Be Your Own Sailing Coach: 20 Goals for Racing Success

by Jon Emmett

Overview

If you want to win races you need to get organised! This unique guide shows you how to set your overall sailing goals, and breaks them down into manageable – yet stretching – mini-goals. Jon Emmett breaks racing down into 20 key skills (such as speed to windward and tactics) and, with detailed analysis of key techniques, uses a step-by-step guide to explain how to highlight your own strengths and weaknesses, and how you can improve each skill. This book will help you get to the front of the fleet, whether your goal is to win at club, open, national or international level. You will get tips from Olympic racers, and learn their approaches to each key skill; improve you sailing technique in manageable stages; and discover how to set goals and create the action plans to achieve them. Along the way you will find advice from Olympic sailors and exercises to turn you into a winner, with contributions from Paul Goodison, Simon Hiscocks and Joe Glanfield.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118315606
Publisher:	Fernhurst Books Limited
Publication date:	03/07/2008
Series:	Coach Yourself to Success , #3
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	290
File size:	24 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jon Emmett is a successful Laser Radial sailor, representing the UK internationally for over 15 years. A professional coach and expert dinghy sailor, he is a National, European and World champion, impressively having won the UK National Championships three times! He is also a yacht racing tactician who lectures on tactics and racing, and is the training officer for the UK Laser Association. The British sailor coached Chinese Laser Radial sailing star Xu Lijia to a gold medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Read an Excerpt

1.1 The Importance of Goal Setting

There is a lot of research to show that most successful people use goal setting. This translates though many fields. Often people will not even realise they are goal setting, and may go about it in a very informal way (perhaps not even writing the goals down), but when questioned it comes to light that they were always driven towards very specific targets.

How people approach goals varies a great deal. Maybe write a key word in a prominent place, or form a star chart to show the ideas associated with a goal.

Perhaps some pictures or diagrams will be useful, or get some video of top performers and try and match it. Whatever your goal, it needs to be a good goal.

1.2 Smart Goals

So what is a good goal? Well, a good goal is a SMART goal.

Specific: The more clearly defined a goal is the better, so try and be as detailed as possible. To say you want to improve boat speed is not very helpful. To say you want to improve boat speed downwind is better. However, what we are looking for is something like: improve boat speed when running in strong winds (25 knots) and flat water.

Measured: The only way you know whether you have achieved your goal is when you measure it! Some goals are easier to measure than others. For example, you want to weigh 70 kg by June, starting in January at 65 kg and putting on 1/4 kg every week.

To know when you achieve your goal, you just need an accurate set of scales and to measure yourself at the same time of day (ideally first thing in the morning with an empty stomach after having been to the bathroom) in the same place (a soft or hard floor can make a difference).

Some goals are harder to measure, such as improvements in mental toughness.

In these instances, you need to try and quantify items by using a scale of perceived toughness.

Agreed: Your goals may not only affect you; they may have a profound effect on your helm, crew, parents, children, wife or husband. Therefore, you need to agree any goal (possibly in writing) in order to avoid disputes over time, money or commitment. For a professional project, a formal written contract may help.

Realistic: You must not set yourself up to fail by setting a goal which is too difficult.

Repeatedly failing to meet goals is very disappointing and can lead to people giving up. However, setting goals which are too easy can be equally as destructive, as there is no sense of achievement (indeed very little may have been achieved), and this too can lead to people quitting. Both extremes are examples of poor goal setting, which will ultimately mean that any dream goals are unlikely to be achieved.

Timed: A goal which may be highly unrealistic in one time frame (too easy if the time is too long, or too hard if the time is too short) may be an excellent goal in another time frame. Remember to record and monitor your goals!

Keep a detailed list of all your goals so you can refer back to them. Try and make a wide range of smart goals.

Table of Contents

0.0 Introduction
(The dartboard and how to use the book)

1.0 Goal setting

1.1 The importance of goal setting

1.2 Smart goals

1.3 Short, medium and long term goals

* Paul Goodison

2.0 Self preparation

2.1 How prepared are you?

2.2 Peaking at the right time

2.3 Check lists

* Simon Hiscocks

3.0 Venue preparation

3.1 Logistics

3.2 Weather patterns

3.3 Wind patterns

*Paul Goodison

4.0 Technology

4.1 Keeping up with the trends

4.2 Finding the perfect solution

4.3 Keeping it simple

* Simon Hiscocks

5.0 Starting

5.1 Time, distance and acceleration

5.2 Considering wind and current

5.3 Remember the rest of the race

* Paul Goodison

6.0 Boat handling

6.1 Top and bottom turns

6.2 Tacks and Gybes

6.2 Changing gear

* Paul Goodison

7.0 Tactics

7.1 What is boat to boat tactics?

7.2 Upwind tactics

7.3 Downwind tactics

* Paul Goodison

8.0 Strategy

8.1 What is race strategy?

8.2 Upwind strategy

8.3 Downwind strategy

* Simon Hiscocks

9.0 Rules

9.1 Rules: the basics

9.2 Using the rules aggressively

9.3 Using the rules defensively

* Simon Hiscocks

10.0 Meteorology

10.1 Sources of weather information

10.2 Understanding weather forecasts

10.3 Using weather forecasts

* Joe Glanfield

11.0 Boat speed upwind

11.1 Rig set up

11.2 Making the boat "point"

11.3 Helping the boat "foot"

* Joe Glanfield

12.0 Boat speed reaching

12.1 Rig set up

12.2 Soaking low

12.3 Going for speed

* Simon Hiscocks

13.0 Boat speed running

13.1 Rig set up

13.2 Sailing by the lee

13.3 Apparent wind sailing

* Paul Goodison

14.0 Fitness

14.1 What is fitness?

14.2 How fit do you need to be?

14.3 How to improve fitness

* Paul Goodison

 

15.0 Diet

15.1 Understanding Nutritional labelling

15.2 What we need to eat

15.3 Diet suggestions

* Joe Glanfield

16.0 Bodyweight

16.1 Maintaining bodyweight and recovery

16.2 Losing bodyweight

16.3 Gaining bodyweight

* Joe Glanfield

17.0 Mental attitude

17.1 The importance of attitude

17.2 Dealing with negatives

17.3 Relaxation

* Joe Glanfield

18.0 Racing log

18.1 Why keep a diary?

18.2 How to keep good records

18.3 Race analysis

* Joe Glanfield

19.0 Concentration

19.1 Looking at mental stamina

19.2 Maintaining focus

19.3 Peaking at the right time

* Joe Glanfield

20.0 Boat preparation

20.1 How prepared is your boat?

20.2 Dealing with boat work

20.3 Check lists

* Simon Hiscocks

21.0 Finance

21.1 The true cost of sailing

21.2 Campaigning

21.3 Sponsorship

* Joe Glanfield

Index

Editorial Reviews

MUCH more great advice on offer in Be Your Own Sailing Coach, out now.” (Sailing News, February 2008)

“This book is a great coaching aid for anyone who is looking to improve on their racing performance.” (Dinghy, May 2008) 

From the Publisher