CHAPTER 1

Targets & Goal Setting

This book is for all those busy people who still want to be successful, and need to optimise every hour of every training session without a coach!

Not many people complain about having too much time on their hands. Sailing, like any sport, rewards hours of quality training. We want to make sure that any time we invest in our sailing is used as usefully as possible. One of the reasons why it is so hard to improve your racing is that sailing is such a time-intensive sport. It could take you many hours to arrive at the sailing venue, rig up the boat and get out on the water, whilst a runner or cyclist may be able to commence a great training session the moment they close their front door.

The aim of this book is to help everyone improve their skills in the shortest possible time, and this requires focus. When you go on a journey, to reach your destination you need to look at the map and plan the best route, not blindly head off in any direction. This means that you need to (assess yourself to) know where you are, and also know where you need to get to (your goals).

Coaching is a huge part of professional training – having someone to help with the analysis and give a second opinion – but for many sailors access to a professional coach is something that happens rarely or not at all and this is where this book can help.

After more than twenty years of coaching it made sense to put all of the most effective training exercises and key ideas into a book which will undoubtedly help you get towards the front of the fleet whether your goal is Club, National, International or even Olympic level. The same proven techniques will help you wherever you are in your sailing career.

Why are Goals so Important?

Well firstly, if you don’t have a clear target, how do you know when you have achieved something? Humans by nature like a sense of achievement: think of all the opportunities to win badges, certificates and awards when we are young (or indeed as we get older the targets, such as getting a degree, become bigger and better).

They provide motivation: if something is too easy (“my aim for today is to clean my teeth”) then there is very little feeling of accomplishment, or if something is too hard (or perhaps impossible, like running your first marathon in under two hours) it will lead to disappointment, and repeated failure can be hard to bear. The idea is to set yourself a rewarding challenge, something you can achieve if you really put your mind to it.

The purpose of this book is to break your overall sailing goal down into small and manageable mini-goals. After all it is impossible for a human to eat an elephant in one go but if divided into small enough pieces and given enough time, then, anything is possible.

Things which are measured are more likely to be achieved, as at the end you have proof that you achieved them (or not). This is why taking detailed records of the weights you lift is so important – so you can see where you came from, what you have achieved and what you need to do next. Try to learn skills in the easiest possible way, using a method than helps you remember what you learnt. For example, in my book Be Your Own Tactics Coach I use character names (like Terry Tacker who tacks on every shift) as lots of research has shown that this is a very good way of remembering things.

Visual aids are also an excellent way of seeing information at a glance: not only is it much clearer than just rows and columns of numbers, but it is more rewarding to look at!

The key to improving your overall sailing ability is to work on your weaknesses. A good way to understand where your weaknesses lie is to compare your abilities in a number of areas in a single visual form.

The issue is: we tend to enjoy what we are good at and are therefore more inclined to practise it (and get even better at it) and dislike what we are not good at (and therefore not practise it and not improve at it). To improve our overall ability effectively, our training routines should be the other way round – focusing on our weaker areas. However there may be some events where you would choose to specialise, for example preparing for a championship which will be held only in strong winds due to the expected sailing conditions. This may mean that you could, for that season, neglect your light wind training, if only the result in this one regatta was important to you.

Dartboards

Filling out a dartboard is very simple. You start from the middle and colour one or more sections depending upon how comfortable you feel with that skill: 1 = very low skill (no colour would be no skill at all!) and 10 would be perfect. It is not really how you choose to rate yourself (which often shows more your confidence rather than your competence) but the differences in how you rate yourself in the individual areas.

How to fill out a dartboard

An example of a boat handling dartboard

An example of a tacking dartboard

An example of a tacking exercises dartboard

You can, of course, make as many or as few dartboards as you like, but the more specific and the more detailed they are the better. So consider Chapter 2: Boat Handling: we could create a dartboard showing six key areas for all the boats we are racing (opposite, top). Perhaps having recently changed to a trapeze boat we are struggling to tack, gybe and bear away, but we are already confident to hold position, accelerate and head up.

Now we have identified some of the areas we want to work on (and boat handling is often a very good example of an issue we could expect when changing to a new class) we can go into more detail. So then we look at tacking (opposite, bottom), as it (along with bearing away), we decided, is the weakest area and therefore where we can get some rapid improvement. This dartboard clearly shows the specific areas we need to work on.

Now we can finally choose some actions to help us. This is so much more effective than just going sailing and ‘practising boat handling’. The final dartboard (above) shows some exercises that we can do to help our steering, body movement and sheeting. Those exercises which require us to do lots of tacks, such as riverboat, can be more useful than tacking on the whistle as they require more thought, whilst tacking in a race can hide your weakness as, even in a short race, boatspeed can help compensate for your poor tacks.

Most useful is when you do very detailed exercises like tying your tiller (so that you cannot steer using the rudder), fixed sheet tacking (so that you cannot steer using the sheet) or bum in the boat (not in this dartboard, but where you cannot move your body) which soon identify where the biggest issues lie and therefore where your time should be spent. Time management is a very important skill in modern life and you should keep careful records of your training to make sure it is paying off.

So good luck, train hard and enjoy the rest of the book.

CHAPTER 10

The Winning Mind

Races are often won and lost before you even hit the water. It is not enough just to be physically fit – your head has to be ‘in the right place’ to win. You not only need to be physically tough, you also need to be mentally tough, and, at the end of the day, it is often the mental rather than the physical attributes that decide who are true sailing champions.

