Goal setting

Goal setting 

Goal setting refers to coming up with an objective and formulating a plan to get there. Done well it can support motivation, give structure to a training programme, help a sailor learn and develop training strategies and help generate energy in training to pursue the goal.

To get the best effect from goal setting there are a number of factors that should be considered, and a number of steps taken. A good first step is to come up with a mission statement, this briefly outlines what and how you would like to achieve during you season/ next few years/ sailing career. To do this imagine it is the end of the season/ few years/ sailing career, you have achieved your main goals and there is a film crew and reporter documenting your incredible achievements. They interview you, along with friends, coaches, key competitors and family. What will they all say about you? How did you conduct yourself? What did you do to achieve your goals? This will set out the kind of athlete you would like to be.

The next stage is to come up with some goals, these will be different for everyone in terms of which goals you set and how frequently. Some useful goals to start with are a long term ‘dream’ goal, and some shorter-term goals. There are 3 main types of goals that you can set.

1. Outcome goals. Based on the result of a competition or race, useful to have, but should be mixed with others as achievement or not of the goal depends on factors outside of your control namely other sailors’ performances. While they can motivate and guide training, they can also cause stress at the event.

2. Performance goals. Link to individual performance, for example running a certain time at a race. This is largely independent of other runners, and under the athlete’s own control. For sailing a performance goal could be to overtake one or several boats on downwind legs; get on the inside at leeward mark rounding’s or consistently perform smooth tacks under pressure.

3. Process goals. Smaller goals that when achieved will help you to achieve your bigger goal. For example, start my trigger pull with 3 seconds to go, which will help to get a clean start; be gentle with the rudder to help maintain smooth tacks; or look behind on a run to spot areas of greater pressure to help overtaking.   

Now to come up with some plans to achieve the goals. A few ways of doing this include…

1. Performance profiling, work out what is important to your sailing, break it down in to Technical, Strategic, Physical and Psychological. Come up with a list under each heading. Pick the four most important from each heading and plot where you think you are on each on. Now consider how a sailor that is achieving what you want to achieve looks like. What would they score on each of the categories that you have picked? Mark this on the chart, this should give you a visual guide as to where you think you are strong and where you need most work to achieve your goal.

2. Come up with some training plans and goals. This could be across a few training sessions, over a week/ month, or over a day or even exercise. The goals will help you to plot your progress and learn when you don’t achieve your goals. Providing you…..

3. Reflect on your goals, achieved or not they will sign post where you need to go next. Write it down in a training log.

Different approaches to setting up a coaching session.

Several years ago, I was in conversation with another windsurf instructor and trainer. He was recalling a recent trip to watch the GB Olympic windsurfers train. Nick Dempsey, a three-time Olympic medallist was dominating the training at the expense of the rest of the squad. When back on the shore the coach I was chatting to was asked about his impressions of Nick’s sailing. He was obviously very impressed generally but made the comment that Nicks tacks lacked consistency of movements with any number of different hand and feet combinations, and timing getting him from one side of the sail to the other. He considered this a negative suggesting this as a way the rest of the squad may be able to gain an advantage. At the time I was in agreement with him, surprised there was still such an obvious way in which an Olympic medallist’s sailing could be improved. With experience and exposure to minds greater than my own I have come to realise how wrong we both were. We were both products of the RYA instructor training programme which focuses on one way of doing things, at step 1 you do X, Y and Z, then comes step 2 and so on. While this may be an appropriate way to train beginners to achieve enough success and gain sufficient knowledge to be able to continue in the sport it is frequently not the way to coach higher level athletes.

