identify how important this pursuit is to
you and whether the satisfaction inherent
in competing is enough.
Fun and enjoyment are essential things
which glue us to activities. Ever after a loss,
some part of the event must have been fun!
Remember those times as you evaluate your
future competitive plans.
Irrespective of the outcome, go to the
effort of making some notes about your
performance, while it’s in recent memory.
Put those notes away for a week, then
bring them back out and condense them
into three pointers to yourself for the
next big regatta.
Get to work on these areas straight
away by programming in your calendar
suitable times and activities. This might
range from starting a physical training
program early, to finding out more
about the best equipment to have. When
these calendar reminders pop up in a
month or more you will be glad you had
already taken the first steps to a better
performance next time.It’s also important to schedule a mental
break from sailing that satisfies the head
and body: long enough that you should be
feeling dead keen to begin sailing again
and of enough length that your body can
recover from any niggles.WAS IT THAT BAD?
What if your result was really bad?
Sometimes results fall well short of
expectations. Often this can happen
when winds were really light or strong -
at the opposite end of the spectrum
to your abilities.
People also get on the wrong side of the
rules and put letters on their scorecard
rather than numbers! And sometimes,
you don’t get the hang of the breeze and
you just make the wrong decisions - many
times over!
How do you bounce back after a
disaster? You can quit the sport... but I
don’t want you to do that because it’s a
fantastic lifelong sport.
As mentioned, it’s vital to evaluate a bad
result fairly. To keep things in perspective
consider your overall sailing and racing
experience compared with the bulk of the
fleet. Have you sailed a whole lot more or less
than the majority of the fleet?
Sailing is an experience sport and it's not
often people win major events without 5-10
years of racing experience. Everyone needs
to make a lot of mistakes in a lot of races to
truly appreciate how all the do’s and don’ts of
the sport work in practice.
I think your next steps should involve
you going back to basics: Identify the
performance factor(s) that cost you the
most and begin working on that by
breaking it down into its parts.
The four key areas determining the
outcome of a sailboat race are boat speed,
racing skills (including tactics and strategy),
mental preparation and boat handling.
Typically it’s one of these factors that gets in
the way. You can’t tackle everything at once,
so single out which of these four let you down
the most and then analyse aspects of that area
in greater depth. ✵38
AUSTRALIAN SAILING (^) + YACHTING
APRIL-MAY 2015 MYSAILING.COM.AU
SAILING SKILLS
PERFORMANCE REVIEW
“In realIty, a good result usually makes you
want to get back In the boat quIcker.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michael Blackburn is an
Olympic bronze medallist
and former World Laser
Champion. He is now
Lead Coach of the
Australian Sailing Team’s single handed
classes. Michael contributes to Sailing
CrackerSports.com – a resources library
and self-development site for sailors.
TOP: Tom Burton feeling good after winning the 2014
Rio Test Event.
ABOVE: Sailors celebrate on the podium at the 2014
Rio Test Event.
MICHAEL BLACKBURN
MICHAEL BLACKBURN
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