Capsizing and recovering quickly.

How to capsize

And more specifically how to get back upright again after a ‘death roll’. Sailing Lasers (and Toppers) it is a common hazard, and if you are not falling over occasionally when sailing on a run then you are probably sailing too safely downwind. When the inevitably does happen though, it is possible to be back up and sailing in under 30 seconds, however to do this there is definitely a right and wrong technique.

Providing the water is deep enough to invert the boat it is normally a lot quicker to complete a vertical 360 degree turn than try to right the boat the same way it went over.

When you get to this point it seems quickest to scramble to the centre-board and pull the boat up, unfortunately with the wind blowing into the sail and the momentum from the capsize the boat is trying to invert. It is a struggle to get up and when you do, the boat is prone to a second capsize.

 





It is actually faster to hang onto the gunwhale, and pull the boat on top of yourself, then scramble onto the bottom of the boat.

 

 

Keep it moving and the boat will quickly come up on the new side.

 

 

Do a normal dry capsize recovery and get going again.

 

 

Not convinced? Try it next time you fall in on a run. I recently watched a sailor at my home club capsize to windward on a run. The sailor tried to right the boat the same way it had just gone over. 2 capsizes later he was tired and frustrated at loosing 2-3 minutes and 10 or so places. In contrast a few weeks ago in a tightly contested race at Queen Mary SC I rounded the windward mark in second, inches behind the boat in first, I went for the bear away a bit too much and ended up capsizing. Righting the boat probably took 20 seconds, in which time I just slipped down to 4th, by the leeward mark I was back up to second where I finished. While capsizing possibly cost me a chance of fighting for the win I felt surprisingly satisfied about how I had lost so little. Knowing a capsize isn't going to finish your race is a great confidence boost when trying to sail fast on a run. I hope this helps.

 





 

The way to better sailing probably isn't sailing more.....

Time on the water….?

In my travels around many sailing clubs I regularly hear sailors and parents talking about how to improve. ‘It’s all about time on the water,” is probably the most commonly uttered sentence. While it is certainly true that to get better a sailor needs to go sailing, I can think of many examples of sailors who despite many thousands of hours afloat haven’t made it beyond the level of average club sailor. Now this in itself is in no way a bad thing, sailing can be about challenging yourself to see how good you can become and winning races, but ultimately it should be about enjoying free time and spending time with friends. If the sailing someone does is satisfying to them then why change anything?

However, if a sailor is really trying to get better and just can’t understand why sailors with less experience are beating them it is probably time to debunk the myth that more time on the water equals a better sailor. It isn’t all about quantity, quality is as, if not more important. Aim to do everything to a higher quality.

·        Aim to make each tack, gybe, mark rounding, leg of the course just a little bit better. Top sailors win by doing everything just a little bit better. All the small bits add up quickly.

·        Don’t think, ‘that will do,’ recognise if something wasn’t 100% and work out how it can be improved.

·        Every time you go sailing sail as if you are racing, sailing fast will become a habit.

·        Every time you go racing treat it as if it is an open you want to do well at or the national championships.

·        After training or racing analyse what went well/ what didn’t work out; areas to improve; how to improve. Then do it.

·        In training come up with activities which can provide you with feedback on how well you performed something. Use that feedback to improve.

·        Seek out some good coaching

·        Don’t wait to be told or expect divine inspiration. Sailing is a complex sport, read books, blogs, watch videos and ask questions.

·        Aim higher. Take part in bigger and better competitions.

·        Be disciplined, eat well, at least the night and morning before an event. Plan ahead with food and drink to keep you working through the day.

·        Get your boat in tip top condition.

·        Get a bit fitter. Aim for sailing specific fitness

·        Turn up early before racing so you are completely prepared.

·        Come up with routines to do before the start, do them.

·        Set goals.

·        Spend time on the water

·        Practice to a higher intensity than in racing

 

This is a list of some of the things that the best sailors will do, rather than more time on the water think more quality time on the water.

Try reading

The Mundanity of Excellence By Daniel Chambliss (1989) http://manzoid.com/static/mundanity_of_excellence.pdf

Deliberate Practice by Corbett Barr

 http://expertenough.com/1423/deliberate-practice

 

Is a fixed mind-set and a belief in innate talent always a bad thing?

