The only secret: training hard!!!

posted Feb 8, 2011 8:56 AM by Gonzalo Pollitzer

Do you want to improve your racing skills? Do you want to be at the top in the next summer regattas? Then start practicing today!!!!

It is extremely important to do a good preparation, intense winter and spring seasons, in order to get to the summer events performing at your maximum potential. A very good advice is to plan and focus your practice sessions to achieve different goals, one at a time.

-       Speed: the first goal for any sailor is to be fast. And being fast depends on 2 things, your equipment and your ability to stir and trim your boat. So this is a good time to test new material, adjust boat tuning and spend many hours doing speed tests, in all kind of conditions. Remember when you are doing adjustments to your equipment, try to change one thing at a time, to evaluate the effect of what you’ve changed

-       Technique: if you find you are having trouble in your boat handling and maneuvers, make sure you spend a lot of your practice working on that. Do small races, specific drills for tacking and gibing, practice turns. And any moment when your coach is talking or helping someone else, or you find yourself doing nothing but waiting on your boat, that is a good moment to practice 10 good tacks or some turns on your own.

-       Starts: as I always say, starting involves technique, strategy and tactics. With small lines and small fleet you will work a lot on technique, like keeping your boat in one spot, doing double tacks or accelerating out of the line. With bigger lines and fleet you will be able to choose a favored side, practice mid line starts and making a good first decision for the upwind.

-       Tactics and Strategy: to work on this aspect, it is always better to sail in a bigger fleet and longer courses. This is not always easy when practicing at home, so take advantage of local regattas or clinics to focus on what’s going on outside of your boat, in the race course. It is also intelligent to learn some theory about this, either at meetings or reading sailing articles.

-       Team Racing: it is always a good way to practice and have fun at the same time. It helps a lot to improve decision making and rule book situations. And at the same time, it is very demanding on your boat handling. So even though you may not have a Team Race regatta ahead, it is still good to practice this type of racing.

As I mentioned before, you must practice one thing at a time. So get your calendar, set up your goals for each practice day and go for it. General rule, in small groups, work a lot on speed and technique. When sailing in bigger groups, regattas or clinics, focus on the big fleet aspects.

This 2011 season Optisailors is offering more clinics than ever before. Check our calendar of events and see which one fits your schedule better.

If you want to organize private coaching, contact us and we will provide the best alternative.

And always remember, the success of your practice depends completely on your sacrifice and attitude towards learning. So always give your best!!!

Good winds!!