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
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Practice Notes
Practice Notes
Again, I think we had a good practice and I hope you feel the same.
It's great to have 13 boats on the staring line. The first thing we did were "Ball Starts". I sent you an email on Ball Starts and I suggest you read it again or ask me to resend it. Next we did a simple weave but it's not so simple if you learn to release that tight grip on the tiller and start using your sails and weight to turn. Anyone can just use the tiller to steer around buoys, but that doesn't make them fast. The next pass through on the weave I asked that you use only one finger on the tiller (some might not have heard that request). Great sailors could let go of the tiller and still do the weave. I was hoping you'd figure out that you can't hold a tiller extension with one finger and steer but you could steer with a finger on the actually tiller. It took a little problem solving skills. I was also testing you to see how quickly you might give up on a "stupid drill". That stupid drill took all of 30 seconds to complete but it told me a lot about individual effort. Try as hard as you can and don't give up.
Next we played a little follow the leader as we went downwind and
worked on jibes. When you play follow the leader, the closer you get to the front boat the more difficult the drill is. Let's keep it tight, but don't give it to someone up the rear. Make sure you use your best "racing" jibe when you do this. Don't just turn the boat. For some reason people had an easier time taking their roll tacks more seriously than their roll jibes. That's crazy. Flattening after a roll jibe is much harder and takes more coordination and timing from the skipper and crew. How far does the crew have to come up to help flatten? How hard? How quickly must they get back to leeward to correct over-flattening? How far outboard do they have to get? This drill should be fun. It's a team thing. You're all carving out a pattern on the river together and it looks cool from shore. You look like a team that's got its act together and is working hard.
Next we went into trying to "hold" our position (think starting line, think "stop" of Stop and Go). We need to work on that one. It would have been better if I had a starting line set to give you more of a visual clue. Then we did something weird and crazy and I was so proud of you who really went for it. Who ever heard of backing yourself under a bridge on purpose? With a little practice you could learn to nail this drill without nailing the bridge. When folks did nail it (the bridge) it worked on some problem solving skills again.
Recovering from that drill, we went into a last beat drill. You
weren't too bad setting that up but you should do better. This is great for communication skills and working together as a team. Read the boat positions and set it up quick. Joe rounded second to last and won by a lot on a medium length beat. That should not happen. He just sailed over to right on a medium slant (not headed, not lifted, 45% to the finish line) and got into the line of breeze he saw. He got into it, tacked, and rode a righty over the top of everybody. Why didn't anybody see that? Why did all these boats sail together into a hole? Probably because they were gauging their position based on the boats around them instead of gauging their position on the mark; Watching the boats instead of the spaces between the boats; Eying the jib tell tales instead of eying the wind on the water.
So then we raced. When I set up a small course it allows us to keep boats closer together and facilitate boat handling. It allows us to get more starts in. It gives opportunity for less developed sailors to have a shot at finishing well. The longer the course, the more it favors the faster sailors as they can make a mistake and have time to come back from it. Why a gate at the top? It keeps you on your toes and thinking more. Round to port? To Starboard? "If he goes there I'm going here unless she does.... It makes you plan a bit more and be ready to adapt.
The Panic Box is good drill only if the team is committed to getting in the box right away, staying in the box, and most importantly, adhering to the right of way rules. When you don't get yourself into the box right away or don't play by the rules, you reduce the quality of the drill and hurt your team. It works on boat handling skills in tight quarters, it works on starting in tight spaces. With all the distraction of other boats, it's hard to look upwind and read the breeze so you know where to start. Panic boxes are also good in that they don't delay any time in practice. You have to have a starting sequence anyway, this just gives you more to do.
The drill of going around the outside of the box is a great, simple drill. 3 tacks upwind, reach across with maybe a pivot drill, 3 jibes down, reach across with maybe a load and flatten drill. It's important to tack/gybe well but when you can nail multiply turns smoothly you have yourself a weapon. It's easier to get the multiple gybes down first by learning not to over-steer when bearing off and to bring the tiller back very early. The boat must come out of the jibe very low if you expect to roll right into the next one. And don't dilly-dally on the main throw. Throw it with conviction, like you know you've nailed the right time of the throw. Then carry that conviction into your footwork and hand exchange. Roll, throw, and explode across;
Bang-Bang-Bang; Throw-step-step. Go get some tools and then we'll go use them on the race course.
Sailing rudderless is going to keep happening so keep plugging away at it. So are crew races. To me it looked like the crew races were the most fun of all. I liked the idea of the crew doing the first beat and then the skipper taking over. I did that today because I was afraid a big gust might roll down and some boats might death roll. The last race was nice with the long beat and boats duking it out the whole way. Long beats give everybody the opportunity to figure out the way the wind is phasing because you're sailing upwind for so long. I know it can be a long day but always try to work on something on the way in.
See you Friday!
Long email? Well just think of how long it takes to write it,
especially at 2 in the morning.
Thanks,
Coach
Again, I think we had a good practice and I hope you feel the same.
It's great to have 13 boats on the staring line. The first thing we did were "Ball Starts". I sent you an email on Ball Starts and I suggest you read it again or ask me to resend it. Next we did a simple weave but it's not so simple if you learn to release that tight grip on the tiller and start using your sails and weight to turn. Anyone can just use the tiller to steer around buoys, but that doesn't make them fast. The next pass through on the weave I asked that you use only one finger on the tiller (some might not have heard that request). Great sailors could let go of the tiller and still do the weave. I was hoping you'd figure out that you can't hold a tiller extension with one finger and steer but you could steer with a finger on the actually tiller. It took a little problem solving skills. I was also testing you to see how quickly you might give up on a "stupid drill". That stupid drill took all of 30 seconds to complete but it told me a lot about individual effort. Try as hard as you can and don't give up.
Next we played a little follow the leader as we went downwind and
worked on jibes. When you play follow the leader, the closer you get to the front boat the more difficult the drill is. Let's keep it tight, but don't give it to someone up the rear. Make sure you use your best "racing" jibe when you do this. Don't just turn the boat. For some reason people had an easier time taking their roll tacks more seriously than their roll jibes. That's crazy. Flattening after a roll jibe is much harder and takes more coordination and timing from the skipper and crew. How far does the crew have to come up to help flatten? How hard? How quickly must they get back to leeward to correct over-flattening? How far outboard do they have to get? This drill should be fun. It's a team thing. You're all carving out a pattern on the river together and it looks cool from shore. You look like a team that's got its act together and is working hard.
