Remote Learning, Equestrian-Style We asked famed para dressage coach Michel Assouline for his top tips on coaching students remotely
Four years ago, the Adequan U.S. Para Dressage Team had never won a medal at an FEI World Championships or a Paralympics. But in 2018, the team won four medals at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon. In 2020, they reached the top of the FEI’s ranking list for the first time in the program’s history, with U.S. para dressage athlete Roxanne Trunnell holding the top spot among all FEI para dressage athletes across all Grades. What changed? The answer is Michel Assouline, who previously led the British para team to multiple gold medals before becoming the U.S. Para Dressage Chef d’Equipe. In 2020, the Adequan U.S. Para Dressage Team was preparing for the Tokyo Olympic Games when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Olympics were postponed to 2021, and the Britain-based Assouline was separated from his team by the Atlantic Ocean. Assouline, whom the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee recently named its Paralympic Coach of the Year, kept on coaching, using remote teaching strategies that have proved highly effective. We sat down with him to learn how he was able to overcome remote-coaching challenges, maintain a safe connection with his riders, and keep the team ranked world No. 1.
One Step Ahead Before the pandemic, Assouline was already supplementing live lessons with technology due to his travel schedule, which prohibited him from seeing riders consistently face to face. Assouline provided support and flexible training schedules through direct coaching using the Move ’N See video systems, as well as online judging, video ride critiques, and one-on-one meetings via video conferencing. He is recognized as one of the trailblazers and biggest advocates for e-coaching. When asked about introducing remote coaching to his students he replied, “I was remote-coaching before COVID because I kept traveling between Europe and the U.S. I found because of my schedule I could keep helping people with online coaching.”
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