Would you point out someone's bad technique?

This has now happened to me twice - the first it was my terrible front crawl that prompted comments from a stranger about what I was doing wrong and how I could improve.Then today another stranger stopped me when cycling uphill and explained how my form meant I was uneconomical and making things harder for myself.

In both instances I accepted and appreciated the feedback as I am a relative novice, but it got me thinking that some people would be put off by such comments by stranger and I would never myself point out if I though someone had bad technique at running for example. So .... would you point out if you saw someone swimming/biking/runnning (or other sports I guess) with poor techniqe? Would you mind if someone did it to you? Anyone else ever been stopped and told what they were doing wrong? and did you mind?  I also wondered if there was any relevance that in both instances it was a older guy giving pointers to a younger female. 

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Comments

  • SuperCazSuperCaz ✭✭✭

    I would welcome any advice that I was offered as long as it came from someone with more experience than me.

    I would love to offer advice to others in some situations.  In the pool I almost have a compulsion to help people with their stroke but so far I have never done so unless the conversation has turned that way.  If someone tells me that they think they are a rubbish swimmer then I would tell them that their stroke wasn't bad but they could do with bending their elbows more, for example.

    Giving advice to someone who you haven't had a conversation with is a difficult one as it can be interpreted as rude, so I generally wouldn't do it.  Also you don't know their limitations.  The lady who does backstroke but has her arms too far out to the side might be doing that as she doens't have full range of motion in the shoulders and might know full well what she should be doing.

    However, I do wish that more people would intervene in the gym when they see people doing exercises wrongly such that they risk causing damage to themselves. That's a safety issue and so few people are taught how to lift weights properly.

  • RatzerRatzer ✭✭✭
    SuperCaz wrote (see)

    However, I do wish that more people would intervene in the gym when they see people doing exercises wrongly such that they risk causing damage to themselves. That's a safety issue and so few people are taught how to lift weights properly.


    Completely agree!  And yet it's the place where people appear to be least willing to take advice from anyone (unless they're cut to shreds and have "persanal Trainar" ironed onto their polo-shirt).

    I've wanted to give advice to some people doing Tabata Intervals before they can walk, but generally only comment if asked following a warm-up conversation.  However, I would never offer advice to younger women, no matter how bad their form, because they might think... image

  • Gym technique - yes.

    Sexual technique - no.
  • Cos it's rude to interrupt.
  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭

    Giving advice to a complete stranger just because their technique could be better - definitely not.  But like above, I would if I thought it might avert a bad thing happening, like a slipped disc on a weights machine.

    On the very rare occasion that I swim, I know for a fact that I front crawl with awful technique.  I couldn't tell you exactly what's wrong with it cos otherwise I wouldn't be swimming so badly, but I know it's not great because most people breaststroke quicker than I front crawl.  If I wanted to address it, I would invest in some one-to-one coaching, but I'm never going to swim on anything like a regular basis, so on the odd occasion I do, I get by with my way of staying afloat and not drowning, and it keeps me happy.  The last thing I want is someone telling me that I'm a crap swimmer and you don't want to do it like that, you want to do it like this.

    So you don't know whether someone is engaging in an activity at that time specifically to practise getting better at the technique itself, to get better/faster at that particular activity, or just as an activity to "keep fit". And let's face it, unless the poor technique is actually detrimental in some sort of health or safety aspect, an activity done with poor technique is still going to burn calories and get the heart and lungs going.

  • Ian MIan M ✭✭✭
    When I first saw this question posed, I thought I probably respond with a big feck-off if someone offered me advice - such as the last time I could recollect which was when some silly bint who was wobbling all over a cycle-path told me I really should be wearing a helmet.
    However now I think about it, I've been offered unsolicited advice down the climbing wall before, on how to do certain moves which has been very helpful, so I guess it largely depends on if you respect the source of advice.
  • MoraghanMoraghan ✭✭✭

    It's really difficult keeping your mouth shut at the gym and at the tennis courts.

    I can't work out what it is about the indoor rowing machine that is so baffling for people.

  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭
    Moraghan wrote (see)

    I can't work out what it is about the indoor rowing machine that is so baffling for people.