I now understand what Dempsey was doing was skilfully selecting any number of different combinations of movements to best match the differing demands of each tack. Tacks will rarely be identical as the conditions of wind and waves will vary as will the strategical demands of the situation and physical condition of the sailor. Learning a set routine doesn’t allow for the brilliant adaptability that Dempsey displayed in this training session, it also needs to be learned explicitly, that is through conscious thought. Interestingly when questioned Dempsey wasn’t aware of his inconsistent movements through tacks, suggesting perhaps how he had learned his trade and also high lighting another benefit of his lack of specific routine. Psychologists commonly explain the phenomenon of choking by proposing pressure leads a performer to consciously analyse actions rather than performing skills automatically. This results in a regression in performance to a time the performer was learning the routine.  Under such situations a skill learned explicitly will be susceptible, but a skill learnt implicitly will not. Implicit learning results from activity that demands adaption and improvement in technique but does not involve conscious learning.

To put this in a coaching situation coaching for explicit learning would involve clearly outlining areas to improve, probably land drills to enforce correct technique before practice afloat demanding concentration on technique, coaching involving feedback on said technique and lots of repetition of the same movement. Coaching for implicit learning would involve minimal knowledge input from the coach and carefully designed activities afloat that challenge current technique. Improvements are demanded by the activity rather than the coach. Activities will be varied frequently in response to the learning. Done well sailors will be pushed to find novel solutions to problems and will seek to adapt to the continual variations in the tasks.

It would be hard and impractical to teach every aspect of sailing through varying activities. There is unquestionably variation within good technique, but there is also just as unquestionably technique that will be detrimental to the sailor’s development and needs to be taught or corrected by the coach, and unlike land-based sports it is hard to pull one sailor to one side and work on technique with them. The skill of the sailing coach, as I see it, lies in being able to identify which techniques will prevent continuing development and therefore intervene in a directive style, and which ineffective techniques are just a part of the learning process and will evolve into good technique in response to challenging activities. The best solution for coaches is probably to use a combination of both. Knowledge and correct technique should be shared and discussed, sailing is a very technical sport. On the other hand successful sailors require a huge amount of adaptability, variation in task and learning through solving challenging problems is important to develop adaptability of technique.

As an example of how a session could be set up differently. Stopping and holding position on a start line, one method could be to spend time on shore looking at techniques then on the water getting sailors one at a time to stop next to the coach boat. Another method could involve a much shorter briefing. Outline the aim of the session (improve stopping and holding position) and ask a few questions to wake the brain up (what equipment can you use to stop?). At this point I would also outline the nature of the session and how the sailors should learn from the challenging tasks. Set a range of challenging tasks on the water that mimic situations the sailors would find in a real race (set a very short line; mystery whistle; go will sound when all boats are on the line; etc). Vary the activities, keep the sailors challenged. Keep on water coaching to a minimum, allow the learning to happen.  The coach could also use a hybrid of the two, starting with some information on how to in the brief and initially setting an activity that allows coaching, before moving onto activities that challenge the technique.

Frequently sailing coaches can be directive, reluctant to release control of the session and knowledge. As this has become the established and often expected method of coaching, practitioners may feel they are not performing their role as coaches without continual output of knowledge. This may lead to short term gains but retention and transfer to a race environment may be poor. For alternative coaching methods check out Teaching Games for Understanding; Game Sense; Constraints led approach to coaching; and differential learning.

I don't know

With regards to my coaching, one of my biggest learning points over the past year has been linked to admitting I don't know. Over the past year I have been doing a fair bit of coaching for Optimist sailors. The boat isn't a complete mystery to me, but I didn't sail one growing up and alas have now exceeded the age and size limit quite considerably.
I feel there is a pressure on a coach to know everything about the topic they are teaching. Although I expect this pressure is largely self imposed. Recently I have found that sometimes by knowing less and admitting it I have been a better coach, this in turn has continued to shape my coaching and philosophy.
I was asked to help a group of Optimist sailors set up their mast rakes, a google search told me numbers and some how to but I still didn't have first hand experience and a deep understanding of the topic. Instead of turning up with a tape measure and a marker I took to the water and got sailors to change things and experience the results of the change. It was probably my favourite tuning session I have run. The difference was instead of telling sailors what to do I helped them to work out what to do.
Next time I don't know something I will turn to what I do know. I do know how to help you find out.