Next we went into trying to "hold" our position (think starting line, think "stop" of Stop and Go). We need to work on that one. It would have been better if I had a starting line set to give you more of a visual clue. Then we did something weird and crazy and I was so proud of you who really went for it. Who ever heard of backing yourself under a bridge on purpose? With a little practice you could learn to nail this drill without nailing the bridge. When folks did nail it (the bridge) it worked on some problem solving skills again.
Recovering from that drill, we went into a last beat drill. You
weren't too bad setting that up but you should do better. This is great for communication skills and working together as a team. Read the boat positions and set it up quick. Joe rounded second to last and won by a lot on a medium length beat. That should not happen. He just sailed over to right on a medium slant (not headed, not lifted, 45% to the finish line) and got into the line of breeze he saw. He got into it, tacked, and rode a righty over the top of everybody. Why didn't anybody see that? Why did all these boats sail together into a hole? Probably because they were gauging their position based on the boats around them instead of gauging their position on the mark; Watching the boats instead of the spaces between the boats; Eying the jib tell tales instead of eying the wind on the water.
So then we raced. When I set up a small course it allows us to keep boats closer together and facilitate boat handling. It allows us to get more starts in. It gives opportunity for less developed sailors to have a shot at finishing well. The longer the course, the more it favors the faster sailors as they can make a mistake and have time to come back from it. Why a gate at the top? It keeps you on your toes and thinking more. Round to port? To Starboard? "If he goes there I'm going here unless she does.... It makes you plan a bit more and be ready to adapt.
The Panic Box is good drill only if the team is committed to getting in the box right away, staying in the box, and most importantly, adhering to the right of way rules. When you don't get yourself into the box right away or don't play by the rules, you reduce the quality of the drill and hurt your team. It works on boat handling skills in tight quarters, it works on starting in tight spaces. With all the distraction of other boats, it's hard to look upwind and read the breeze so you know where to start. Panic boxes are also good in that they don't delay any time in practice. You have to have a starting sequence anyway, this just gives you more to do.
The drill of going around the outside of the box is a great, simple drill. 3 tacks upwind, reach across with maybe a pivot drill, 3 jibes down, reach across with maybe a load and flatten drill. It's important to tack/gybe well but when you can nail multiply turns smoothly you have yourself a weapon. It's easier to get the multiple gybes down first by learning not to over-steer when bearing off and to bring the tiller back very early. The boat must come out of the jibe very low if you expect to roll right into the next one. And don't dilly-dally on the main throw. Throw it with conviction, like you know you've nailed the right time of the throw. Then carry that conviction into your footwork and hand exchange. Roll, throw, and explode across;
Bang-Bang-Bang; Throw-step-step. Go get some tools and then we'll go use them on the race course.
Sailing rudderless is going to keep happening so keep plugging away at it. So are crew races. To me it looked like the crew races were the most fun of all. I liked the idea of the crew doing the first beat and then the skipper taking over. I did that today because I was afraid a big gust might roll down and some boats might death roll. The last race was nice with the long beat and boats duking it out the whole way. Long beats give everybody the opportunity to figure out the way the wind is phasing because you're sailing upwind for so long. I know it can be a long day but always try to work on something on the way in.
See you Friday!
Long email? Well just think of how long it takes to write it,
especially at 2 in the morning.
Thanks,
Coach
Ode To the BUDS
Ode to the Buds
Attention captain and crew
Are we foot soldiers in the battle of insouciance,
or plankton in the sea of apathy?
NO! I dare say.
Are we looked upon as cabin boys on the ship of complacency,
Or mistaken for waitresses at the banquet of life?
Unfathomable!
We are not pebbles in the
sands of mediocrity,
Nor scholars in the art of pocourantism.
We do not slither like sloths on the tree of stoicism
Or vegetate like barnacles on the barge of indifference
ARE WE NOT DINGHY SAILORS ?
Is it not the very core of our existence,
The essence of our body and blood.
The heart and soul of everything that is right and just on earth.
If cut, would we not bleed Charles River green?
In this often cold and harsh world,
There are few moments of sheer elation.
There are few journeys that bring fulfillment
In the mere road to enlightenment.
A smattering of joyous occasions,
A tidbit of remarkable achievements,
A dollop of fruitful endeavors.
Shall we not strive for the clearly attainable?
Go for the gold. Grab the gusto.
Rein in the glory. Take it to the limit.
I stand before you now, not as a man, but as a rambling fool.
Yet it matters little. For I am a dinghy sailor.
I shall shout above the rowdiest crowd
And let it ring from the tallest dormitory.
I AM a dinghy sailor!
I shall take this to the grave and beyond,
Embrace it for all eternity,
Relish in its completeness.
I will feverishly defend my right to embellish
My constitution of piquant proclaiment.
I AM A DINGHY SAILOR.
Say it with me.
Sleep it, eat it, breathe it. Wallow in it.
Let it caress you like a warm blanket
In the black night of uncertainty.
Let it bring you comfort in times of self-doubt.
We are at the dawn of procurement,
The aurora of consummation,
The primordiam of
aggregation.
It starts with a fire in the belly.
It procreates with the culmination of opulent cognition.
It radiates with the obtainment of corroborated self-confidence.
Come take the journey of the ancient elders.
For it begins with the wisdom that the quest is within reach.
Shall we begin?
Attention captain and crew
Are we foot soldiers in the battle of insouciance,
or plankton in the sea of apathy?
NO! I dare say.
Are we looked upon as cabin boys on the ship of complacency,
Or mistaken for waitresses at the banquet of life?
Unfathomable!
We are not pebbles in the
sands of mediocrity,
Nor scholars in the art of pocourantism.
We do not slither like sloths on the tree of stoicism
Or vegetate like barnacles on the barge of indifference
ARE WE NOT DINGHY SAILORS ?
Is it not the very core of our existence,
The essence of our body and blood.