Over the past few years I have become a great proponent of the growth mind-set view that ability isn’t fixed (see Dweck, 2012) but rather can be grown through the correctly applied effort. However not all see things this way.

I find it easy to comprehend how spectators viewing world class performance, only see the most prominent tip of the ice berg and fail to comprehend the vast number of hours and hard work that have gone into shaping that performance. Cambliss (1989) writes in his article on the ‘Mundanity of Excellence’ how the label of talent is oft used to explain what isn’t understood and mask the concrete actions that define excellence. How can a casual tennis fan comprehend the vast amount of effort Andy Murray or Novak Djokovic have put in, to be able to execute some of the millimetre perfect shots performed with the pressure of a grand slam final hanging over them?

I am also unsurprised if someone who has played a sport most of their life, reached a level and then plateaued, finds it easy to believe those that surpass their levels apparently within little time and effort are endowed with greater genetic ‘gifts’ than they were. While they may notice the vastly different quantitative amount of experience a competitor took to achieve the same level as they did. It is all too easy to fail to notice the qualitative differences in how they spent that time. As Ericcsson. outlines in his theory of deliberate practice not all practice is equal. To adapt the old adage ‘practice doesn’t make perfect’ however deliberate practice will (see Ericsson et al., 2008).

What does take me a little by surprise, is when I read about a top sports man or woman who believes that abilities are fixed and natural talent has a big part to play in success.  Shouldn’t the hard road to the top have taught them differently? According to Dweck someone with a fixed mind-set would unlikely be able to make it to the top. This contradiction has got me thinking that a bit of a fixed mind-set may be an advantage?

The two sailors I have read articles from that have got me thinking are Eilidh McIntyre and Robert Scheidt. Eilidh McIntyre is a world class 470 crew who just missed selection for the British squad to the Rio Olympics. Despite working hard to achieve the level she has, and facing setbacks with the positive attitude that she can learn and improve from them, she believes she has a natural talent for sailing which is largely attributable to her success. How could this be? I have two theories; her father is a former Olympian, the belief that she has the same talent as her father would lead her to the belief that she too could make it to the Olympics. This could be motivating and help foster confidence in high pressure races and events, the belief that you were born able to do this could take a lot of pressure off and help performances. On the other side, from her early days of sailing she had a top level sailor to guide her training techniques. Unknowingly she avoided many pitfalls and avoided wasting hours on fruitless practice. Quality practice helped her fast track past all of her peers giving the illusion of an innate talent to all observing including Eilidh.

For Robert Scheidt the situation is different, a multiple Olympic medallist and world champion he doesn’t believe he is a natural! However, he believes many around him are. In an article he claims his wife an ex Olympic Laser radial sailor is a natural talent and has to work a lot less than he does. This theme I have found in a number of other autobiographies and writings of world class sportsmen. There is a belief that they have to work harder than competitors to achieve the same standards. This iceberg effect I expected to see in novices to a sport but in world class professionals it seems odd. Could it be that a bit of a belief that talent does exist and they don’t have it has led the best in the world to work that bit harder than their competitors?

Carol Dweck puts across a compelling argument that a growth mind-set is a key attribute for success while a fixed mind-set and the belief that ability is fixed, is likely to lead to a lack of grit when the going gets tough and a quitter. However rather than being binary as Dweck suggests, does mind-set sit more along a continuum and while an extreme fixed mind-set may be detrimental to performance could an element of a fixed mind-set actually be beneficial to performance.

I am a big fan of the work of Mathew Syed and his book Bounce was a life changing read for me, however he seems to fail to recognise the contradiction he makes in his book. He is a big follower of the work of Dweck and the theory that holding beliefs that abilities are fixed is detrimental to resilience. However, he was the number one ranked table tennis player in Britain, and openly talks about how he believed that natural talent was largely to account for his success. Perhaps the belief that he had been gifted with superhuman reflexes helped at a psychological level when competing?

I would conclude that mind-set is important, but many other factors come into play for the aspiring athlete, and certain mixes lead to elite performances that contradict Dweck’s mind-set theory. Possibly where mind-set plays a bigger role is how the parents and coaches view a young sports person’s performances, I would be interested to see how Elidh McIntyre’s father and coaches responded to poor results? I would expect that they largely displayed a positive attitude to failure which developed a growth mind-set towards failure in Eilidh? Haimovitz and Dweck (2016) allude to this in their most recent work.

