Remember to click on the team’s ranking link to read Coach Panel Comments. Thanks to our panel: Chris Klevan (Stanford), Ken Legler (Emeritus), John Mollicone (Brown), Isaac Clark (U Penn), and Johnny Norfleet (Tufts).
By Ken Legler
Practice Drills for Team Racing
Most team racing drills fall into two categories; race and re-set and forced rounding combinations. There are plenty more but let’s start with these two.
In race and re-set simply start a team race until one team has a big lead. The boat in first can sail all the way to last if that changes the score enough to make it a close race once again. When someone asks who won, you can say they did, but we reset three times with our team leading big each time.
Forced roundings, just like rabbit starts, take a little bit of practice to set up efficiently. You can line up between marks three and four or between marks one and two. Round the marks in the desired order, such as 1-3-6 v. 2-4-5, without mark traps and go into your covering and passback schemes.
A really big team with 18 boats (six teams of three boats) could have drills starting at the leeward mark, at the windward mark and at the start. After twenty minutes they can rotate to another part of the course.
The most classic team racing combinations are the 1-4-5 v. the 2-3-6. You could practice this all season and never master it as it can be quite tricky with all six boats in on the action. Let me know when you master play 2 from a 2-3-6 against a champion opponent.
Team Racing Communication
Maximize communication among teammates in between races but minimize talk during a race. The problem with talking to teammates during a race is that up to all three opponents can hear you. You could instead speak in code, or in a foreign language if you all know it. Best example of how speaking backfires: During a B-level race between Tufts and URI at Roger Williams, Tufts held a 2-3-5 going up the last beat while URI was in a 1-4-6. Both teams were hesitant to attack until…a Tufts skipper yelled out “Play two.” The idea was that he wanted his teammates to pass back the opponent in 4th to create a stable 2-3-4 combo known as play two. The moment that hail was made, all three URI team knew two things; that they needed to execute their own play four (1-4-5 combo) and more important, they had to execute immediately, which they did, for the win.
Here is another losing example, 1996 college tr nationals approaching the finish against Old Dominion and we are close to executing a 1-4-5 from a 1-4-6 just before the finish. Our boat in 4th reaches down to pin the opponent from tacking. That’s when they hailed “Tack.” Thinking the pin was solid the 6th boat attempted to tack but tagged the opponent in 5th right near the transom upon tacking out. The subsequent penalty turn gave the win to ODU. How did that happen? The ODU heard the Tufts boat hail “Tack” and knowing the leeward boat would tack, they instantly slammed the brakes on by heeling with tiller pulled up to windward.
The short story is one should never tell their teammates what to do during a race since the other team will simply exeute the counter-move. I know it is tempting to tell a less experienced team racer what to do but that is what practice is for.
If there are certain things you must communicate in a race then do so in code. As a team invent a bunch of silly names for the following: play one, play two, play four, we need help, we’re at the layline, big puff or shift over here, I got my guy, etc.
Sail1Design is pleased to bring you our coach panel’s ICSA Team Race Rankings Update #2. LOTS of data to digest and update!!! Remember to click on the team’s ranking link to read Coach Panel Comments! Thanks to our panel: Chris Klevan (Stanford), Ken Legler (Emeritus), John Mollicone (Brown), Isaac Clark (U Penn), and Johnny Norfleet (Tufts).
For Open Rankings #2, CLICK HERE
For Women’s Rankings #2, CLICK HERE
Ken Legler, just retired from a multi-decade run as a successful championship college sailing coach, most notably at Tufts University, shares his notebook with Sail1Design in this Team Racing how-to series> Enjoy.
Winter Teammate Meetings, By Ken Legler
“Telling ‘em ain’t learning ‘em,” was the sage advice of Gary Bodie’s (famous sailing coach) grandfather. Before the advice, Gary explained every play to his team on a long van ride, but they seemed to have retained nothing once on the water. Here is a method of getting each boat on the same page for every play.
Meet with a minimum of three skippers but better to have three crews also in the front row and B team sailors listening in as well. In a dorm lounge, den, or even dining room table, use a set of small model boats to map out each play. Think of your five best team racing friends around a coffee table pushing the little boat models around.
Easy models: cut six 2” boats from a manilla folder and draw a line for the sail on one tack, flip over and draw the sail on the other tack. Also make an RC boat, several marks, and a wind arrow. So small you can carry them around in a small envelope in your wallet where your money used to be.
Consider starting with the last leg and with a winning 1-2-3 combination. What will your covering scheme be? Push the boats around until you agree on the scheme that seems like it will work best. Then set up a 1-2-4 combo and again work out the best covering scheme, then 1-2-5. Ultimately you do this for all 20 possible combinations including when to tack in a 4-5-6. The tricky ones, of course, are the close ones such as what to do in a 1-4-6 or a 2-3-6. The idea is that you all know what your teammate will do, which is to play the odds in your team’s favor, according to the agreed scheme.
It might take a few weekly meetings before you can plan not only the last leg but the plays at marks, downwind tactics, and starts. These talks will get you psyched for spring sailing starting soon.