The heart and soul of everything that is right and just on earth.
If cut, would we not bleed Charles River green?
In this often cold and harsh world,
There are few moments of sheer elation.
There are few journeys that bring fulfillment
In the mere road to enlightenment.
A smattering of joyous occasions,
A tidbit of remarkable achievements,
A dollop of fruitful endeavors.
Shall we not strive for the clearly attainable?
Go for the gold. Grab the gusto.
Rein in the glory. Take it to the limit.
I stand before you now, not as a man, but as a rambling fool.
Yet it matters little. For I am a dinghy sailor.
I shall shout above the rowdiest crowd
And let it ring from the tallest dormitory.
I AM a dinghy sailor!
I shall take this to the grave and beyond,
Embrace it for all eternity,
Relish in its completeness.
I will feverishly defend my right to embellish
My constitution of piquant proclaiment.
I AM A DINGHY SAILOR.
Say it with me.
Sleep it, eat it, breathe it. Wallow in it.
Let it caress you like a warm blanket
In the black night of uncertainty.
Let it bring you comfort in times of self-doubt.
We are at the dawn of procurement,
The aurora of consummation,
The primordiam of
aggregation.
It starts with a fire in the belly.
It procreates with the culmination of opulent cognition.
It radiates with the obtainment of corroborated self-confidence.
Come take the journey of the ancient elders.
For it begins with the wisdom that the quest is within reach.
Shall we begin?
International Crews Union
This letter below was forwarded to me by Rich Bell. An All-American
crew for BU in '99. Rich was also voted top Neisa Crew that year. Rich
got this from Jessi Dimock who was an 3-time all-american crew for
Tufts. She sailed with Jon Baker, whom she recently married. Some of
you have not meet Jon yet but he is a three-time all-american from
Tufts, who was runner-up to College Sailor of the Year in 1999 (he won A
divison at Nationals that year) and he has been coaching for BU on
weekends for the past three years. Jon will be running the Hatch Brown
Regatta, Jessi may also be there, and Rich will be there as well. If
you asked these guys a question, they'll be happy to answer it, and it
will be a damn good answer I bet.
Actually, Jessi forward this from Josh Adams, a multiple all-american
skipper from Tufts (Who is a damn good crew too), who got it from Bob
Merrick, an olympic medalist crew. Josh makes reference to Kevin Hall,
an all-american skipper from Brown who is equally talented as a crew. I
certainly know a bit about crewing. In my younger days, when I weighed
about half a cow less, I was a fairly talented and much sought after
crew. We won a lot because the skipper knew how to treat and train a
crew and how to win as a team, because that's what it takes to win,
teamwork. You're nobody without your crew.
Teamwork, here's an example. Lynne Jewell was a great sailor for BU
('82). She led the Terriers to a second place at Women's Nationals.
She is the only women to ever qualify for coed singlehanded nationals
(back then there were no women's single's, just coed's. Now there are
no coeds, only separate men's and women's). After graduation, Lynne
went on an olympic campaign with her crew Alison Jolly. After a year
of
training they were clearly improving but things just weren't right.
Lynne kept telling Alison her job and Alison told Lynne's hers as if
each could do each other's better. Then they got to thinkin', maybe we
can do it better. So they made the switch. Lynne moved to the front of
the boat and the rest is history. They won a gold medal in the Women's
470 class in Seoul. No egos, just teammates working together to make
the boat go faster than everybody else.
-------
From: Rich Bell
Hello,
I am sorry if some of you have already received this, but I thought it
was sweet. It is tough to make the boat go with no one in the pointy
end.
Hope you all enjoy Merriks letter,
later,
Rich
>From: "Jessi Dimock"
>To: "Ramsay Key","Rich Bell"
>,
>Subject: Re: RE: More
Sailing?
>Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 16:28:06 -0400
Fabulous letter - I couldn't agree more! After 7 years of sailing with
Jon, he still talks to other people using I instead of we!
see you guys soon. so are we going to sail next week then?
jd
----- Original Message -----
From: rkey@mit.edu
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 2:50 PM
To: brell84@hotmail.com; kiriw@prodigy.net; jessidimock@hotmail.com
Subject: Fwd: RE: More Sailing?
----- Forwarded message from "Adams, Josh" -----
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 09:59:00 -0400
From: "Adams, Josh"
Thought the group would enjoy this note that a few journos and I
received this morning from Bob Merrick. It reminds me of Kevin Hall's
famous comment, "Crews are people, too."
Dear Friends, Sailing Journalists, Crew Union members and Helmspersons,
On behalf of the International Crew Union I am asking you to consider
the
following assertion. Most of us who crew on sailboats are doing it
because
we enjoy the racing and not as a personal favor to our helmspersons. I
submit that we are not crewing FOR our skippers we are sailing WITH them
as an integral part of the team. (That is unless we are being paid BY
our
helmsperson in which case we won't squabble over words.)
Take this example from a recently published preview for the 2002
Tornado
worlds: "John Forbes, currently crewing for Darren Bundock." My
question
is, who was Darren Bundock before he teamed up with John Forbes?
If you agree with my proposal please forward it along to your fellow
journalists. If not don't expect any more good roll tacks. I warn you
our
underground network is vast and far-reaching.
Self Appointed International Crew Union Spokesperson: Bob Merrick
crew for BU in '99. Rich was also voted top Neisa Crew that year. Rich
got this from Jessi Dimock who was an 3-time all-american crew for
Tufts. She sailed with Jon Baker, whom she recently married. Some of
you have not meet Jon yet but he is a three-time all-american from
Tufts, who was runner-up to College Sailor of the Year in 1999 (he won A
divison at Nationals that year) and he has been coaching for BU on
weekends for the past three years. Jon will be running the Hatch Brown
Regatta, Jessi may also be there, and Rich will be there as well. If
you asked these guys a question, they'll be happy to answer it, and it
will be a damn good answer I bet.
