UKLA Chair blog #57
A couple of things to call out at the start. First for ILCA4s, there are two open meetings this weekend that are part of the RYA RTG selection process – a two-day event at Carsington for the North and Midlands RTGs and a one day event at Datchet for the East, South East and London regions. UKLA calendar
Secondly, would you like to see British Sailing Team and Squad sailors racing at your club? Well more than 10 of them were racing last weekend at Paignton Sailing Club in the ILCA6 and ILCA7. Now the UKLA is looking for venues for our weekend national events (Qualifiers) in 2024 and beyond. These should be sea venues anywhere in UK but we would like to hear from more away from the south coast. You will need to be able to cater for 150 to 200 sailors both on the racecourse and the boat park. We can support and compliment you with UKLA race management and safety as well as a great team of volunteers. These events normally take place in March and September/October. We would love to hear from you.
Talking about Paignton, we had a great Q&A with Micky Beckett and Hannah Snellgrove on the Saturday evening. These are two of the top sailors in the world talking openly about their highlights and lowlights from the season. It was fascinating to hear from them about their processes when things don’t go perfectly. One theme was around refocussing on “little” successes, for instance getting a good start in the next race, and then building on those successes. Hannah talked about the need to keep doing the “right” things as you can’t control what you can’t control including what other competitors do and routines have a big role to play in this. Micky talked about how he learns from mistakes by talking in depth with his coaches about situations on the water.
Sailing is such a multi-faceted sports with the need for, among other things, boat handling and boat speed, fitness and skills in strategy and tactics, but mental preparation and training is often underrated. After a poor start, it is easy to get distracted and as we all know, often it is difficult to recover especially in certain conditions (a 10 knot non-shifting sea-breeze?), but thinking about how you blew the start or losing your cool will certainly not help. Our response to these situations is a learned one that needs practising – it doesn’t happen automatically (at least for most of us). As well as distraction management during a race, we need to manage expectations between races. Most top athletes will try to focus on performance rather results, but we need to know ourselves. For me, I know I have a natural tendency to do well after a poor performance, but less well after a good performance and I need to manage that. Others derive confidence from a good performance, finding it easier to replicate it.
Snippets:
The RYA and British Sailing Team are looking for an ILCA6 coach. See here for more information
There are 13 Grands Prix in 6 regions in Sept and Oct
The second autumn Qualifer is at WPNSA which is also Masters event (entries will open 20th September 2023)
The final qualifer at WPNSA will feature a separate series and start for girls/women in the ILCA4 - it is an open event (entries will open 20th September 2023)
There’s open training in Wales and WPNSA at Oct half term and then the Inlands at Draycote and the Masters Inlands at Grafham.
Nationals Youtube report ILCA6 and ILCA4/ILCA7