SDT and coaching children

Here follows a few thoughts on coaching children. By basing my coaching on these principles, I have found children stay motivated, invest more effort into their sailing and coaching is a lot more pleasurable for myself.

Self determination theory (SDT) is the pre-eminent theory in motivation. Developed by Deci and Ryan, it proposes a continuum from Amotivation through stages of extrinsic motivation and then intrinsic motivations. They propose that when an individual is motivated to do an activity for the personal enjoyment of doing it (intrinsic motivation) they will invest the time and effort required to become highly competent and are most likely to continue regular participation over a long period of time. They posit that to achieve intrinsic motivation an individual will need a sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness. It is these qualities that I try to use to underpin my coaching sessions.

Autonomy: Is a basic human need. It looks at feeling you have a choice in what you are doing and are influential in creating your environment. Applied to a coaching context there are several things I try to do to enhance autonomy. The first is to include sailors in planning of the sessions. This can be as simple as asking sailors what they would like to work on, or how they prefer to learn and designing the session collaboratively. There are limits to this approach, younger and less experienced sailors may not be able to analyse their sailing and lack the experience in sailing and life to know how to construct sessions to improve. In cases such as these explaining the rational behind sessions and how to learn will add autonomy to your sessions and increase sailors buy in.

To explain the learning, I frequently refer to the RYA Skills Model, and reference deliberate practise and play.

 

Using the Model as a guide I break a session into three stages.

1. After introducing a new or improved technique a session should start with a low-pressure activity allowing the technique to be practiced and feedback to be given to ensure correct technique. Consider deliberate practice in this stage. Sailors should be encouraged to pay close attention to actions and look to correct mistakes. Defining what success looks and feels like can help sailors self-coach. Deliberate practice is key to improving but should be mentally and physically draining. Accordingly manage the duration to avoid physical and mental fatigue, 15-30 minutes as a guide or when sailors effort starts to decline.

2. Now sailors should be ready to move into the diversion stage. Include several activities which will put the technique under pressure for example tacking on the whistle, sailing a small course, racing.

3. All this work is hard, try to incorporate some deliberate play in to the session to finish off. This should be activities which practice the new skill but are inherently fun. Some of my favourite are sailing eyes closed, sailing standing on the bow, taking no hands, stand up while sailing fast on a reach.

Briefly explain the stages of the session to the sailors and the reasoning behind them, then populate them with activities.

Back to Autonomy. I also try to increase a sense of autonomy by putting the sailors in control of their actions for example, when they head back to the shore and if they go out at all. When a sailor realises they are free to head in at anytime they are frequently more motivated to go afloat in the first place. This I try to extend to on water activities especially if conditions are challenging for the sailors. If the main activity is too challenging offer a simpler activity they could do allowing them to remain afloat and engaged with the group.

Relatedness: Feeling valued and connected in any given social situation. Respect, listen to, understanding feelings, get to know sailors as individuals take an interest in what they do and who they are. Developing coach sailor rapport and relationships between sailors is arguably the most important element to successful coaching. 

When interacting with children......

Communicate with them as equals.

·        Respect and seek to understand feelings.

·        Allow them to express their personality, permit diversions when briefing and debriefing. Politely bring conversations back on topic.

·        Understand children can get over excited and behave inappropriately. Explain why it is unacceptable and ask them to moderate their behaviour. Discuss concessions.

Developing social connections within sailing will keep sailors coming back. Allow time to socialise and encourage an environment of mutual support.

Competence: Is present when an individual believes they have the necessary skills to complete a task but is lacking when activities are not sufficiently challenging.

Design activities that suit the skill level of the sailor. To improve and gain intrinsic motivation a sailor must feel challenged.

Design activities that emphasise effort and personal improvement rather than results. Your coaching should also emphasise effort and how an individual has improved.

There are many articles online about SDT and how it relates to coaching.

Here is one I have found that is simple and useful to most coaches. https://www.connectedcoaches.org/spaces/18/coaching-youth-age-13-18/blogs/press-release/32/self-determination-theory-a-guide-for-coaches