Actually, Jessi forward this from Josh Adams, a multiple all-american
skipper from Tufts (Who is a damn good crew too), who got it from Bob
Merrick, an olympic medalist crew. Josh makes reference to Kevin Hall,
an all-american skipper from Brown who is equally talented as a crew. I
certainly know a bit about crewing. In my younger days, when I weighed
about half a cow less, I was a fairly talented and much sought after
crew. We won a lot because the skipper knew how to treat and train a
crew and how to win as a team, because that's what it takes to win,
teamwork. You're nobody without your crew.
Teamwork, here's an example. Lynne Jewell was a great sailor for BU
('82). She led the Terriers to a second place at Women's Nationals.
She is the only women to ever qualify for coed singlehanded nationals
(back then there were no women's single's, just coed's. Now there are
no coeds, only separate men's and women's). After graduation, Lynne
went on an olympic campaign with her crew Alison Jolly. After a year
of
training they were clearly improving but things just weren't right.
Lynne kept telling Alison her job and Alison told Lynne's hers as if
each could do each other's better. Then they got to thinkin', maybe we
can do it better. So they made the switch. Lynne moved to the front of
the boat and the rest is history. They won a gold medal in the Women's
470 class in Seoul. No egos, just teammates working together to make
the boat go faster than everybody else.
-------
From: Rich Bell
Hello,
I am sorry if some of you have already received this, but I thought it
was sweet. It is tough to make the boat go with no one in the pointy
end.
Hope you all enjoy Merriks letter,
later,
Rich
>From: "Jessi Dimock"
>To: "Ramsay Key"
>
>Subject: Re: RE: More
Sailing?
>Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 16:28:06 -0400
Fabulous letter - I couldn't agree more! After 7 years of sailing with
Jon, he still talks to other people using I instead of we!
see you guys soon. so are we going to sail next week then?
jd
----- Original Message -----
From: rkey@mit.edu
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 2:50 PM
To: brell84@hotmail.com; kiriw@prodigy.net; jessidimock@hotmail.com
Subject: Fwd: RE: More Sailing?
----- Forwarded message from "Adams, Josh"
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 09:59:00 -0400
From: "Adams, Josh"
Thought the group would enjoy this note that a few journos and I
received this morning from Bob Merrick. It reminds me of Kevin Hall's
famous comment, "Crews are people, too."
Dear Friends, Sailing Journalists, Crew Union members and Helmspersons,
On behalf of the International Crew Union I am asking you to consider
the
following assertion. Most of us who crew on sailboats are doing it
because
we enjoy the racing and not as a personal favor to our helmspersons. I
submit that we are not crewing FOR our skippers we are sailing WITH them
as an integral part of the team. (That is unless we are being paid BY
our
helmsperson in which case we won't squabble over words.)
Take this example from a recently published preview for the 2002
Tornado
worlds: "John Forbes, currently crewing for Darren Bundock." My
question
is, who was Darren Bundock before he teamed up with John Forbes?
If you agree with my proposal please forward it along to your fellow
journalists. If not don't expect any more good roll tacks. I warn you
our
underground network is vast and far-reaching.
Self Appointed International Crew Union Spokesperson: Bob Merrick
A Dozen Coachisms
A Dozen Coachisms:
12. Good sailors anticipate.
Not-so-good sailors react.
Bad sailors react slowly.
11. When you blow off practice, you blow off the team. When you blow
off the team, you blow off yourself. When you blow off yourself...
10. Once sails are set and trimmed correctly. A major factor in
Boat speed is weight placement. Keep the boat flat and level (bow to
stern) unless conditions warrant a change. Feel when to Heel.
9. It's not that you should be afraid of losing.
You just don't wanna be around when it happens.
8. Simplicity 101: There are only two tacks, be on the one that points more towards the weather mark. When in doubt:
1. Take the tack with clearer air to maximize boat speed
2. Work back to the rhumb line to minimize risk
3. Remember rule #1 above #2 but avoid the risky "corners of doom"
7. Team Race Simplicity (if that's possible):
If you control two out of three pairs, you can control the race.
6. It's not the teammates in your life that matter.
It's the life in your teammates.
5. Fast dinghies are initially turned with sail trim and weight
placement. The rudder merely tags along. Reduce the load to increase the mother lode.
4. Fear of losing has motivated more people than the promise of winning.
3. Good sailors let their automatic skills sail "the breeze of the
moment" while there conscious skills anticipate the breeze of the
future.
2. In a dinghy...
Four eyes are better than two.
Two brains are better than one.
One ass is too many for all.
1. Fun is a job well done.
Rah BUDS
12. Good sailors anticipate.
Not-so-good sailors react.
Bad sailors react slowly.
11. When you blow off practice, you blow off the team. When you blow
off the team, you blow off yourself. When you blow off yourself...
10. Once sails are set and trimmed correctly. A major factor in
Boat speed is weight placement. Keep the boat flat and level (bow to
stern) unless conditions warrant a change. Feel when to Heel.
9. It's not that you should be afraid of losing.
You just don't wanna be around when it happens.
8. Simplicity 101: There are only two tacks, be on the one that points more towards the weather mark. When in doubt:
1. Take the tack with clearer air to maximize boat speed
2. Work back to the rhumb line to minimize risk
3. Remember rule #1 above #2 but avoid the risky "corners of doom"
7. Team Race Simplicity (if that's possible):
If you control two out of three pairs, you can control the race.
6. It's not the teammates in your life that matter.
It's the life in your teammates.
5. Fast dinghies are initially turned with sail trim and weight
placement. The rudder merely tags along. Reduce the load to increase the mother lode.
4. Fear of losing has motivated more people than the promise of winning.
3. Good sailors let their automatic skills sail "the breeze of the
moment" while there conscious skills anticipate the breeze of the
future.
2. In a dinghy...
Four eyes are better than two.
Two brains are better than one.
One ass is too many for all.
1. Fun is a job well done.
Rah BUDS
More Starting
More Starting Drills
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 00:31:24 -0500
We really need to work on our starting skills. Much of this work can
be done without a coach. It can be done with one or two buoys. It can
be done before practice or on off-practice days. It can be done if you
rig up early at weekend regattas. It can be done between races. It
takes WILL. If you don't have the Will, you won't have your Way (on the
starting line). The easiest way to win a race is to win the start and
don't look back. We will settle for being in the group that gets their
nose poked out and manages to get to the first shift. Rounding the
first mark in the top five is Money.
