Tuesday 19 November 2013

Coming up with a plan

Unlike most normal sailors, for me, the shortening of the days and the onset of colder weather signals a time to get some regular sailing in.
The boat is rigged ready to go, all I need now is for the wind to blow on a Sunday (something it sadly didn't last weekend.)
The prospect of time on the water has got me thinking about my own sailing and what to work on over the next few months, and more importantly how to work on it.

First step is to identify the biggest weakness(s) that are going to make the biggest differences. More about this later.
For me my biggest issue is easy to find. My starts are shocking. Too much time coaching and not enough time on busy start lines has left me woefully inept at starting of late.
Ok so I need to work on starts. But starts are a big topic, I need to be more specific and identify which areas need attention.
I can find the correct end, and I am ok at coming up with a plan for after the start.
It all falls down when it gets busy, I'm not aggressive enough and I don't control the boats around me enough.
Consequently I get buried or find myself shying away from the busy bit.

Right, now what am I going to do about it?
For me personally I feel I'm sometimes not confident about exactly where the line is, so am worried about being over.
Plan
Next race day for all starts, I am going to spend 10 minutes before the race finding transits, and running practise starts so I am super confident where the start line is.
On the start itself I am going to concentrate on using this practise and make sure I am on the line. If I am over and it messes up my race I won't worry. I will see it as an opportunity to practise sailing through the fleet.
Hopefully this will help on this area.
Right now to look at the how to get in the mix a bit more.

For the two or three weeks after, I want to really focus on this and deliberately put myself in an aggressive starting position.
Skills needed to be in a tight fleet and get a good start, are close quarter manoeuvring, stopping and accelerating, and timed runs into the line. Get out a little early and practise these.

On the starts I want to try a range of tactics. If port biased I am going to try a few different starts. The first is getting on the line early and hold position, defend my leeward gap, and get a good start near the pin.
The second is approach on port, tack on to starboard to leeward of the fleet, and hold them up to win the pin.
If starboard biased, I will try finding a gap, then defending hard at the boat end to try to be in the first row at the start.
The other option I plan to try is a timed run in on the lay line for the starboard end.
My aim is not to just go for a good start, but to aim to get the best start, and risk being over. , which should then help me with the confidence to get a good start in the future.

Closely analysing what needs to get better and coming up with a specific plan to improve, is a big step to improving your sailing, and don't just think it, ink it.
Ideally find a bit more time to get on the water and spend a few hours dedicated practise, or if not possible get on the water 20 minutes earlier and practise then. If you are willing to potentially sacrifice a few race results it may pay dividends in the future.

I will let you know how the plan went.....
Fingers crossed for some decent wind, and some heavily biased, and very busy start lines.

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