TEACHING INTERMEDIATE & ADVANCED SAILORS


EVALUATING YOUR SAILORS Knowing the skill level of your students gives you the basis for individual evaluation during your class. There are typically a wide range of sailing skill levels in any class. It is therefore very important to spend time early on getting to know your students’ skill levels. Use US Sailing’s Skill Up App to track students skills.


GIVING FEEDBACK For most water activity situations Feedback comes in four types: 1. Activity Maintenance: Any command that keeps the drill going such as, “We are still sailing a clockwise oval.”


2. Skill Building Comments: This comes in two forms: fault correction for mistakes and reinforcement behaviors you want to continue. These are two sides of the same coin such as, “Hold the tiller like a microphone” and its twin, “Good job holding the tiller like a microphone.” Remember that reinforcement is just as important as fault correction if you want a behavior to continue. When providing skill building comments,


instructors should be using the same terminology


as used in the chalk talk, and drill, and instructor demonstration, as well as referencing the skill taught in earlier lessons.


3. General Comments: General comments are usually off the topic of the lesson the instructor is teaching. Often it will have to do with skills or requirements pertaining to drill or game start up and maintenance, safety issues like an unzipped lifejacket, or skills that students should have learned already.


4. Praise and Reinforcement: These are the phrases like “Nice jibe!” and “Good job.” They are important to keep things positive, but they do not carry a lot of information. Praise is not feedback. Instructors also need to be providing skill-specific feedback on the topic of their presentations to be successful in a lesson.


When providing feedback on the water, instructors must project their voice. The message should be kept short because boats will be moving. Skill Building Commentsshould be provided on the water along with positive reinforcement for to every student.


Teaching in Themes This works well when coaching groups because it gets everyone on the same page and provides you with something to say to each boat. For example, start with larger theme like steering while holding the tiller extension correctly, and then move on to scooting forward and facing forward while tacking. Then address each boat equally as it comes by. For example, if the first boat comes by and they have folded the extension back, say, “Hold the tiller extension.” If the second boat comes by and they are already holding the extension say, “Good job holding the tiller extension.” When the whole class has the idea, the instructor may move on to the next theme.


Focused Feedback Another effective feedback method is focused feedback. An instructor will evaluate several aspects of a sailor’s skill and then provide feedback on just one aspect that offers the most benefit to the sailor. For example, an instructor will watch as a student executes a tack and as the sailors pass by, will say, “Great effort in your tack. Try clearing the mainsheet before the tack to help make a smoother hand transition.”


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