What starting drills?
#1 Ball Starts -nail them 99% of the time. Then put your crew in the
back and nail them 99% of the time. Then close your eyes and nail them
99% of the time. Then take your rudder out and nail them 98% of the
time. Then stand on your head and well, well then get your head
examined. I am not asking of you anything I have not done myself
(except the head examination). That always the case.
#2 Stop and Goes and other acceleration drills. Load and flatten.
Jump or pump. Sail fat and then squeeze. What ever you want to call,
you must avoid the leebow from below and the total wanker of getting
rolled from above. You will learn to get more agressive, including
moving boats out of your way (physically and verbally), or you will not
be mentioned in the same breath as top collegiate sailors. Holes are
fought for, they are not gifts from god that only the "lucky sailors"
get.
#3 Turning skills- pivots, circles, tacking into holes, this means
HELM, HELM, HELM. You never really know about helm until you take the
rudder out.
#4 There's more, but above is a good start (ha,ha).
----------------
Here are some ideas to improve your mental skills.
Games: Chess is the game choice. There are many similarities between
the game of chess and the tactics of sailing, particularly in team
racing. Good sailors are usually good chess players. Maybe you should
take time to challenge each other to a game now and then. By the way,
puzzle games like the ones I have at the boathouse are great for
developing the analytical mind.
That's why they are down there.
Concentration: Try this drill. Sit down between two stereo speakers on
two different systems (could be stereo and a walkman as long as volumes
are the same). Each speaker has something different playing. The
exercise is to affectively shut out one sound and concentrate on the
other and alternating between the two. Every 30 seconds try to switch
from one to the other. Can you pay attention to one without being
disracted by the other? One note on this: Don't use tapes that you
know the words to, the more foreign to you, the better the exercise.
Relaxation: Deep, full breaths with long exhales. Melt the tension
away. It's amazing how clensing this simple exercise can be. Try it
before starts.
Visualization: Starting well and getting to the first shift are what
will keep you in the top pack. Visualize this and make it happen.
Imagine yourself with a clear air, front row start and then with
complete faith and confidence go out and get it.
Attitude: The next race is the first race of the rest of my life.
Don't dwell on the past, bad or good. Take what you need from previous
experiences and leave the rest "on the cutting room floor".
Mental Education: You must have a complete understanding of how the
mind works. You must recognize your "mental symptoms". You must
diagnose and then you must treat. This requires reading up on the
subject. Fortunately, all of you were wise enough to purchase Brad's
bible, so you have that key information at hand. What's that you say?
You care so little about your regatta performance that you have failed
to be verse in the most important book for a collegiate Sailor?
Say it ain't so.
Sail, Race, and Win
How to Develop a Winning Attitude
By Eric Twiname, revised by Cathy Foster
Sheridan House Inc.
Reading assignment: 28 pages of bliss
Chapter 14- Mental Fitness
Chapter 15- Psychological Barriers To Winning
Chapter 16- Making The Least Out Of A Crisis
Chapter 17- Mental Preparation
Sneak Preview...
The Power of the Mind
The wonderful thing about your mind is that provided you go
about
things in the right way it will do a vast amount for you without you
even having to think about it. It does this all the time with mundane
activities like walking and driving the car. This is taken for
granted. If your subconscious mind went on strike you would be in dire
trouble. Every movement of every muscle would have to be consciously
thought out and supervised. You would take a long time to get anywhere.
Your subconscious mind is 90 percent of the whole, with only 10
percent representing the conscious part. Just as walking is done almost
entirely by the subconscious, so is sailing, much more so than you
think. Your conscious mind is simply incapable of attending to every
little movement of your body or tuning into each of the senses that is
providing you with information that is being drawn on. Even tactical
decisions are based largely on the subconscious. A situation develops
ahead and you need to make a response, and that response whether to tack
or luff or whatever, results from dipping into your store of experience
which lies in the subconscious and getting a quick answer. To think
through the alternative moves at the time would usually be disastrous.
There is so much to attend to during a race that quite often you
have to put your sailing of the boat on to automatic pilot while you
look
for the weather mark, see what the other boats are doing, or scan the
water upwind for gusts. When you do this you shift your conscious
attention entirely off sailing the boat, which is done subconsciously by
your automatic pilot skills. Only if something goes wrong, like a wave
taken badly or a sudden heel, does a mental alarm bell call your full
attention back to the job of sailing the boat.
Even when you are sailing with your attention and thoughts all
centered on getting the boat to go through the water as fast as it will,
much of your bodily movements and responses are bypassing the conscious
mind completely. We are automatons of our own making, and part of
making
your mind work more effectively on the water is raising those automatic
pilot skills- that part which the subconscious mind does for you- to as
near perfection as possible.
When your automatic skills are highly developed you
automatically sail your boat near-perfectly the whole time. The
conscious mind is then
free to attend to the tactical side of the race, looking out for
windshifts and generally being the master of the preceedings and not
merely a slavish servant to the jib luff. Much of the time will
certainly be spent with full attention on the jib or the waves ahead of
the bow- or wherever a particular sailor looks in the prevailing
conditions to enable them to get the most speed out of their boat. But
little will be lost when they must look away and, all else being equal,
it is their studying of the wind and the race as it develops that will
enable them to make the winning tactical decisions.
Beginners have no automatic pilot sailing skills; they have to
do
everythng consciously, and even heading up and bearing away have to be
thought out. Improvement is a process in which the subconscious learns
set responses that allow skills such as helming to become a natural,
easy and very automatic process. Once your responses do become
automatic in this way you face a problem: if these responses are only 70
percent perfect and you want to improve your racing, you must make the
effort to take these automatic skills out, examine them, and then raise
them to a higher level of perfection. That is how you improve.
-Eric Twiname
It's time to take it to another level.
-Coach
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 00:31:24 -0500
We really need to work on our starting skills. Much of this work can
be done without a coach. It can be done with one or two buoys. It can
be done before practice or on off-practice days. It can be done if you
rig up early at weekend regattas. It can be done between races. It
takes WILL. If you don't have the Will, you won't have your Way (on the
starting line). The easiest way to win a race is to win the start and
don't look back. We will settle for being in the group that gets their
nose poked out and manages to get to the first shift. Rounding the
first mark in the top five is Money.