After digging up more questions than answers I continue in my search of what separates the best from the rest.

Andy Kerr

Sailing Coach and Student of Psychology.

 

References

Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindset. London : Robinson, 2012.

ERICSSON, K. A., PRIETULA, M. J., & COKELY, E. T. (2008). The Making of an Expert. ASCA Newsletter,         2008(11), 18-26.  

Haimovitz, K., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). What Predicts Children’s Fixed and Growth Intelligence Mind-    Sets? Not Their Parents’ Views of Intelligence but Their Parents’ Views of Failure.                Psychological Science (Sage Publications Inc.), 27(6), 859-869.

Eilidh McIntyre. One Closed Door and Endless Open. http://www.rya.org.uk/britishsailingteam/TeamBlog/Pages/one-closed-door-and-endless-open.aspx#.V2cOHuT2ZPY

Syed, M. (2011). Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice.

 

 

 

 

A bit of Learning theory.

How people learn has become a job and curiosity bordering on obsession for me over the years.

When I am coaching and sailing there are a few concepts to learning I find useful. Here I intend to give a brief overview of them and then give an example of how I apply them.

Ø  How you can spend your time on the water: A well balanced diet of all four is preferred.

o   Play: Looks like this. Unlikely to improve your sailing, but the fun can help to keep motivated and build sailing friendships. Best saved for warm days with light winds.

o   Deliberate play: Click here to watch this video. While the sailor is still playing and having fun, he is challenging himself and likely improving his sailing.    

o    Deliberate practice: This is the hard bit, but will lead to big improvements. This link goes to a nice article on what it is. http://expertenough.com/1423/deliberate-practice Think Rory McIlroy chipping balls into a washing machine drum for hours on end, or David Beckham practicing free kicks in his local park until the sun set.

o   Competition: It is always good to get out and and race to test your skills. No sailor wins them all and with the right attitude getting beaten can be very useful to work out how to improve.

•   Comfort and learning zone

If an activity is too easy improvement will be slow, if it makes you terrified improvement will likely be non-existent.  Between the red and green zones the magic happens. Sailors (with the coaches help) need to be able to work out where they are and to either make the activity more challenging or calm things down.

Ø  Learning and developing a skill

o   When learning a new manoeuvre or improving an existing one (e.g. Tacking) it is useful to go through a few steps.

1.      Start by breaking the manoeuvre down and practise each bit. (Focus on each bit of the tack one at a time)

2.      Bring it all together to practise (Get your tacks looking slick)

3.      Put it under pressure (Tack 5 times one after the other and keep them all as you practised)

4.      Put it under more pressure until you can do it perfectly without thinking

o   Make practise harder than competition and racing will seem easy……

Ø  To be great takes effort

o   Be pleased with and give praise to effort, results will follow.

a)      I feel clever when I am learning something

b)     I feel clever when I know something

o   Mind-set a) is the best way to progress.

I try to have all of these concepts in mind when coaching and sailing. I also, try to make the coaching as visible as possible. By this I mean I will start my coaching sessions by outlining what I am trying to achieve and the concepts behind it. I also try to get the sailors involved in planning and developing the coaching as much as possible. This is an idea I have taken from a book by John Hattie, 'Visible Learning For Teachers'. I find it gets the sailors to buy into the session and hopefully helps them learn independently in the future. 


As an example a possible session for developing boat handling. 
Start by outlining the aim of the session. I often get the sailors to determine what success will be. For example, maintaining speed when changing direction; smooth turns; controlled swift movements by the crew around the boat. 

Next outline how to learn and develop new skills and explain exercises will be designed to gradually increase pressure. The aim being to first learn the new skills then make it harder to make the skills automatic(ish). 

Focus on 2-3 key points, for example adjusting the sail when changing direction and using weight to aid steering. 

On the water exercise 1 would be sailing around a smallish triangle. Coaching focuses on the points identified earlier. 
As the sailors develop the correct technique increase the pressure a notch. 

Exercise 2: Either a 360 around the gybe mark or removing the gybe mark altogether to increase the angles of the turns. 

