Sail1Design Editor

By Joe Cooper
With summer not far off, sailing programs around the country are gearing up for their sailing lesson sessions. There will be high school sailors teaching and coaching Opti sailors, college sailors teaching and coaching high sailors and adult coaches, coaching the college sailors. The interaction between instructor and student is an important one. I am in my seventh season of coaching the Prout High School team and have learned quite a lot about how to not only ‘coach’ but also how to mentor high school students in sailing teams. Here are some of the themes I have found to be important.
RESPECT
The first thing is to actually remember the names of your students. This sounds basic but with 20 sailors I see for only 2 hours a day, three days a week, it can get to be a bit, well entertaining. I discovered last year to my embarrassment I was calling Flora, Fiona and only found out abut it about three weeks in when Flora mentioned it to me, rather casually really.
How one addresses the sailors is important. Today’s society is very used to casual language and, ‘hey guys let’s go’, encompasses almost everyone. I am old enough to have been taught the courtesy of referring to females as Ladies. When I wish to speak with the group, rather than the common, ‘hey guys listen up’ I prefer the, possibly old fashion but more suiting to my personality of ‘Ladies and gentlemen may I have your attention’. If there is a small work party or some other similar small group of sailors I wish to address or instruct I use the same phraseology.
Respect is of course a two way street. Over the years I have made it clear to new team members that if I am speaking, I require their full attention. This includes actually listening to what I am saying, not speaking and NOT using their phones. If I see such inattention I simply stop talking and wait. I do NOT call out the person, but simply wait until either the silence, the stage whispers or the elbow in the ribs brings the attention of all back to what I am saying.
COMMUNICATION