What starting drills?
#1 Ball Starts -nail them 99% of the time. Then put your crew in the
back and nail them 99% of the time. Then close your eyes and nail them
99% of the time. Then take your rudder out and nail them 98% of the
time. Then stand on your head and well, well then get your head
examined. I am not asking of you anything I have not done myself
(except the head examination). That always the case.
#2 Stop and Goes and other acceleration drills. Load and flatten.
Jump or pump. Sail fat and then squeeze. What ever you want to call,
you must avoid the leebow from below and the total wanker of getting
rolled from above. You will learn to get more agressive, including
moving boats out of your way (physically and verbally), or you will not
be mentioned in the same breath as top collegiate sailors. Holes are
fought for, they are not gifts from god that only the "lucky sailors"
get.
#3 Turning skills- pivots, circles, tacking into holes, this means
HELM, HELM, HELM. You never really know about helm until you take the
rudder out.
#4 There's more, but above is a good start (ha,ha).
----------------
Here are some ideas to improve your mental skills.
Games: Chess is the game choice. There are many similarities between
the game of chess and the tactics of sailing, particularly in team
racing. Good sailors are usually good chess players. Maybe you should
take time to challenge each other to a game now and then. By the way,
puzzle games like the ones I have at the boathouse are great for
developing the analytical mind.
That's why they are down there.
Concentration: Try this drill. Sit down between two stereo speakers on
two different systems (could be stereo and a walkman as long as volumes
are the same). Each speaker has something different playing. The
exercise is to affectively shut out one sound and concentrate on the
other and alternating between the two. Every 30 seconds try to switch
from one to the other. Can you pay attention to one without being
disracted by the other? One note on this: Don't use tapes that you
know the words to, the more foreign to you, the better the exercise.
Relaxation: Deep, full breaths with long exhales. Melt the tension
away. It's amazing how clensing this simple exercise can be. Try it
before starts.
Visualization: Starting well and getting to the first shift are what
will keep you in the top pack. Visualize this and make it happen.
Imagine yourself with a clear air, front row start and then with
complete faith and confidence go out and get it.
Attitude: The next race is the first race of the rest of my life.
Don't dwell on the past, bad or good. Take what you need from previous
experiences and leave the rest "on the cutting room floor".
Mental Education: You must have a complete understanding of how the
mind works. You must recognize your "mental symptoms". You must
diagnose and then you must treat. This requires reading up on the
subject. Fortunately, all of you were wise enough to purchase Brad's
bible, so you have that key information at hand. What's that you say?
You care so little about your regatta performance that you have failed
to be verse in the most important book for a collegiate Sailor?
Say it ain't so.
Sail, Race, and Win
How to Develop a Winning Attitude
By Eric Twiname, revised by Cathy Foster
Sheridan House Inc.
Reading assignment: 28 pages of bliss
Chapter 14- Mental Fitness
Chapter 15- Psychological Barriers To Winning
Chapter 16- Making The Least Out Of A Crisis
Chapter 17- Mental Preparation
Sneak Preview...
The Power of the Mind
The wonderful thing about your mind is that provided you go
about
things in the right way it will do a vast amount for you without you
even having to think about it. It does this all the time with mundane
activities like walking and driving the car. This is taken for
granted. If your subconscious mind went on strike you would be in dire
trouble. Every movement of every muscle would have to be consciously
thought out and supervised. You would take a long time to get anywhere.
Your subconscious mind is 90 percent of the whole, with only 10
percent representing the conscious part. Just as walking is done almost
entirely by the subconscious, so is sailing, much more so than you
think. Your conscious mind is simply incapable of attending to every
little movement of your body or tuning into each of the senses that is
providing you with information that is being drawn on. Even tactical
decisions are based largely on the subconscious. A situation develops
ahead and you need to make a response, and that response whether to tack
or luff or whatever, results from dipping into your store of experience
which lies in the subconscious and getting a quick answer. To think
through the alternative moves at the time would usually be disastrous.
There is so much to attend to during a race that quite often you
have to put your sailing of the boat on to automatic pilot while you
look
for the weather mark, see what the other boats are doing, or scan the
water upwind for gusts. When you do this you shift your conscious
attention entirely off sailing the boat, which is done subconsciously by
your automatic pilot skills. Only if something goes wrong, like a wave
taken badly or a sudden heel, does a mental alarm bell call your full
attention back to the job of sailing the boat.
Even when you are sailing with your attention and thoughts all
centered on getting the boat to go through the water as fast as it will,
much of your bodily movements and responses are bypassing the conscious
mind completely. We are automatons of our own making, and part of
making
your mind work more effectively on the water is raising those automatic
pilot skills- that part which the subconscious mind does for you- to as
near perfection as possible.
When your automatic skills are highly developed you
automatically sail your boat near-perfectly the whole time. The
conscious mind is then
free to attend to the tactical side of the race, looking out for
windshifts and generally being the master of the preceedings and not
merely a slavish servant to the jib luff. Much of the time will
certainly be spent with full attention on the jib or the waves ahead of
the bow- or wherever a particular sailor looks in the prevailing
conditions to enable them to get the most speed out of their boat. But
little will be lost when they must look away and, all else being equal,
it is their studying of the wind and the race as it develops that will
enable them to make the winning tactical decisions.
Beginners have no automatic pilot sailing skills; they have to
do
everythng consciously, and even heading up and bearing away have to be
thought out. Improvement is a process in which the subconscious learns
set responses that allow skills such as helming to become a natural,
easy and very automatic process. Once your responses do become
automatic in this way you face a problem: if these responses are only 70
percent perfect and you want to improve your racing, you must make the
effort to take these automatic skills out, examine them, and then raise
them to a higher level of perfection. That is how you improve.
-Eric Twiname
It's time to take it to another level.
