past, but now I am back at Keeners for a third session, and I am finally able to realize what was holding me back. Now that I have this idea in my mind that it is possible for me to learn new stuff and really improve, I am realizing that just because it does not come quickly, does not mean it will never happen. I came into this session wanting to learn how to loop consistently, and learn some other hole tricks in order to prepare myself for worlds in Argentina. Before this session I had never successfully done a loop and stuck it. My plugs were also not consistent and I was in the habit of just doing the "plug and pray" tactic, where you just reach forward and try to plug your bow. This does not usually work as often times the bow will pop out to the side. Now, after the first week of Keeners, although I have only successfully done 1 loop and stuck it, that is still one more than I had done before I came here. Even though it seems like I am just falling on my face all the time, when I look back I realize I have still made a bit of improvement. For example: even though I have been falling on my face all week other than that 1 loop, I have started placing my paddle in the water as I plug so the bow does not pop out to the side, which means I start to jump straight up. Now I just need to work on throwing it. The fact that I am starting to realize that improving slowly, does not mean that I suck, and definitely does not mean that I am not improving at all; makes my time here at keeners so much more enjoyable. I spend less time worrying about whether or not I will ever be good, and more time visualizing what I have to do to get there. This week has been one of the best weeks I have ever had improvement wise. I stuck my first loop, did my first blunt, and finally got my dry head back deck roll. Although I still have a lot of work to do to get to the level that I want to be at, I am so happy with myself and cannot wait to see how the rest pf the session goes. So please if anyone who is reading this ever feels frustrated with themselves because they can't get a new trick, take the time to look back at what you could do a month ago, or even a year ago and I can almost guarantee that there has been some sort of improvement in your paddling whether it is big or small. Because getting frustrated over something like that is a waste of time that could be spent working towards your goals.