Blog

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.