The rise of the video jockey

One positive thing that may come out of this crisis is a more versatile approach to coaching. Andrea Oakes discovers how riders make remote coaching work.

- Andrea Oakes

SO we’re off games and confined to quarters – a frustrating time as far as training is concerned. While most riders rely on regular guidance, thriving on feedback and constructive criticism, the current movement restrictions have called time on traditional lessons and clinics.

The early days of lockdown saw a flurry of activity from the more proactive coaches, who turned to technology to keep their clients’ confidence high and their progress on track. Yet as the possibilities of training by live link or video opened up, the question emerged as to whether we should be riding at all while our emergency services are under such strain.

What we’ve learned about remote training won’t be wasted, however, when normal activity resumes. By dipping a toe into this virtual world, we’re realising that those expert “eyes on the ground” could be elsewhere – in another county, or even a different country.

THE frozen frames and fuzzy images that come to mind with online video chat and conference platforms don’t bode well for real-time teaching, so dressage rider Anna Ross was keen to test the logistics of offering lessons this way to her clients.

“We tried FaceTime, Zoom and WhatsApp, as these are what most people have,” says Anna, whose pupil Sally Bell was riding her grand prix gelding State Secret remotely in an outdoor school. “Each worked surprisingly well. The film quality was quite good and we had no problem with sound.”