    Heh!  38 strokes per minute, 500m split 2:28.  Erm, you're not doing it right!  (But I still leave them to it.)

    IanM - I suppose it depends on the environment and the activity, and just how much technique is involved. I've never had a go on a climbing wall but I can imagine I'd be more likely to appreciate the odd comment from someone there than being approached in the gym whilst doing my own thing.

    And as for being advised to wear a helmet when cycling... I think I would have had some counter-advice for her.

  • BookyBooky ✭✭✭
    Generally, I'd keep schtum.
    Most of this is down to perception - I look younger than I am, I'm a teeny tiny hobbit-sized person, and I'm female. None of these things engender confidence when it comes to giving sport-related advice, especially with men, and even though I've got a fair amount knowledge and experience with certain things. I get the impression that they think I can't possibly know better than them, just because I'm small. Presumably if I did know what I was talking about I would have been more successful in growing image
  • Some mixed reponses here then. I think it does depend on how it's done too - in both cases the people who approached me we vey nice about it, and didn't actually tell me my technique was rubbish per se more advice on how I could make it better and make it easier for myself.
    Moraghan wrote (see)

    It's really difficult keeping your mouth shut at the gym and at the tennis courts.

    I can't work out what it is about the indoor rowing machine that is so baffling for people.

    I think I row correctly but I'm not completely sure! I seem to struggle more than a lot of people but then they're blokes
  • My girlfriend was an elite level rower until a couple of years ago.  She very often has men coming up to her on the indoor rower to explain that she's doing it wrong. 

    Still never listens though.

  • Hog-mouseHog-mouse ✭✭✭
    Catalin Bond wrote (see)
    Some mixed reponses here then. I think it does depend on how it's done too - in both cases the people who approached me we vey nice about it, and didn't actually tell me my technique was rubbish per se more advice on how I could make it better and make it easier for myself.
    Moraghan wrote (see)

    It's really difficult keeping your mouth shut at the gym and at the tennis courts.

    I can't work out what it is about the indoor rowing machine that is so baffling for people.

    I think I row correctly but I'm not completely sure! I seem to struggle more than a lot of people but then they're blokes

    I look at the pictures!

    (the ones that show you how to row properly, it does make a big difference).

  • skottyskotty ✭✭✭
    SuperCaz wrote (see)

    I would welcome any advice that I was offered as long as it came from someone with more experience than me.

     I almost have a compulsion to help people with their stroke but so far I have never done so unless the conversation has turned that way.  If someone tells me that they think they are a rubbish then I would tell them that their stroke wasn't bad but they could do with bending their elbows more, for example.

    Giving advice to someone who you haven't had a conversation with is a difficult one as it can be interpreted as rude, so I generally wouldn't do it. 

    it is embarrassing being offered sex advice like that, especially when we haven't yet had a conversation. image

  • Wow that long for sexual technique reference ...

    On running technique , people were always saying Paula Radcliffe's nodding head was a poor technque but she is still the world record holder.

  • how many people told Michael Johnson that his technique is wrong...

    I usually just smile and listen and then decide after if I am going to listen to it.......my advice has all been on the bike and i do not mind the advice given........find it helpful.
  • That Fosbury flop'll never catch on...
  • WombleWomble ✭✭✭
    Not advice on technique as such, but several years ago I was on my long Sunday r*n in Richmond Park and I was about to go past this chap trudging in the same direction. I don't know what came over me, but I chirped "Shoulders back, head up, think positive"! The thing was he turned to me and asked how I knew he was having negative thoughts about work, and thanked me!! I shook him out of his little gloomy world and he carried on all cheerful. He was 'merican, which may have helped.
  • popsiderpopsider ✭✭✭
    I'd love for someone to give me advice on swimming technique - nobody ever does though. I'd like to know what cycling advice was being given to the OP - there's not much technique to riding a bike up a hill surely?
  • He told me I was swinging my upper body from side to side too much. I wasn't even aware I was doing it!
  • I have done and probably will do in the future.

    When I do its to people who are in situations because they take the running seriously.