The Winning Attitude

It is about being focused, or more specifically: a positive focus. Don’t let anyone tell you what you cannot do. Positive thinking yields positive results, and whilst failure is a stepping stone to success, the way you handle it defines you: not only as a sailor but also as a human being. We learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes and in order to get tougher we need to put ourselves in tough situations, which is why the leap from youth to adult or from National to International sailing can seem so big.

Even if your aspirations are simply to do well at your local club, these skills will surely help you. Think how close races are; sometimes less than a second between boats, and even at the end of many championships the points are unbelievably close. The race is never over until you have crossed the line and it is this quiet determination to do the best you can which defines the most successful people in all fields of life, not just sailing.

One of the reasons why sailing is so demanding is the amount of mental concentration that is required. You need to be focused on the right thing, at the right time, and be focused all the time. This means knowing when to switch between boatspeed and when to ‘get your head out of the boat’, about your tactics in relation to other boats and when to consider the big picture: the race strategy. Sometimes you need to be prepared to make a small loss for a larger gain later. So the correct attitude is one of calm determination.

The problem is that when we really want something (whether it be winning our first club race or an Olympic medal), we put pressure on ourselves, and too much pressure can have a detrimental effect on our racing. The trick is to treat each and every race the same, so it becomes a good habit. After all, you never get stressed about brushing your teeth, you hardly need to think about it! Try not to look at the results too much, just check your scores are correct. There is no need to worry about anybody else’s results until near the end of an event – that is beyond your control. Focus on your own racing and try to pick up the minimum number of points each day. This means keeping your head clear and focused.

Of course some people may be too relaxed. They have got used to not winning and so don’t put enough pressure on themselves. So like many things in life the answer is somewhere in the middle:

The optimum level of stress

A good routine is really helpful. Whether you need to get fired up or calm down, simply knowing exactly when you need to leave the house, when you need to leave the slipway and the order and way you are going to do everything in between can be a real help. Different routines suit different people, so you need to find out what works for you and, whether it is racing or training, you need to approach it with a professional attitude.

Sailing is a sport where it pays to be patient: there can be lots of waiting around to sail or you may have to do lots of races to complete a series. So the question is: when the going gets tough, can you keep going or do you let frustration get the better of you?

Times of stress can make things harder. You will notice that when you are tired and hungry it can have a huge effect on your mood: perhaps you become more emotional or, when under pressure, you may well get loss of appetite or stomach ache. As part of a healthy lifestyle you should always try to get adequate rest and nutrition, but especially so when you are pushing yourself hard. This applies mentally as well as physically: hydration and sun protection are especially important to help keep a clear mind, focused on the job in hand. However hard you find it, go out, do your best and remember to enjoy it!

Dealing with Disappointment

One of the most beautiful things about sailing is how each and every race is so different. Even at the most ‘reliable’ venues in the world things can change. When we look at a sailing series, the final result is often decided by the worst result you have to count in the series, not by how many good results you have. It is how you handle the poor start, perhaps the race after an OCS, which can determine how the event goes overall.

There are so many variables in sailing and nearly all of them are beyond our control, but those same variables (wind, waves, current, etc.) are beyond the control of all the other sailors too. It is how to handle these variables which is important. Remember that huge shift that went against you... well it might go for you later in the race. Just keep sailing as fast as you can.

When something bad happens it is very easy just to focus on it. After all, if you remember it in detail, you will probably have a good story for the bar afterwards or even your blog... but is this going to help your race? NO! You need to get on with the race (and you can worry about what happened on shore, and maybe think how to prevent it from happening again, but during the race you need to be racing). Find something good to focus on. Maybe on a windy day just work really hard to keep the boat flat; on a light wind day ‘get your head out of the boat’ and see where the new pressure is coming from. If you are fully focused on the helpful things, it can be hard to focus on things which are unhelpful and you can help other crew members to do the same.

The exact method of refocusing, of course, depends upon the individual, and as you get more experience you get to know yourself better. Perhaps, if you have a series of disappointments, you need to take some time out, away from the sport. Motivation is a key part of a winning attitude, as everything in life worth having is achieved through hard work and hard work requires motivation. Sometimes, if you take a step back, it is easier to see the bigger picture and what issues really need to be resolved.

Relaxing

In order to be focused you also need to be able to relax. It may sound like a contradiction in terms but you cannot be ‘switched on’ all the time. Remember that the body and the mind are very linked. Take ten deep breaths with your belly, this relaxes your body and that will, in turn, relax your mind. (If you need to get psyched up the opposite is true: you need to get the heart rate going!)

Key words can really help here. They can anchor you to a moment in the past where you felt calm and confident. A simple reminder like “flat is fast”. Just remember in detail how the tiller felt, what the boat sounded like, how heavy the sheet felt in your hand and how the sails looked. If you have done it before then you can do it again. Just like the snooker player potting the black for the 10,000th time.

Maybe a key phrase is useful. We call this positive affirmation. “I am always fast in strong winds” or “These are my favourite conditions”. A positive phrase can be especially useful to break some negative thinking. You may even want to distract yourself physically. Just quietly pat yourself a couple of times and tell yourself you can do it (or better get a team mate to do it for you).

Remember the first time you do something it can be difficult (your first race win, first regatta win, first championship win, etc.) but, like everything in life, it gets easier the more you do something. Whatever happens, banish the excuses and give it 100%. No one can ask for more than that.

Advice from Olympic Gold Medallist (Radial class) Lijia Xu

“The heat was on in the last day of the London Olympic Games back on 6th August 2012, with four countries sharing the same chance to become the Olympic Champion in the Laser Radial medal race. Thanks to all the mental preparation I had done over the years, I was able to perform at my best under great pressure.