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Not to knock the reactive skills of Oracle’s famously opportunist helmsman, Jimmy Spithill, but this move by 49er gold medallist Pete Burling during the last America’s Cup in Bermuda was a classic example of ‘spontaneity and creativity’ winning out over pre-planning discussed in the text. Spithill was leading the New Zealand challengers in to the start when Oracle suddenly came off the foils... before you could blink Burling had born away violently and just cleared the stern of his opponent to make it to leeward before luffing up and slowing down, to pin Spithill so close to weather that the defender couldn’t move without fouling. Burling then waited patiently for his rival to stop moving, bore away, built speed and took the win without further inconvenience
decided I was hungry, so I stopped and got a pie. I did not plan to get a pie last night, but I got hungry so it was just the right thing to do.’ With that Fay gave up and sat down!
The problem with the pre-planned system was it could lack creativity and spontaneity. Those making the plan influenced the outcome as much as the people responsible for developing the boat speed. As efficient as it was in terms of execution, use of peo- ple and money, it could be a wee bit restrictive. And risk averse. Excessive pre-planning can do that to you – not wanting to make a mistake takes over ‘clean sheet’ thinking.
What I see today is that pre-planning and structure make many of the current Olympic and America’s Cup sailors feel restricted in their creativity, thus they get antsy. And clearly, as a coach, we are not getting the best out of our players. Take the TP52 Sled. With the inclusion of some of the recent Cup sailors this season, we’ve thrown the pre-race programme out of the proverbial window. We know we want to practise a few starts, we want to sail upwind, maybe practise a set and some gybes, maybe not…? We wing it, depending on what we see at the time! It’s not necessarily a bad thing – in fact, we are having our best season ever.
On the other side, one of my former pupils recently sailed the Dragon Gold Cup and did really well. But after the event I heard that the owner-driver was just not settled in the last part of the series and got anxious about a few little things. As I was listening I thought, no kidding, he is from my old school.
The way you get the best out of him is to have the same routine every day, morning weather meeting, off the dock at the same time, structure and routine is how he was trained to do it. When he was taken out of his comfort zone with a less structured style (which suited the younger crew just fine) the environment was not set to make him comfortable or to get the best out of him. The lesson is: take the time to know how you get the best out of your players, and accept it will not be the same for each person on the team. That is a pain in the backside because it complicates life no end.
That is just the way it is for a coach. Besides all the technical and technique teaching we need to set the environment that gets the very best out of each individual.
When that happens you can say that you got the best out of yourself too.
NO FEAR
SAVE THE DATE MARCH
25TH -31ST 2019
WARM WATER . HOT RACING . COOL PARTIES
www.bvisprigregatta.org
SEAHORSE 29
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