This is very important in sailing for many reasons-Technical concepts, a new language, wind noise and your tone of voice are but a few of the variables a coach needs to be aware of and manage. I tell all my new sailors that they will be a bit confused at first by all these elements. This is made no easier coming from me. Apart from all of the above, I have an Australian accent, I tend to talk fast when excited and, although I am getting better at NOT doing this, I often use sailing slang when speaking in a hurry. ‘Crank the vang’ may as well be Urdu for ‘what’s for dinner’ to a new sailor. So use the terms that the sailors can understand.
Tone of voice is critical when addressing teenagers and in particular novices. Loudness can easily be confused with anger. Sailing can be trying enough for a 15 year old, with not much instruction, plunked in a boat, surrounded by an absolute deluge of new inputs all clamoring for responses, people using new and unknown words and on some days, plenty of wind, cold, wet and once in while, snow. My particular approach to the combinations of emotions on the new sailors face is to smile and say something like its ‘OK, you’re responding perfectly normally’. I tell them that my voice is loud simply to have them hear me and that volume is not to be considered criticism. Speaking of which:
It is of the utmost importance that a sailor not be berated in front of the team. Actually they should not be berated at all and unfortunately I do see this too. People do not generally make mistakes on purpose. If I see a team member struggling with something, my approach is to work on the basis that I have not given sufficient, correct instruction to the sailor. Violations of the behavioral standards you set is a different matter but again not to be conducted in front of other team members.
I should note here that for many reasons new sailors, or rather students with no sailing experience who join the Prout Team are not progressed through a standard sailing instruction program. Rather, I bring them in the RIB for a couple of days, give them a very broad over view of how boats work, balance of forces and so on, introduce them to the vocabulary of words they need to come to grips with and generally put them in a 420 with a skilled sailors within a couple of hours.  I tell them before hand that I will do this and that: you will be confused, suffer input over load, will be somewhere from concerned to scared on the fear spectrum, you will get wet, may well be cold, end up with wet stringy hair blowing across your face and will have a blast. Over the course of 7 seasons and perhaps 30 or so such sailors, they have all come back…..I have every year several sailors graduate High School having come in as novice freshman and leave as skilled sailors totally in love with sailing.
TEAM
If anthropologists need groups of people to examine for proof that the Human is a social animal, they need look no further than high school students and H.S. sailing teams in particular. Sailing is the only activity where, when in competition, there is not a coach jumping up and down on the sidelines bawling instructions at the team. The sailors are allowed to go and make their own decisions successful or otherwise. This shared experience of the sailors together in pairs and in the three boats of a team, breeds strong bonds amongst the sailors. Throw in the environment and technical complexities of sailing and there is a great breadth and depth of shared experience. To keep this experience moving along is an important aspect of ‘The Team’ from my perspective. I do a couple of things to support the team idea.
Firstly, I dress as I ask them to dress, which in the New England region, is drysuits. This has the added benefit that I can jump into a boat and give a practical demonstration of some point I am trying to convey to a struggling sailor. It has on a couple of occasions allowed me to help recover a turtled boat with me ending up in the water. And in the event something really goes south I can jump into the water and not become a problem myself in the 45-degree water.
Every time I am out with the team I think of the young lady who drowned in Annapolis a few years ago and cannot imagine having to make that phone call. I carry with me on the RIB a small bag with light line, some tools, tape, a knife, some of the hand warmers that one shakes to effect a warm glow to the hands, and other items I have found to be useful over the years. I also carry a diving face mast.
The Pinnie is the uniform of sailing. I have our team wear their Pinnies all the time, practice or racing. I wear one too. I think this sets the tone that we ARE a team joined by like uniform amongst other elements. Being ‘in uniform’ has the added advantage of more easily identifying the Prout boats and when necessary me, from a distance. ‘Practice like you play’ is a refrain in use these days but I first heard it years ago.
In the 1980 America’s Cup, the syndicate brought in a man named Ron Barassi. He was the Vince Lombardi of Australian football and was there to give us pep talks, along the lines of what today would be called sports psychology. We were all given a book he had written and in the beginning paragraphs it described him showing up for practice with his team. He was kitted out in a clean and washed uniform, his football boots (leather in those far off days) were polished and shiny, the long white laces were spotless and HE was ready to play football. In contrast to the variety of clothing the players were wearing, he was a spotless representation of the Club. At the next practice everyone looked like him. This tale is an important lesson in making a group of individuals a team and is one I try and emulate.
MENTORING
Being huddled in a RIB, with a few teenagers, wet, cold and anxious, or doubled over from laughter is a situation few adults get to share with teenagers. I find that there is ample time to discuss what you are doing, point out the errors a sailor is making and then to highlight the increase in performance from the same sailor after a little coaching. There are a myriad of skills and disciplines used in sailing, apart from the sciences that make a sail boat go. This time in the RIB offers me a perfect opportunity to find out what makes these young men and women tick.
RESPONSIBILITY
The sailors must rig and de-rig the boats. It drives me balmy to see parents rigging and de-rigging the boats for their kids. There are so many reasons why this is a bad habit, it would be its own essay.
Early in in the season I allocate the novices and a less experienced members to a team led by an experienced sailor. These sub-teams allow the skilled sailors the opportunity to develop their own leadership skills and for the new sailors to become a part of the team from the beginning. Boats of course need to be rigged and un-rigged and put away in some kind of organized process. Any damage or failure of some kind needs to be noted and addressed. Making sure the procedure for both ends of the sailing day is clearly articulated and enforced is another critical aspect of the day. If something is not done according to ‘the rules’ then the members or leader of the sub-team is brought back to make it right. Politeness and courtesy is key to this discipline. I refer to this ‘not being your bedroom at home and your mum is not here to clean up for you’, in a jocular fashion (here is where the Australian accent is an advantage).
Coaching young people in sailing is a great way for those of us who have experienced the wonderful, (and the less so….), adventures sailing has to offer to pass on to the next generation. It is also in my case a wonderful way to spend some time with a great collection of young men and women.
 
