The value of the personal trainer: “If you have a good one, you will get hooked”

His left hand expands from his chest to his front. His fingertips, which point to the water, move rhythmically. Sara Zamorano (46 years old, Madrid) draws her movement with her arm. First, she tilts her fingers, pretending to be her head. Then, her forearm interprets the movement of the body before falling into the water. The coach, at the edge of the pool, outlines in the air the steps that María González, a 65-year-old from Madrid, will imitate seconds later, watching attentively from the starting podium. Just eight months ago, both women began meeting three times a week to give swimming lessons with one goal: for González to enjoy her

hobby

more .

The profile of personal trainers for different sports disciplines is not defined. They are women and men of different ages. Just like his pupils. But they all share the passion for practicing sports. That is the case of Sara Zamorano, who was always clear that her life and work would be linked to sport in general and, shortly after, she also knew that it was linked to swimming specifically. She studied to be a sports technician and received an offer from the Jiménez Swimming Club (Madrid), where she has worked since she finished her studies more than 20 years ago. It was then when María González, who was a regular at this club, met the woman who is now his coach. In Spain, the average price of a group swimming class varies between 20 and 40 euros.

In the pool, while the photographer prepares the camera, Zamorano warns: “Age is deceiving.” When his student jumps into the water, shocked faces illuminate the few faces surrounding the pool of the Madrid club. “She's like a mermaid,” says her coach.

González repeats some of the movements several times. To improve, he says. When he gets out of the water, he remembers the moment when he learned to swim. “I was seven or eight years old, and my parents took me to one of the first swimming pools in Madrid, where a teacher taught me the basics. But Sara has helped me a lot. I knew the stroke technique that was done in the sixties [now the movements are more aerodynamic and the body acquires greater speed], and it has been modified since then,” she explains.

—Why do you teach swimming lessons?

— Because coaches help you improve technique even if you are not a professional.

In Camarma de Esteruelas, just 20 kilometers from Madrid, at the Las Cadenas Equestrian Club, Sonsoles Roldán (37 years old) guides the movement of Elena Sánchez (42) and

Pacheco

, a 15-year-old purebred Spanish gray horse. While the animal moves around the track - at a walk, at a trot, at a gallop - the trainer gives instructions to the horsewoman: the position of the leg, the posture of the back, the hands...

Pacheco

moves to one side and Towards the other, he draws a circle, a pirouette, makes a transfer... Sometimes Roldán is a few meters from

Pacheco

. Others, he indicates from further away. To avoid having to raise your voice, headphones connected to your cell phone or a

Bluetooth

intercom are sometimes used

. “This is how I tell the student the corrections and what exercises to do,” she says. “But I also get closer to the horse, especially when I notice that the rider or the animal is more insecure or uneasy. With the call you can feel the breathing of one or the other. And at the same time you have a more distant vision, as if you were a judge,” she says.

—Hasn't it been difficult for your students to accept this technique?

—At first quite a bit, especially with older people. But it has many benefits, both for the horse and the rider, because I can know how they feel.

Sánchez had no reluctance to use this form of communication with Roldán. In the more than 11 years that both have been teaching together [the individual session costs between 30 and 40 euros, depending on whether one has their own horse or not; and the group, since 20], headphones have been great allies. For this reason, the Amazon reaffirms the words of her teacher: “With them it is as if I carried Sonsoles in my mind.”

—And why is a personal trainer necessary in classical dressage?

—Help is always necessary because it doesn't depend only on you. We are dealing with a living being that has good and bad days. And the rider needs someone to guide him from below and give him the guidelines to follow.

At Madrid's Chamartín Tennis Club, Daniel Muñoz de la Nava, a former professional tennis player who began teaching classes in 2019, stands next to Diego Jiménez, 16 years old. On the other side of the net, his assistant, another minor he teaches, fights with Jiménez. After each exchange, Muñoz de la Nava approaches his student. He corrects him: he turns his shoulder to show him how to hit backhand, helps him position his body to volley, and, after each hit, encourages him.

The young man's dream is to become a professional tennis player, which is why he trains between five and six hours per week [the average price of an individual class that includes court rental is between 30 and 40 euros in Spain]. But he does not forget that, above all, tennis is his

hobby

. And he summarizes that, beyond the technique and game scheme that he may learn from his teacher, the learning that he has acquired in the barely two years that they have been together consists of managing victory and defeat. “Someone like Dani, who has spent his entire life playing tennis, knows what it's like to be in my situation,” he insists. His teacher agrees with him, and emphasizes that this is precisely what he tries to instill in his students.

—Can you play tennis without having had a coach?

-Yeah.

-It is advisable?

-No. Especially because if you play tennis against another person who doesn't know how to play tennis either, you spend half the time picking up balls.

Passion for sports appears in different ways. In the case of Javier García (25 years old, Madrid), it was his grandfather who instilled in him the love of golf. Three years ago he started playing with it and, he explains, it started to “get more and more itchy.” That's why he decided to give classes at the Somontes Golf Club, in Madrid. The spring morning when we visited him, he shows us how he takes his club, places the ball, and before the eyes of Kiko Luna (50 years old, Madrid), his coach, he swings

to

send the ball more than a hundred meters . He knows that his pupil only wants to enjoy his

hobby

, not become a professional. They train together once a week [which costs 80 euros per month for group classes], and then García goes on weekends for a couple of hours to a golf course — sometimes with his grandfather — to practice. . “Even the great professionals with more than 30 years of experience have a coach,” says the coach, who also highlights the rise of technological systems in this sport. “Now there are many countries where AI is practiced, like in Finland, because of the climate. But here in Spain we can play it outdoors,” he explains. In the classes, in addition, he says that many people come “just to de-stress.”

Getting rid of daily frustration is what Macarena Lozano and Begoña Romero, both 41 years old, also seek. On an almost spring afternoon, they both go to their yoga class in Retiro. Lozano begins to move, and the scene seems like a duet choreography. Romero imitates her. The trainer mentions different postures: that of the dog, that of the warrior... Sometimes she stops talking and approaches her student to correct her. A more stretched leg, a more open chest, a look towards the thumbs that point to the sky...

Both are part of those 5.6 million Spaniards who practice yoga weekly, according to a Reebok report from 2022. “It is very pleasant to have an outdoor space to teach classes [between three and six sessions a month, in group, round the 100 euros]. In the end, yoga and its postures [most of them are named after animals] come from nature,” explains the trainer, who emphasizes that this sport is essential for mental health. “It helps you manage frustration,” Romero concludes.

The trainer also teaches classes in her studio in Madrid. There she brings together between 9 and 11 people “at most”. For her, the fact that these groups are so small is because the classes have to be as personalized as possible. “If I had to teach 30 at a time, it would be very complicated, you can't focus on so many people,” she points out.

Every sport needs, at least at the beginning, a figure that explains the basic concepts. How to hit the ball, how to move your arms and legs in the water, how to do a yoga posture, how to ride a horse and control the animal... Afterwards, the relationship between coach and student begins to strengthen and can become simply in friends who practice a sport. With knowledge and technique, passion is also transmitted. And as Kiko Luna says: “It doesn't matter what you play, if you have a good coach, you will get hooked.”

_