-Coach
More Starting
More Starting Drills
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 00:31:24 -0500
We really need to work on our starting skills. Much of this work can
be done without a coach. It can be done with one or two buoys. It can
be done before practice or on off-practice days. It can be done if you
rig up early at weekend regattas. It can be done between races. It
takes WILL. If you don't have the Will, you won't have your Way (on the
starting line). The easiest way to win a race is to win the start and
don't look back. We will settle for being in the group that gets their
nose poked out and manages to get to the first shift. Rounding the
first mark in the top five is Money.
What starting drills?
#1 Ball Starts -nail them 99% of the time. Then put your crew in the
back and nail them 99% of the time. Then close your eyes and nail them
99% of the time. Then take your rudder out and nail them 98% of the
time. Then stand on your head and well, well then get your head
examined. I am not asking of you anything I have not done myself
(except the head examination). That always the case.
#2 Stop and Goes and other acceleration drills. Load and flatten.
Jump or pump. Sail fat and then squeeze. What ever you want to call,
you must avoid the leebow from below and the total wanker of getting
rolled from above. You will learn to get more agressive, including
moving boats out of your way (physically and verbally), or you will not
be mentioned in the same breath as top collegiate sailors. Holes are
fought for, they are not gifts from god that only the "lucky sailors"
get.
#3 Turning skills- pivots, circles, tacking into holes, this means
HELM, HELM, HELM. You never really know about helm until you take the
rudder out.
#4 There's more, but above is a good start (ha,ha).
----------------
Here are some ideas to improve your mental skills.
Games: Chess is the game choice. There are many similarities between
the game of chess and the tactics of sailing, particularly in team
racing. Good sailors are usually good chess players. Maybe you should
take time to challenge each other to a game now and then. By the way,
puzzle games like the ones I have at the boathouse are great for
developing the analytical mind.
That's why they are down there.
Concentration: Try this drill. Sit down between two stereo speakers on
two different systems (could be stereo and a walkman as long as volumes
are the same). Each speaker has something different playing. The
exercise is to affectively shut out one sound and concentrate on the
other and alternating between the two. Every 30 seconds try to switch
from one to the other. Can you pay attention to one without being
disracted by the other? One note on this: Don't use tapes that you
know the words to, the more foreign to you, the better the exercise.
Relaxation: Deep, full breaths with long exhales. Melt the tension
away. It's amazing how clensing this simple exercise can be. Try it
before starts.
Visualization: Starting well and getting to the first shift are what
will keep you in the top pack. Visualize this and make it happen.
Imagine yourself with a clear air, front row start and then with
complete faith and confidence go out and get it.
Attitude: The next race is the first race of the rest of my life.
Don't dwell on the past, bad or good. Take what you need from previous
experiences and leave the rest "on the cutting room floor".
Mental Education: You must have a complete understanding of how the
mind works. You must recognize your "mental symptoms". You must
diagnose and then you must treat. This requires reading up on the
subject. Fortunately, all of you were wise enough to purchase Brad's
bible, so you have that key information at hand. What's that you say?
You care so little about your regatta performance that you have failed
to be verse in the most important book for a collegiate Sailor?
Say it ain't so.
Sail, Race, and Win
How to Develop a Winning Attitude
By Eric Twiname, revised by Cathy Foster
Sheridan House Inc.
Reading assignment: 28 pages of bliss
Chapter 14- Mental Fitness
Chapter 15- Psychological Barriers To Winning
Chapter 16- Making The Least Out Of A Crisis
Chapter 17- Mental Preparation
Sneak Preview...
The Power of the Mind
The wonderful thing about your mind is that provided you go
about
things in the right way it will do a vast amount for you without you
even having to think about it. It does this all the time with mundane
activities like walking and driving the car. This is taken for
granted. If your subconscious mind went on strike you would be in dire
trouble. Every movement of every muscle would have to be consciously
thought out and supervised. You would take a long time to get anywhere.
Your subconscious mind is 90 percent of the whole, with only 10
percent representing the conscious part. Just as walking is done almost
entirely by the subconscious, so is sailing, much more so than you
think. Your conscious mind is simply incapable of attending to every
little movement of your body or tuning into each of the senses that is
providing you with information that is being drawn on. Even tactical
decisions are based largely on the subconscious. A situation develops
ahead and you need to make a response, and that response whether to tack
or luff or whatever, results from dipping into your store of experience
which lies in the subconscious and getting a quick answer. To think
through the alternative moves at the time would usually be disastrous.
There is so much to attend to during a race that quite often you
have to put your sailing of the boat on to automatic pilot while you
look
for the weather mark, see what the other boats are doing, or scan the
water upwind for gusts. When you do this you shift your conscious
attention entirely off sailing the boat, which is done subconsciously by
your automatic pilot skills. Only if something goes wrong, like a wave
taken badly or a sudden heel, does a mental alarm bell call your full
attention back to the job of sailing the boat.
Even when you are sailing with your attention and thoughts all
centered on getting the boat to go through the water as fast as it will,
much of your bodily movements and responses are bypassing the conscious
mind completely. We are automatons of our own making, and part of
making
your mind work more effectively on the water is raising those automatic
pilot skills- that part which the subconscious mind does for you- to as
near perfection as possible.
When your automatic skills are highly developed you
automatically sail your boat near-perfectly the whole time. The
conscious mind is then
free to attend to the tactical side of the race, looking out for
windshifts and generally being the master of the preceedings and not
merely a slavish servant to the jib luff. Much of the time will
certainly be spent with full attention on the jib or the waves ahead of
the bow- or wherever a particular sailor looks in the prevailing
conditions to enable them to get the most speed out of their boat. But
little will be lost when they must look away and, all else being equal,
it is their studying of the wind and the race as it develops that will
enable them to make the winning tactical decisions.
Beginners have no automatic pilot sailing skills; they have to
do
everythng consciously, and even heading up and bearing away have to be
thought out. Improvement is a process in which the subconscious learns
set responses that allow skills such as helming to become a natural,
easy and very automatic process. Once your responses do become
automatic in this way you face a problem: if these responses are only 70
percent perfect and you want to improve your racing, you must make the
effort to take these automatic skills out, examine them, and then raise
them to a higher level of perfection. That is how you improve.
-Eric Twiname
It's time to take it to another level.
