The finals loss can be put on a couple factors - Lakewood was very good on the start line and while we had addressed the spacing issues that led to the loss to Team CERT at the LYC Team Race (CERT was 3rd at Midwinters) Lakewood threw a new look at us with Yumi hanging out way upwind of the start boat before entering the box at 30 seconds, and Zane being capable of going 1 on 1 with Mitchell at the pin. The line and course were really really short (minimizing the fleet racing advantage of most of our team), and from loosing 3 of the 5 starts, getting red flags called against us in at least 3 races, and a disastrous Leeward mark in the deciding race (a stage of the race we had dominated throughout the regatta) it was a tough loss. Still, winning 23 straight races, the majority against the other best teams in the regatta should not be overlooked, and henceforth this will be a winners debrief that breaks down the preparation, strategy, tactics and synergy that lead to our success.
From the LYC Team Race in early November, we had identified this regatta as one we wanted to make a priority. We knew we would be pretty limited in the time we could get 5 team members together to practice on the water, and had to improvise and plan accordingly. Our preparation entailed:
*Standard playbook read by all team members
*1 Sunday Before Jensen Beach, full teams practice
*3 Day USNT Team Race Clinic, with 3 LYC 1 Members on a team together, Arthur coaching and sharing system with other coaches (we in turn incorporated parts of Marik and Adrienne's philosophy into our system. Lior and Joakim and others also deserve credit for working with our sailors!).
*2 Skype/Interface conference calls with all team members and coach. Sailors were encouraged to demonstrate knowledge to one another, oral communication words were standardized, and specific roles in each situation discussed.
*2 Days scrimmaging with CRYC, with all members except Justin (who was sailing Etchells with Tim Healy) present. Being able to team race successfully without Justin was key for our teammates trust in one another, and Stephan Baker repeatedly schooling us on the last beat allowed us to identify and fix holes in our last-leg zone! We didn't loose a single "Play 1" lead at the Midwinters after blowing 2 in 4 races with CRYC on Saturday. We also improved tremendously on the start.
*2 Days onsite practice. 1 day running 4 v 2 - an awesome drill where the 2 boats have an automatic "ghost 1-2" and have to simply finish not last. However, 4 boats, if they control, cover, balance, and team race well should be able to make the 2 opponents last overtime! The team of 4 was 10 wins and 2 losses on the day vs the team of 2 -a good sign! The next day we scrimmaged with the CERT team that won the LYC team race. We saw that we could beat them so long as everyone did their job and we didn't beat ourselves!
A final note on preparation: on the morning of the 2nd Sunday at CRYC I observed the kids in warm ups were competing harder against themselves than in actual races! If you can train with teammates in fake drills better than competition or when being heavily coached, then you have really reached the next level as a sailor. I think that all sailors, fleet or team race, should try to find buddies on the water and use their warm up time as intensely and productively as possible. This is directed at all you muppets who sit luffing or hang out on the floating dock waiting for "practice" to start! You are in a boat, start developing feel and making yourself and your teammates better! The drills I gave them to do this with were:
-Continuous 2v2 either on a long downwind or around a box.
-2 v 3 where the 2 have a "ghost 1" around the course at the regatta.
For fleet racing, do straight line speed with 2 or 3 boats, then a 2 boat lee bow/competitive tacking drill.
LYC 1 & 2 Headed out to practice at Lakewood Yacht Club
Tactics:
The playbook I introduced for Optis is not one of numbers but of concepts. I would never recommend trying to add up the points of each boat's place in an Opti race to determine (did that come out to 17 or 18? ahhhh) what to do! The tactical process goes something like this:
1. Try to win your pair off the start.
2. Go from winning to Controlling - i.e. covering your pair in a way that allows you to slow them if necessary (do not start slowing them until it is clear that it is necessary)
3. If we as a team are winning 3 pairs, continue to cover, and balance them until we have a 1,2,3 (play 1) or 2,3,4 (play 2).
4. Use a zone coverage on the downwind leg and last beat to ensure we maintain play 1 or play 2 until the finish.
5. IF we are only winning 2 pairs, gap them to go to play 78 (what other coaches call "suicide" or "forcing the tie." In a 4v4, 3,4,5,6 wins over 1,2,7,8).
6. IF we are winning less than 2 pairs, we are looking to unbalance the oppositions pairs, until we can switch to winning pairs, then gap them! In both of the last 2 scenarios, we are looking to slow the race down.
Being able to do any of this is predicated on sailors ability to cover their pairs. Its almost impossible in an Opti to both give your opponent bad air and prevent them from tacking, so I coach sailors to pick one or the other, based on where they are on the course. The following diagram shows the white boat coving the blue boat correctly for each pair's location relative to the windward mark.
If you always try to cover like the middle pair - i.e. bow to thwart, you are really close to fouling, and they can usually either get bow out or tack. My opponent tacking is probably the most acceptable - for me - of these 3 outcomes. The corner pairs (note: not all these pairs are on the course at once, this is a diagram of each pair in a vacuum) have decided they should either slow with wind shadow, OR prevent from tacking, based on if they are sailing towards or away from the mark. Because the regatta was light air, I encouraged sailors in the middle of the course to stay ahead of their pair, and slow mainly with windshadow. In light air this can be very effective, and we avoided getting luffed uo or involving the umpires as much as possible.
In order to cover from this safe distance, we worked on letting the more advantaged teammate (the one further ahead up the course) do the covering, while the less advantaged teammate (less advanced up the course) sailed free. The following diagram shows a switch that accomplishes this:
Its a general rule for both fleet and team racing that if you are about to get pinched out, tack out!
By following these and a couple other rules with regards to order/inside/outside at mark rounding, we were able to stay in a position of control through most races in the regatta.
Synergy:
Synergy basically means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and requires that teammates be invested in each others success. A couple times during the regatta, after a race where we got too heated, or involved the umpires too much (you don't win 95% of the races if you are reliant on 50%/50% calls), I would require that each teammate say "I love you" directly to another teammate of their choosing. This helped ease any tension. As previously mentioned, communication was key, and we had a list of one or two word phrases that we used for concise communication on the water, as well as a list of things that were not acceptable. Long phrases get lost or twisted across the race course, and trying to micromanage your teammates sailing shows a lack of trust, AND tips the opponent off to what they are trying to do.
This coming weekend we will be fleet racing, but I hope that the sailors can take some of the things they have learned from team racing and carry them over to show improvement in fleet racing. I know that the bonds formed through this experience will be lasting and thank the sailors for putting in their time and effort to this journey!
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