The importance of a second pair of eyes.

My wife works in the fitness industry. One of her most outstanding skills is her eye for human movement. She can look at a perspective client and quickly discover any issues with alignment.

I was doing my sets of kettlebell swings last night and trying to follow good form. I was thinking "swing to plank" and tensing my abs and lats at the top of the movement. It still didn't feel quite right.

Mel was observing me and noticed my shoulder were being pulled forward by the bell. She instructed me to pull my shoulders back and down. She also notice I was initiating the swing with a slight rounding of my lower back which I then corrected.

Bam, suddely everything fell into place. I felt stronger and tighter and the exercise felt, and looked, right

I normally train alone, but times like this illustrate the advantage of some oversight. While I was aware of the form pointers, in the heat of the moment it's can be difficult to pull it all together. This is especially true when learning a new exercise.

This year I hope to train with Mel more often. I also hope to attend a few training workshops, especially kettlebell related one.

Of course this goes doubly for fencing. The more skill focused a sport is, and the more esoteric the skills are, the more important coaching becomes. When I return to regular fencing I also need to return to receiving regular coaching.