Practice Push

Practice Push


Team,
At the big events we got spanked this weekend. I know you tried hard but we had some poor decision making. We all know we can do better. I'm not disappointed because those events do not matter in the light of this weekend's events. I'll only be disappointed if I find the response to this situation is inadequate. You guys should be fighting mad and be ready to do whatever it takes to avoid the embarrassment of spending long moments in the back of the pack. If this doesn't get you down to practice long and hard, then we're in trouble. The season can basically be over in less than a week if we don't work together and take care of business. You should be down to practice every day this week even if you can only stay for 20 minutes or you have to suffer through a chalk talk with me at 10 in the morning just to say you made practice that day. Whatever, just devote all your possible time to sailing for just one week. Then you can say you've tried your best and you've been a true teammate to others who in turn have given their best effort. And believe me I'm talking to everyone on this sailing-list, even those we rarely see. If you have one ounce of feeling for this team you find a way to make an appearance.
I want to qualify for all three ACC's and I absolutely think we have a
team that can pull it off. We can't afford to make lots of tactical
blunders or have consistently poor starts and we certainly can't afford
anything less than a full practice effort for the next four days. We
need the boats on the line. We need all of you challenging each other
full tilt. We need to simulate regatta conditions. We need to get
lots of starts with sailors of quality and quantity and we need to get
lots of races in. We need to treat those starts like real ones, ones
where you spend much of the starting sequence reading the breeze and
basing decisions on conditions, not on whims or preferences. Perhaps
even accounting for such items as pre-start flow and adaptability.
Perhaps being the aggressor; the hammer not the nail, so to speak.
Then we must take that attitude onto the race course and sail our beats
using sound judgment based on real input not projected guessing. We
have to focus on the right things and sail smarter. "Always sail with
three bees in your bonnet". That's code for using your head to
concentrate on the Breeze, the Buoy, the Boats, in that order. Then
continue to repeat that order thoughout the race. Breeze, buoy, boats,
breeze, buoy, boats... That includes the crews! We're hosed if the
crews can't help the skippers or if the skippers won't let them.
We have to recognize when we can use our boat positioning as an
advantage and take advantage said when it's there. We have to avoid getting emotionally down should we get behind and allowing that to shake our concentration. We got beat this weekend by a lot of people who sailed smarter than us. Lots of them have less skill than you do, don't tell me otherwise because I'm not buying it. We didn't put our boat in the right places this weekend, that's why we got beat up.
That can change. That will change.

What do you say we hang out together a lot this week and have lots of
fun racing sailboats. Then let's surprise a lot of people this weekend, it wouldn't be the first time. You can do it.


-Coach