from the Boating Info Center - New Zeeland
Body Position
Your hiking position in the boat
is important. Try to keep the boat level
both fore and aft, as body weight
too far forward causes the bow to
nosedive and too far back creates
turbulence off the stern, which slows
you down. This applies up and down
wind. In light winds it pays to sit as
far forward in the boat as you can
(i.e. on the deck), this reduces wetted
area and thus less water surface
friction is obtained.
Steering Over Waves
Push your tiller away from you as
you go up and over the wave and pull
your tiller towards you when going
down the other side. This can gain
you a lot of ground over a full
race.
Steering Downwind
Downwind steering is just as important
as upwind steering. As you surf
down the wave face, steer towards
the lowest part of the wave ahead.
Working the Boat
You should never stop working the
boat from the time the starting gun
goes until the end of the race.
You should keep working the mainsheet,
steering over waves and moving your
body to keep the boat flat. Also
looking for wind shifts, current
and other boats around you. If you can
do all that together and be efficient
at it, you will become a winner, and
that is what yacht racing is all
about.
Mental Preparation
Mental preparation is often neglected
by sailors, it has now been proven
they do at their peril. Stress or
pressure on sailors often produces a
combination of worry, ervousness
and fear, emotions that if not controlled
effect a sailors ability to erform.
Experience has proved that people
will react differently to the same
situation. The stress is not in
the situation but in how one perceives
that situation. There is both positive
and negative stress. Sailors and
coaches will not achieve their potential
unless stress activated.
Concentration
Even before you become aware that
you are being pressured you begin
to rely on your own particular attentional
strength. This is your
psychological response to stress.Under
totally relaxed situations an
individual is quite capable of shifting
back and forth among the different
attentional dimensions.Everyone
has strengths and weaknesses, what
coaches must do is identify what
they are and help the sailor develop
the weaker ones and become apable
of moving between them under pressure.
The four dimensions are:
Broad External
Strengths
- Reads a complex situation
well, has a good sense of
understanding,
can see the first downwind leg tactics clearly.
Weaknesses
- May react before thinking, may tack for another
boat instead
of going behind.
Broad Internal
Strengths -
Good analytical ability, organises and makes long range
plans. Would
have a campaign well mapped out.
Weaknesses
-
Could become over theoretical, may change plans to
support a theory.
Narrow External
Strengths -
Good concentration on one thing, e.g. a helmsman that can
watch tell tails
consistently.
Weaknesses
- May stay with one line of thought even if its not working.
e.g. A helmsman
may not recognise that a sail is in too tight.
Narrow Internal
Strengths -
Very good concentration on one thing e.g. mental
calculations,
main trimmer carefully making adjustments.
Weaknesses
-
Fails to incorporate new information.
Not sensitive to
what is happening
around them. e.g. Main trimmer watching and
adjusting but
not to the varying conditions.
There are methods of finding out an individuals strengths and weaknesses which can be assessed by a sport psychologist.
Imagery/Visualisation
When in totally relaxed state an individual is in a very receptive mood. By producing positive images of sailing whether it is in exercises or races a sailor can enhance his/her concepts and develop responses to a variety of situations.
This could be likened to having a sailor run through a particular move in his/her mind. e.g. Hoisting the spinnaker and "see" step by step what happens. They also "see" problems and develop ways of countering those problems.
Do this sort of mental preparation the individual must be relaxed. This is also good to work at prior to a major regatta.