Exercise 3. Remove the anchor from the windward mark. Drifting mark gradually increases pressure by reducing the space. 
Or, a 360 at each buoy, sailors can be paired up to work together to improve their turns. They watch each others turns then as they sail to the next buoy discuss how they could improve. Peer coaching can be very effective. 
Challenge the more able to do a 360 without touching the tiller. 

Now for a bit more fun. Possibly sailing standing on the front of the boat using weight to steer, or tether rudders with elastic and do the same from the cockpit. 

Hope this helps to design training for others or yourself. These are just brief explanations of some theories I like to use when coaching, I aim to try to write more about them in the future. Happy to answer any questions. 

Andy 

Taking a Transit

 

This year I have really got into taking transits and have had a few cracking starts as a result of knowing where the line is. I have found that getting and using a good transit isn’t quite as straight forward as it is explained in some books, I have also come across a few tricks that have worked well for me.

Firstly what is a transit, why and how to take one.

A transit for starting

It is extending the start line to a third point so that when you are on the line it is easier to judge where it is by using two points that you can see. By using a transit you stand a better chance of being on the line especially if you are aiming to start towards the middle of the line.

 

 As in this diagram, the committee boats mast, the outer distance mark (ODM) and the tree are all in line as can be established by looking from behind the committee boat. When in the middle of the line, by lining up the ODM and tree you can be confident you are pretty close to the line.

First of all to establish a transit park your boat on the far side of the committee boat, line up the flag mast and ODM and see what can be viewed in a direct line. This is harder than it sounds as often committee boats are quite tall, and getting it in a direct line is tricky. Try doing this sailing slowly away and towards the committee boat to see which works best, I normally have to stand up to get a view. Spend some time practising this and trying different ways until you are sure you have a good transit. If you are sailing at your club and are on good terms with the race officer you may be able to ask them if the transit you have found is in fact a good one (after the race of course…).

 

Another method I have used to establish a transit is by using a technique outlined in Paul Goodison’s Laser book to tell if you are on the line. Basically you sit on the start line and point the bow of your boat at the ODM, you then centralise your tiller and look directly along it. If it points at the committee boat you are on the line, now look past the ODM to see what lines up for your transit. With this technique it needs to be repeated a few times to make sure you get the same result and a reliable transit.

 The next difficulty I have found is that there is rarely a good easily identifiable transit. Often it is just a line of trees, however with careful inspection there is normally a slight distinctive feature about the tree line such as a slight dip in the upper branches. Find anything you can. At my home club of Bough Beech SC there is rarely a good transit but by looking at the skyline of the tops of the trees I can usually find a small dip or a taller tree that I can use.  

Unless you have got lucky and found a church spire to act as your transit, just looking at it once then trying to find it again when you are about to start rarely works. I like to find a transit then get on the line and check it several/ many times to make sure I know what it looks like. Using the Paul Goodison method above works well to check a transit you have found from parking behind the committee boat. This also helps you to get super confident about where the start line is and how quickly the ODM and transit move together so you can plan your approach run.

A point to remember is that if your transit and ODM are perfectly aligned your head will be on the line, which may mean your bow is just over.  

At the recent Grafham Grand Prix I used a transit to great effect. I wanted to start around the middle of a long line with 52 other boats. In a handicap fleet I had to nail the start to get clear wind and any chance of doing well on handicap. I established the side of a shed was in line with the ODM from the far side of the committee boat. I then checked this along the line by pointing my boat at the ODM and looking down my tiller until I was confident I was on the line. It still looked good. Right up to about 1 minute 30 to go I kept checking so I was certain what my transit was (there were several buildings all partly obscured by trees). When the start gun went I was at least two complete boat lengths to windward of the melee. It was a clean start, I was free to tack at will, had a good lead on the boats around me and clear wind. At the end of the day I was awarded with a pair of thermal socks and box of chocolates for my efforts. I have no doubt that it was my starts that got me up in the prizes.  

Ultimately as with everything in starting preparation is extremely helpful to pulling of a good one. Find a transit, check it, check it again and again. Practise starting using it. Lastly if you have done the work have confidence that you are not over the line. This can be a bit nerve wracking when the black flag is flying and you are well clear of other boats around you.

When you get it right and start lengths ahead of boats around it is incredibly satisfying and makes the rest of the race so much easier. It also makes the start very simple as you are starting pretty much on your own.

 

See you on the water

 

Andy