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Sailing Tips

Brad Koinis, Coach
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Some general notes from tonights practice:

  1. Be on the starting line BEFORE the start. Fight for a spot in the third of the line where you want to start, keeping people from pushing you up from below or others from getting close enough to windward that they end up rolling you. You should be able to find good examples of both.
  2. If you are staring at the transom of another boat in front of you, you are going slow. Tack out for clear air early to avoid dirty air the whole leg. Following is not fast.
  3. Aggressively roll the boat when tacking. That means skipper and crew. The leeward rail should be digging into the water. Practice is the perfect time to push the envelope and work on the coordination and teamwork. This will be a big area of focus in the coming weeks.
  4. Give yourself some space at the windward mark. You can see several shots of people that tried to cut it really, really close and stalled the boat as the boats that gave themselves an extra boat length or two blew past with speed around the mark.

More to come over the next couple of weeks.

If you couldn't make it out to practice tonight, no worries! We will be at it again on Thursday. Meet at the Yacht Club between 3:30-4 to catch the first group. Charles will be around just after 5 to take the second wave.

 

Cheers,

Brad

 

Bora Gulari Interview

Charles Murman
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Hey Everyone,

Recently on SailingAnarchy they interviewed Bora Gulari, the current holder of the Moth speed record of over 30 knots and a alum of U of M's sailing team.  They asked him the top 3 things that make a difference when improving ones sailing. His response was:

1. time in the boat
2. time in the boat
3. time in the boat

SailingAnarchy then posted a response to this by another guy who doesn't have alot of time to spend in his boat.  He did some research and found some other ways to improve one's sailing:
1. Video and Mirror Neurons: movements that you can do that only roughly approximate mastery are improved, radically in some cases, by watching video of a master practitioner. Visual Neuroscience tells us that by watching video closely and repeatedly, we activate all of the same neural pathways used when we actually sail. One note of caution may be to be selective whom you watch (I'll not be posting on YouTube as an act of altruism to the class).

2. Visualization: Instead of daydreaming in the car, practice focused, vivid, first person visualization of specific scenarios when sailing. Research says that visualization, if linked with moderate practice, should let you sail as well as your mono zygote twin while sailing 25% less!

3. Sleep: The world champion is jetting around sailing in the far corners of the Earth, messing up his sleep cycle and denying his brain optimal imprinting of Procedural Memory (the stuff you do well if you practice). Imagine how well he'd do if he slept properly.  So if you can't sail, take a nap.

4. Formative Causation: Ever wonder why you're able to complete the N.Y. times crossword if you do it at night rather than in the morning? How come nobody could run a sub-four minute mile for decades and then one guy does it and wham, three more do the same within six months? How come flying gybes were so hard to do three years ago, but today eight year olds throw them routinely after only eleven minutes in the moth? Morphic resonance is the only plausible explanation and, the good part, this means anytime any sailor is practicing formative causation, he or she makes us ALL better.

I thought this was interesting and amusing.  Hope you do too.

Chaz