kharkovsailing: переводы

→Short:
Improve tacking in medium breeze (13–16 knots) and short chop. Action: spend a
day just concentrating on tacking. Tack every three boat lengths (increase this for high
performance boats) for three minutes, then rest, preferably in an onshore breeze (so
it is steady). Ideally, as soon as the boat is up to full pace you tack again. The fi tter
the crew the longer this exercise can run. However, stop before fatigue starts to affect
the tacks, as you do not want to learn bad habits. Two or three tacking sessions with
high quality training sessions over a month are usually enough to see a substantial
improvement.

→Exercise:
Set six short-, three medium- and one long-term goal. The examples below will get you
started.

→So what is a good goal? Well, a good goal is a SMART goal.
Specifi c: The more clearly defi ned a goal is the better, so try and be as detailed
as possible. To say you want to improve boat speed is not very helpful. To say you
want to improve boat speed downwind is better. However, what we are looking for is
something like: improve boat speed when running in strong winds (25 knots) and fl at
water.
Measured: The only way you know whether you have achieved your goal is when you
measure it! Some goals are easier to measure than others. For example, you want to
weigh 70 kg by June, starting in January at 65 kg and putting on 1/4 kg every week.
To know when you achieve your goal, you just need an accurate set of scales and to
measure yourself at the same time of day (ideally fi rst thing in the morning with an
empty stomach after having been to the bathroom) in the same place (a soft or hard
fl oor can make a difference).
Some goals are harder to measure, such as improvements in mental toughness.
In these instances, you need to try and quantify items by using a scale of perceived
toughness.
Agreed: Your goals may not only affect you; they may have a profound effect on your
helm, crew, parents, children, wife or husband. Therefore, you need to agree any goal
(possibly in writing) in order to avoid disputes over time, money or commitment. For a
professional project, a formal written contract may help.
Realistic: You must not set yourself up to fail by setting a goal which is too diffi cult.
Repeatedly failing to meet goals is very disappointing and can lead to people giving
up. However, setting goals which are too easy can be equally as destructive, as there is
no sense of achievement (indeed very little may have been achieved), and this too can
lead to people quitting. Both extremes are examples of poor goal setting, which will
ultimately mean that any dream goals are unlikely to be achieved.
Timed: A goal which may be highly unrealistic in one time frame (too easy if the time is
too long, or too hard if the time is too short) may be an excellent goal in another time
frame. Remember to record and monitor your goals!
Keep a detailed list of all your goals so you can refer back to them. Try and make
a wide range of smart goals.

→1.2 Smart Goals

→There is a lot of research to show that most successful people use goal setting. This
translates though many fi elds. Often people will not even realise they are goal setting,
and may go about it in a very informal way (perhaps not even writing the goals down),
but when questioned it comes to light that they were always driven towards very
specifi c targets.
How people approach goals varies a great deal. Maybe write a key word in
a prominent place, or form a star chart to show the ideas associated with a goal.
Perhaps some pictures or diagrams will be useful, or get some video of top performers
and try and match it. Whatever your goal, it needs to be a good goal.

→1.1 The Importance of Goal Setting

→The whole purpose of this book is to try and improve the average fi nishing position
of the reader, whether the goal is to win at club, open, national or international level.
To achieve this you need to work on your weakest areas. It may be fun to practisewhat you are good at, and race in your favourite conditions, but the real improvement
to your overall sailing skills is to be had by working on what you are bad at. This
can expand your skill base and means you have all the tools in the toolbox for when
conditions change!
This book has been written so you can dip in and out of the chapters, each of
which has useful exercises in it, spending time on those which are most relevant to your
needs, but hopefully reading each and every one at some time.


So let’s get started. First look at the dartboard (see Figure 0.1 below). You will
need to rate yourself from 1 to 10 by shading in the area from the centre out – 1, in
the centre, means you have no skill in that area and 10, on the outside, means you are
perfect! So you need to address the topics with very little shaded in!

0.1a Showing how to fill in the dartboard.
0.1b Dartboard of boat handling.
0.1c Dartboard of tacking.
0.1d Dartboard of actions.


Devise a series of dartboards; perhaps splitting boat handling into several topics.
Boat handling is an area which often causes diffi culty when changing the class of boat.
Choose one topic and break it down.
Now address the issues; maybe even producing another dartboard.
Good training is very focused, and since there are so many variables in sailing
you need to ensure that you are addressing the issues most likely to improve your
racing performance (not simply doing those exercises which are fun or which you are
good at!). Remember, to reach a specifi c target may take weeks, months or even years.
This is why sailing is such a diffi cult sport to excel in! We must often go through several
‘layers’.
Each chapter has its own mini dartboard. This is simply a suggestion; you should
photocopy the blank dartboard at the back of the book and make up your own targets.
You should aim to be rating yourself relatively highly in each aspect of sailing before
you attend a major championship. The dartboards can be really helpful when it comes
to time management!
Keep careful records of your progress so you can review your sailing in a year, or
even 10 years time. Most people have inherent strengths and weaknesses, so when, for
whatever reason, you have some time out of sailing, going back and working on your
old problem areas will probably get you back up the pecking order sooner rather than
later. Sailing is very much like riding a bike; you do not forget how to do it – but it hurts
your legs more when you haven’t done it for a while!

→One of the reasons why it is so hard to improve your racing is that sailing is such a
time-intensive sport. If you are running, you can start your training session fi ve minutes
after you’ve shut your front door, whereas it may take a sailor fi ve hours (or more)
to drive to the venue, fully rig the boat and get on the water. This is why full-time
sailors have such an advantage over those weekend warriors. If you can sail only at
weekends, it can be very unfortunate if there is too much wind to sail on the Saturday
and not enough wind on the Sunday, or if, when you can sail, there is no coach
available!
The aim of this book is to help those who wish to improve their skills in the shortest
time possible. To achieve this you need to assess yourself and then spend your time
training in the most effi cient way. You can, after all, improve your sailing by going
to the gym or reading (this book) from the comfort of your armchair. Coaching is an
extremely important part of learning, but for the vast majority of sailors it is not possible
to have a coach all the time. In fact, because of the constraints of time, money and
location, many sailors may only have a coach on rare occasions.
This book is for all those busy people who still want to be successful, and need to
optimise every hour of every training session without a coach!