regatta coaching

By Airwaves writer Tyler Colvin
There is an inherent difference between coaching sailing and coaching a field sport.  In football, baseball, soccer, or likewise, the coach has the ability to talk to the players during play or call timeouts to regroup the team.  Sailing has a rule that specifically disallows contact with the players from prep signal until they cross the finish line.  Once across, there is a finite amount of time to debrief, hydrate and refuel.  This means effective coaching must take place in between sets in an efficient manner.  Many very accomplished coaches have different takes on what this means and what kind of information needs to be presented.

Prestart: Have A Plan
Before the first start, or any start of the regatta, make sure your players have a plan for approaching the line.  Depending on skill level, this might range from “be crossing with speed at go” to “win the pin”.  No matter what the goal is, they need to have a plan on how to be successful.  For beginner racers in a green fleet event just simply talking them through how to get a line sight, timing themselves on the line, and making sure they understand the sequence can make all the difference.  Green fleet to gold fleet, they need to know where they are going to start and how they are going to execute.
In Sequence
Inside the prep signal you are no longer allowed to talk or give aid to your players.  This is the start of the observation period.  Many coaches like to watch the start from either end of the line to see over early boats and to be ready to go up course with their players.  A more effective place to watch a start in order to provide more valuable feedback is from behind the line.  This allows you to see the whole prestart develop, fleet trends, where the holes are, any glaring mistakes anyone is making, etc.  For note takers, this is a good chance to write down who you think may have won the boat, middle, and pin off the start.
On Course
Going up course after the start you need to be careful you stay outside the course and not interfere with wake.  About halfway up the first beat trends start to appear on the course in terms of pressure, lifts and headers, and current.  Make note of who appears to be winning the right, middle, and left halfway up, compare that to which boats won the different parts of the line.  Do this again at the first mark rounding, taking note which boats rounded first and from what side.  Often times the top of the fleet is just more talented than the rest of the fleet, however they also tend to pick the correct side and stay in phase, so keeping an eye on them is never a bad idea.
In addition to trends in the fleet and weather patterns, identifying major issues that affect boat speed or position such as not rolling hard enough, footing too much, not having sails pulled up all the way, rig tension, etc. will be useful.  It is your job to make sure your players boat is set up to go as fast around the course as possible.
Between Sets
This is the opportunity for you to present your information to your players.  This is the timeout, the team huddle, and it has to happen in a matter of minutes.  You will have an enormous amount of raw information on your hands, the trick is distilling it to at most THREE points that will help them succeed in the next race.  Any more than three points and the chances are they will not remember, process, or care about what you said.  The challenge here is figuring out what will make the most difference in their next race.
Looking at their start, were they in a lane and make it off the line in the first row or two, or did they fall to the back of the pack? Working on finding a hole and accelerating can mean the difference between sailing in clean air up the beat or constantly having to tack away from the favored side.
On the first beat, did they put themselves in a position to get the next big wind shift or new pressure? Do the conditions on the day mean success is dependent on pressure?  Possibly the most important part of sailing the first beat is making sure they are sailing in clean air for the longest time possible.  Working out to the edges of the course and not crossing transoms to come back to the middle will help keep them in clean air.  Similarly on the runs, did they have a lane? Did it matter if they had a lane? What was their boat speed like in comparison to the boats around them?
A good rule of thumb is to go with a piece of wind/weather feedback (wind is up, looks like an oscillation with a long period, new breeze is filling from the left), tactical feedback (where do we want to go, how are we going to get there), and ONE piece of boat handling feedback if they need it (roll harder, trim is off, etc.).  It is VERY easy to overwhelm a player with too much information in between races.

One important note to make is that many coaches like to rehash the last race with their players and go over details of mistakes in certain situations.  This can be effective if done correctly and many extremely accomplished coaches use this tactic.  The main issue is that if not applied to the next race, it can result in players stressing over mistakes in the last set and not to what needs to be done to win the next race.
Again, and Again
Moving forward throughout the day you will get in a pattern and it will become more natural.  Certain things will become more obvious and easier to identify.  From race to race, noticing trends in the course and the fleet will help how to guide your feedback for your players.  If you find yourself giving the same piece of feedback to the same boat after each and every race, try presenting the information differently.  Showing, telling and giving examples will help to convey your message in a way that they may better understand.
At the end of the day a more thorough debrief should be conducted after the boats are put away and before everyone leaves for food.  What went right, what went wrong, general trends on the day, what they noticed, what you noticed, what you can help them with better the next day, all are important topics of discussion.  This is your opportunity to break down more complex situations or nit pick at certain decisions that were made on the course.