 

Sail1Design would like to welcome our newest intern/reporter, Sammy Pickell, to our Airwaves team. Sammy is a high school student and sailor on the Corona del Mar team, and will focus on west coast & high school sailing!
Pacific Coast Championships: Competition Pushes Corona del Mar Sailing Team to the Top!
In summer 2006, two competitive eight-year-olds, Derek Pickell and Rhodes Garner, stood out particularly among racers in the junior sailing sabot program at Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club. The two boys, constantly alternating wins with one another at Southern California regattas, pushed each other to fly up the fleets and rankings, to say the least. However, soon after reaching the more advanced fleet of sabots, Rhodes switched over to Newport Harbor Yacht Club permanently.
Ten years later, now on a new team together, both eighteen year-olds stood proudly holding their trophy with our Corona del Mar High School sailing team. These two had returned, and improved upon their former success that sailing on a team together brought them;  Rhodes and Derek led the Corona del Mar Seakings to the Pacific Coast Championship for the Seakings’ first time in decades.
After half our team graduated preceding the 2014-2015 season, the two senior boys first took on the responsibility of skippering our Varsity Gold Division, as the only two upperclassmen skippers on the team. Though obviously racing against different sailors in separate divisions, unlike the sabot days, each boy’s competitive nature and excellent scores constantly motivated the other before his race— a recurring relationship of amicable competition benefiting our sailing team. It was never about Rhodes and Derek simply fighting for scores against competing schools; the sense of the Seakings’ community comes with pushing teammates to race stronger and better, and they were no exception. For many years, the CdM team had constantly fallen as underdogs— always close behind Newport Harbor and Point Loma, yet always edged out. We constantly managed to take third or fourth places, only narrowly qualifying for the Mallory in 2015.
This year at the 2016 Pacific Coast Championships at the US Sailing Center in Long Beach, an area famous for its voracious windsurfers and breezy conditions, our team had our work cut out for us. Heading into the regatta, we ranked third place behind Point Loma and Newport Harbor, the 2015 national champions. To qualify for the Mallory, CdM needed to place in the top four at least. PCISA has over 58 schools actively participating in regattas and is one of the fastest growing regions in the nation. With such a strong sailing presence throughout California, the competition never lulls, and we knew the Pacific Coast Championships would be no exception.
On the first day of the qualifier, the race committee kept the 22 schools racing continuously from about 11am to 6pm. The wind began light and shifty, thankfully a condition very familiar to Corona del Mar. The drastically shifting offshore breeze made it necessary for us to play the sides of the course intelligently and facilitated the importance of focusing on boat speed. As a 10-12 knot breeze began to fill midway through the day, keeping our boats completely flat became essential. Small waves also emphasized the need for good boat handling and warranted the infantile stages of surfing on the downwind legs. The race committee kept a pace of fast rotations to achieve as many races as possible. Rhodes and I (A division) and Derek and Victoria Thompson (B division) each began and ended the day with consistent, upper fleet scores. We ended the day smoothly and secured a second place behind the Francis Parker School, with Point Loma on our tails.
On Sunday, the sailors faced almost identical conditions as Saturday. It was still fair game for any team— the point values were so close that CdM could not afford to make a blunder during a race. Rhodes and I managed to secure strong pin starts at the
beginning of the day, as Derek and Tori sailed more conservatively from the middle. Nonetheless, each team sailed well, Derek and Rhodes always remembering to exchange advice to the other on the rotation dock about the constantly shifting wind. ! Rhodes and I ended the day in second place, and Derek and Tori directly responded to his success with two strong finishes crucially ahead of Point Loma. Constantly on the cusp of greatness, with its senior boys’ strong competition and teamwork with one another paving the way, the CdM sailing team finally broke through the underdog status— finally ahead of Point Loma and Newport Harbor.
(for full results click HERE)

Teamwork in the CFJ is prevalent everywhere— from the actions between the skipper and crew to assisting your teammates in being mentally and physically prepared come race time. An often forgotten aspect in the process of working as a team is the inner rivalries among team players— the competitiveness and the drive to exceed your teammate’s previous performances. For CdM’s case, the two skippers had pushed each other to the top since sailing sabots from the same yacht club. Inner team competition is a force that molds champion sailors, but more importantly, it creates champion teams. Nationals, here we come!
Corona del Mar, Point Loma, Newport Harbor, and Santa Barbara are headed to nationals this May 14-15 in Charleston, South Carolina !