Great thread, Tad. Glad you got it started.
Mary is correct about getting the drill book. Most of the Olympic coaches use it as I understand.., both monohull and multihull.
It is basically a collection of drills that have been used over many years of sail training.., plus a bunch I dreamed up.
There are a number of things I have done in the past for training.
For example, I find some sort of mark, or use my own and start doing donuts around it -- do a good enter wide, exit close mark rounding, sail a number of boat lengths, tack, bear off, jibe and round the mark again. Do it over and over and close the circle as you continue on.
Warning: Bad thing to do is to practice wrong maneuvers. In a previous post folks are practicing tacks every 20 seconds, which is fine. However, if you are practicing doing tacks with a bad technique, you are simply developing a bad habit that will be very hard to break.
A way to correct this problem is to somehow get someone to video tape your boat handling. You will be amazed at how bad you do.
For example, on a roll tack you should start the turn with steadily increasing pressure on the helm as you move to the aft windward stern of the boat, realease the mainsheet just as the wind goes throught the eye of the wind, stay there until the boat is on a close-reach heading, then swap sheet and tiller and move forward to ooch the boat out of the turn.
You may think you are doing this perfectly.., and then you will look at the videeo and see you:
1. Jammed the rudder over and made a brake instead of a turn
2. You went to the back of the boat first, thereby slowing it down before the turn
3. You forgot to let the mainsheet off and recleat it
4. You rushed to the other side halfway through the turn
5. etc., etc., etc.,
I recall taking a tennis lesson. I thought I had the best serve around.., nice toss, legs bent, toss hand up, racket up, slight pause and whipping of the racket.
Then I saw the video.., aaaagggghhhh ! I looked like a Keystone Kop.
By the way.., a commercial here. You can find the book Sailing Drills at
http://store.catsailor.com/tek9.asp?pg=products&specific=jqcmjmrpmComments on some previous posts.
Time on the boat is a must. I have seen folks come to a major regatta and do well just because they sail a lot, even without others around.
In fact, I have probably won more races this year than any time in my years of sailing.., simply because we have a fleet of Waves that race twice a week and get in 4 or 5 races each outing. We sailed 55 races this summer just in our local fleet. With all that time on the boat, I managed to win every major event this year that I sailed in.
On Head out of the boat. One of my favorite drill in the book is the "Eyes Close Drill." All you are doing is taking away one of your senses. You still have four more.., and some of you rare folks might still have five. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
You can feel the wind on your cheek and your hair, feel how the boat is taking the waves, if you are trapped you know you flying a hull because there is more pressure on your feet, or perhaps the other way around, your head is under water.
All this is to develop a feel for the boat. You should be able to keep the boat at max speed without constantly staring at telltales.
If you ever watched Randy Smyth sail you would never have seen so much "rubber-necking" <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
You must get your head out of the boat.
A little war story. Mary and were invited to a regatta as "Guest Sailors" and they were to arrange for a new Hobie 20 (when they first came out). That did not pan out and I had to sail with a guy on his new boat.
I was intrigued by the new toy and was really involved with all the strings, etc. We took a 6th out of about 25 boats. The next race I felt more comfortable with the boat and decided to ignore all the strings and just sail.., or get my head out of the boat -- watch the other boats for shifts, puffs and the like. We won.
The next day the guy left and I was put on a Nacra 5.8. Never sailed one, but had a 6.0. However, with a boomless rig you absolutely need a positive mast rotator upwind and downwind. He did not have it.
I was so bummed and focused on how ugly the mast and sail looked that we got a 5th. Next race, I talked myself into ignoring all that and got my head out of the boat and sailed by the seat of my pants. We won.
That taught me a big lesson.
How to improve: I tell my graduating classes each time (in my Rick White Sailing Seminars
www.sailingseminars.com) that they should work on their weaknesses.
Most folks practice their strengths. You will find a guy that is good at upwind sailing usually working hard on that same thing all the time, ignoring his weaknesses.
I know my strength over the many years is my downwind sailing ability. I have worked hard on going upwind and now I find it one of my strengths. And my downwind ability has not suffered.., except in a Wave where I should lose 30 lbs and get faster.
My suggestion: write down all your weakness.., perhaps as many as ten of them.
Then, go back and prioritize them from weakest to less weak.
Go out and work on one thing at a time.., don't try to work on all of them. Soon that weakness will become a strength. If so, scratch it off your list and work on item two.
When you get done with your list, start over.
Mental Sailing: There was a nice post about imagizing. This is a great and strong thing to do. I use images while I do self hypnosis. There are many books on self hypnosis and all work on the idea of totally relaxing your body. Once there you can project images of great starts, great tack, picking out shifts, great mark roundings, and awesome finishes. It is like running a video of your doing a perfect race.
If you make a mistake in your image, hit the rewind button and start at the point just before the mistake and play again.., this time getting it right.
As Yogi would say, "Sailing is 90% mental -- the other half is physical."
At any rate.., great thread.
Rick
