Reprinted with thanks to and permission from SCUTTLEBUTT. Full text of article is here:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2009/06/youth-coaching.html
It would be hard to imagine competing in a regatta and winning 7 out of 12
races… particularly a major championship. It would even harder to imagine
having that score line and not winning the event too. However, that was how
the U.S. Optimist Team Trials went for Bradley Adam, finishing 8th in an event
used to qualify which Optimist sailors would be sent to major events around
the world during the current season.
Inconsistency plagued his event (5-1-1-26-1-30-1-1-25-1-40-1), but Bradley
receives high marks for improving from 43rd the year before. As Bradley notes,
“My Dad runs a bunch of Opti clinics throughout the year and he has provided
much of my coaching since day one. We started sailing each weekend from the
first weekend in March through team trials. It is a small group of 8-10
sailors who are really good and help push one another to the limits. Sometimes
my sister Grace and I would go sailing after school without a coach for a few
hours. I go to a lot of Opti regattas without a coach and this helps in our
preparation. Neither Grace or I had a coach at Team Trials.”
While it was revealing to learn that Bradley did not have a coach at the Team
Trials, it was even more revealing to learn what some of the coaches were
doing. When asked about what happened in some of the races he didn’t win,
Bradley remarked, “Wind Shifts!!! I was on the wrong side of them. I found it
a little bit discouraging that some kids had coaches upwind and radioed back
to the starting line what the breeze was doing at the windward mark.”
What…coaches at the top of the course providing weather information?
Scuttlebutt eagerly awaits comments as to the prevalence of this practice at
the youth level, AND if anything is being done to manage it. Post comments
here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2009/06/youth-coaching.html
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