Left: Multi-faceted… 1984 Flying Dutchman Olympic gold medallist Jonathan McKee training on the Imoca 60 Estrella Damm with co-skipper Guillermo Altadill for the 2007 Barcelona World Race – rudder failure forced the pair to retire. McKee joined Altadill after a busy summer as strategist with the Prada America’s Cup campaign in Valencia. Above: Victor Kovalenko with his four charges and their 470 gold medals in Qingdao
That is a wonderful benefit that transcends competition alone. If coaches have the right education, atti- tude and qualifications, then their sailors learn good decision making, risk manage- ment, personal responsibility, ethical behav- iour, the importance of analytical thinking, time planning, proper preparation and equipment maintenance, good communica- tion skills and the importance of tenacity and courage. This can be exciting and fulfill- ing for children, but to deliver good pro- grammes we need many more good coaches. That is real coaches, not just parents or expert sailors. The low profile of our sport means there is a shortage of qualified coaches. Sadly, many coaches have little or no education or experience in the role. They are in fact ‘experts’ who may have
dominated in racing, but real coaches are dominating preparation. We need to lift the profile of the sport to ensure we have better coaches and more choice of coaches. This coaching role is important in all areas of life; now many top sporting coaches are showing business people and even politicians how to better achieve their goals. SH: One of the concerns is that sometimes the coaches on the water play far too important a role in the actual racing, right down to telling sailors where the first shift is going to come in – hence the sailors get over-dependent on the coaches and are doing a lot less thinking for themselves. VK: That is not the role of a coach. More than anything else we are building person- alities. This is most important – we supply them with philosophies, we can supply them with concepts of our sport but good coaches teach sailors to think for them- selves, after that it’s up to them. The coach’s work is not done in racing. It’s done in training, to organise very effec- tive programmes for our sailors to be successful in racing. During training and preparation the coach is the king. At regattas the sailors are the kings and the coach has a support role. At regattas I am always trying to be invisible because talented sailors don’t need to be advised where the next shift is coming from. Why would you send Ben Ainslie, Robert Scheidt or the Kiwi 49ers Burling and Tuke left off the line? Wind direction can be very variable and conditions could change in the last 20 seconds.
The fact is that preparation is the key – without that, races and regattas will not be won. If a training programme is delivering sailors who are not well-rounded, thinking competitors, then one of the factors is likely to be poor coaching. Poor coaches can harm sailors, but good coaches make them better.
SH: There is increasing criticism about the excessive presence of support boats at big regattas. One report said there were some 500 RIBs in Rio… VK: At each Olympics only one coach boat is allowed per crew, nothing has changed. In Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London, Rio and next in Tokyo, the number of coach boats can be no greater than the number of competing crews. I coached both Men and Women’s 470 classes using just one coach boat for four Olympics and in some cases two countries shared one boat.
Of course, the role of a ‘coach boat’ in major regattas is primarily about support. This is a sport about people, it’s not about equipment. So all the people involved want to be sure that everything is done to ensure sailors will be able to compete on a level playing field – so precisely defining the coach support role is very important. But stakeholders also don’t want to be told that we had a problem with a spin- naker pole on the way out and that is why we lost… While coaches can provide a general pre-race briefing, talk about trim and tactical errors, and offer morale boost- ing between races, their logistical role is also significant as, unlike in other sports, our athletes must often wait for many hours on their playing field, the water. Coaches tow boats out in light weather or if the course is far away. They carry spare sails, fittings, sheets, clothing, water, food, provide equipment and hands for emergency repairs and they have an impor- tant safety boat role. If they were not there others would have to be there instead. Our sport cannot afford poor decision making at any level. Remember World Sailing (formerly ISAF) has had to reverse many decisions. Remember the ban on advertising in our sport, history shows that was a bad blunder. The decision to drop the multihull from the Olympics, to
SEAHORSE 37
JORGE ANDREU/DPPI
SIMON MOSSMAN
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