    For instance today I was doing speed work on my local track followed by an easy pace 5k to complete the work out. There was a guy doing fartleks at the same time . His breathing was incredibly laboured and his shoulders tense and high which was not helping. Now I know from  experience you don't run faster when your tense you must relax. The phrase I used was "...if you dont control your breathing it controls you...."   He said ok and carried on. Later he came by and said thanks for the advice as it had helped.

    Giving advice to runners after a race would also be another situation that I would see as exceptable but only if your up near the front of the finishers, and they were clearly struggling due to technique.

    You have to prove what you know is right and it helps if you look "natural in your Nike's" a great phrase I read lately.

    I dont give advice if I come across another runner while out on easy runs as that is not a situation where its possible to tell why the other person is running . They could be a beginner, injured, or just not that interested and they are going to give up tomorrow.

    Running is a lonely business on the one hand you train alone but compete against others to see if your better. Which is both social and anti-social some who say. Also if youe really trying to get better by actively training its easy to believe everyone else is.

    Now Popsider not only is there a lot of technique to riding up hill some people make a whole career out of doing it very very well.

     

  • TopSecTopSec ✭✭✭
    Now tell me if I am wrong here but I see loads of people on treadmills with it up on full incline but then they are hanging on to the front bar, therefore negating any work their legs are having to do?

    I have mentioned it to a couple of people, nice and tactfully I hope, they seemed to ignore me though image

  • Yes Topsec but you see I wouldn't bother with these people as they are clearly not taking the running seriously, even enough to think about what they are  trying to do when they "run"

  • popsiderpopsider ✭✭✭
    Ah now Stephen there are a few small points of technique for riding a bike up a hill - not *lots* and nobody made a living out of it because they had good technique.

    Most often though the advice offered turns out to be some nonsense like it was in this case - don't swing your body - lots of pros swing their body and bike about - Virenque won how many mountains jerseys and he looked a mess riding up hills, Pantani was all over the place at times out of the saddle on the drops - it's not a competition to look stylish.
  • My reaction varies depending on who is trying to give the advice, if they look like they are genuinely trying to help I smile and say thank you, is they are a self satisfying smug fucker who is trying to tell me what to do I just argue with then and show them the error of their ways.

    Either way what I am really thinking is fuck off you do not know me or any physiological/biometric problems I might or might not have which may or may not be making me perform this movement in this way.

    People should mind their own buisness and worry about themselves before they start preaching to others!

  • SuperCazSuperCaz ✭✭✭
    Ah skotty, thank you.  I went to a lot of effort to come up with a smutty reply image
  • No one has ever stopped me to address my form. Should I be happy or sad?
  • Sad I'm afraid Bex.  I refer you back to Candy's post about his gf having her perfect rowing technique corrected by the gym jocks.
  • Technique is not about what you look like your doing when your doing what your doing. Its what your doing when you look like your not doing what your doing.

    That is why in any sport a coach will say do this do that do the other until it becomes second nature and in fact gets to the point when an onlooker sees messy technique.

     The building may be wonky but the underlying foundations are solid so it wont fall down.

    Personally though it never happened I wish someone has come up to me at certain times and corrected me about my for, and given advice. I have had to read upteen books, trawled websites, watched tedious videos to create any kind of a training plan.

    I know without a doubt on at least one occasion lot of grief could have been avoided if someone had simply said, "have you thought about your shoes?"

    Then again I am and have always been relax with the fact that there are others who know more than me not just in theory but in practice. In fact I like that idea it means Im not wasting my time trying to learn more.

    Remember folks there is always a bigger dog in the pound, and sometimes he/she is smarter tooimage

  • The more he talked and talked, the more the wonder grew, that a head so small should hold all that he knew.

    I bet it's a he, as well!!!  Do you enjoy you triathlons, do you enjoy your training, are you constantly injured?  A few years ago did I watch on TV a japenese lady come second in the London marathon without raising her hands above her waist.

    Live long and prosper.

    KK

  • I am perfectly happy to point out someone's bad technique.

    I am perfectly happy to produce a report, complete with graphs, pictorial evidence and multitudinous appendices.

    But only if it is my ex. And in my defence, she has already  verbally produced her version of such a report. At length.

    But for anyone else? Probably not.

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