-Coach
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 00:31:24 -0500
We really need to work on our starting skills. Much of this work can
be done without a coach. It can be done with one or two buoys. It can
be done before practice or on off-practice days. It can be done if you
rig up early at weekend regattas. It can be done between races. It
takes WILL. If you don't have the Will, you won't have your Way (on the
starting line). The easiest way to win a race is to win the start and
don't look back. We will settle for being in the group that gets their
nose poked out and manages to get to the first shift. Rounding the
first mark in the top five is Money.
What starting drills?
#1 Ball Starts -nail them 99% of the time. Then put your crew in the
back and nail them 99% of the time. Then close your eyes and nail them
99% of the time. Then take your rudder out and nail them 98% of the
time. Then stand on your head and well, well then get your head
examined. I am not asking of you anything I have not done myself
(except the head examination). That always the case.
#2 Stop and Goes and other acceleration drills. Load and flatten.
Jump or pump. Sail fat and then squeeze. What ever you want to call,
you must avoid the leebow from below and the total wanker of getting
rolled from above. You will learn to get more agressive, including
moving boats out of your way (physically and verbally), or you will not
be mentioned in the same breath as top collegiate sailors. Holes are
fought for, they are not gifts from god that only the "lucky sailors"
get.
#3 Turning skills- pivots, circles, tacking into holes, this means
HELM, HELM, HELM. You never really know about helm until you take the
rudder out.
#4 There's more, but above is a good start (ha,ha).
----------------
Here are some ideas to improve your mental skills.
Games: Chess is the game choice. There are many similarities between
the game of chess and the tactics of sailing, particularly in team
racing. Good sailors are usually good chess players. Maybe you should
take time to challenge each other to a game now and then. By the way,
puzzle games like the ones I have at the boathouse are great for
developing the analytical mind.
That's why they are down there.
Concentration: Try this drill. Sit down between two stereo speakers on
two different systems (could be stereo and a walkman as long as volumes
are the same). Each speaker has something different playing. The
exercise is to affectively shut out one sound and concentrate on the
other and alternating between the two. Every 30 seconds try to switch
from one to the other. Can you pay attention to one without being
disracted by the other? One note on this: Don't use tapes that you
know the words to, the more foreign to you, the better the exercise.
Relaxation: Deep, full breaths with long exhales. Melt the tension
away. It's amazing how clensing this simple exercise can be. Try it
before starts.
Visualization: Starting well and getting to the first shift are what
will keep you in the top pack. Visualize this and make it happen.
Imagine yourself with a clear air, front row start and then with
complete faith and confidence go out and get it.
Attitude: The next race is the first race of the rest of my life.
Don't dwell on the past, bad or good. Take what you need from previous
experiences and leave the rest "on the cutting room floor".
Mental Education: You must have a complete understanding of how the
mind works. You must recognize your "mental symptoms". You must
diagnose and then you must treat. This requires reading up on the
subject. Fortunately, all of you were wise enough to purchase Brad's
bible, so you have that key information at hand. What's that you say?
You care so little about your regatta performance that you have failed
to be verse in the most important book for a collegiate Sailor?
Say it ain't so.
Sail, Race, and Win
How to Develop a Winning Attitude
By Eric Twiname, revised by Cathy Foster
Sheridan House Inc.
Reading assignment: 28 pages of bliss
Chapter 14- Mental Fitness
Chapter 15- Psychological Barriers To Winning
Chapter 16- Making The Least Out Of A Crisis
Chapter 17- Mental Preparation
Sneak Preview...
The Power of the Mind
The wonderful thing about your mind is that provided you go
about
things in the right way it will do a vast amount for you without you
even having to think about it. It does this all the time with mundane
activities like walking and driving the car. This is taken for
granted. If your subconscious mind went on strike you would be in dire
trouble. Every movement of every muscle would have to be consciously
thought out and supervised. You would take a long time to get anywhere.
Your subconscious mind is 90 percent of the whole, with only 10
percent representing the conscious part. Just as walking is done almost
entirely by the subconscious, so is sailing, much more so than you
think. Your conscious mind is simply incapable of attending to every
little movement of your body or tuning into each of the senses that is
providing you with information that is being drawn on. Even tactical
decisions are based largely on the subconscious. A situation develops
ahead and you need to make a response, and that response whether to tack
or luff or whatever, results from dipping into your store of experience
which lies in the subconscious and getting a quick answer. To think
through the alternative moves at the time would usually be disastrous.
There is so much to attend to during a race that quite often you
have to put your sailing of the boat on to automatic pilot while you
look
for the weather mark, see what the other boats are doing, or scan the
water upwind for gusts. When you do this you shift your conscious
attention entirely off sailing the boat, which is done subconsciously by
your automatic pilot skills. Only if something goes wrong, like a wave
taken badly or a sudden heel, does a mental alarm bell call your full
attention back to the job of sailing the boat.
Even when you are sailing with your attention and thoughts all
centered on getting the boat to go through the water as fast as it will,
much of your bodily movements and responses are bypassing the conscious
mind completely. We are automatons of our own making, and part of
making
your mind work more effectively on the water is raising those automatic
pilot skills- that part which the subconscious mind does for you- to as
near perfection as possible.
When your automatic skills are highly developed you
automatically sail your boat near-perfectly the whole time. The
conscious mind is then
free to attend to the tactical side of the race, looking out for
windshifts and generally being the master of the preceedings and not
merely a slavish servant to the jib luff. Much of the time will
certainly be spent with full attention on the jib or the waves ahead of
the bow- or wherever a particular sailor looks in the prevailing
conditions to enable them to get the most speed out of their boat. But
little will be lost when they must look away and, all else being equal,
it is their studying of the wind and the race as it develops that will
enable them to make the winning tactical decisions.
Beginners have no automatic pilot sailing skills; they have to
do
everythng consciously, and even heading up and bearing away have to be
thought out. Improvement is a process in which the subconscious learns
set responses that allow skills such as helming to become a natural,
easy and very automatic process. Once your responses do become
automatic in this way you face a problem: if these responses are only 70
percent perfect and you want to improve your racing, you must make the
effort to take these automatic skills out, examine them, and then raise
them to a higher level of perfection. That is how you improve.
-Eric Twiname
It's time to take it to another level.
-Coach
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