laser expert train

Laser coaching - for the top of fleet

LASER COACHING DAY (The activators are active) Link to short video (22/5/10)

The latest in a series of coaching days for Laser sailors was held at the club on Saturday 15th May.

Having already held several days for the novice/ intermediate sailors, this time it was the turn of the '1st string'.

We were fortunate to have been able to book James Gray who is arguably the top Laser coach in the country . James works for the RYA and, amongst other projects, is currently coaching Olympic hopefuls in the national youth radial squad. James is currently one of the top 5 UK Laser sailors.

To enable participants to gain maximum instruction the course was limited to just 13 sailors, with the invites going to the top 13 from last years points series.

The day kicked off with a 9.30 briefing. Everyone out on the water by 10 and going into a simple windward/leeward course to enable James to take a look at everyones rig settings.

It was then into starting techniques incorporating control of boat speed and power off the line. Maybe around 20 such starts resulted in huge improvements with everyone becoming more and more competitive. The morning session rounded off with several short races in a strengthening breeze.

The afternoon session concentrated on downwind sailing and mark rounding. James set up several exercises for everyone to practice big fast bear aways, resulting in some spectacular capsizes!Leech control was the key to fast downwind sailing with massive improvements quite visible from my dry berth in the coach boat! With some nice gusts coming through the race course it was exciting stuff to watch.

To round off the day everyone used their new found skills to good use in a couple of longer races and then it was back to shore for a lengthy debrief incorporating some great video footage.

The feedback I have had is that the course was very informative and extremely well put across. The day was well paced keeping everyone busy. James made a point of including everyone and spent individual time with each sailor on the water. I think everyone came away having learn t new skills and the general opinion is that we want him back! So, thanks go to James for a job well done.

ACTIVATE

As most of you know this is the year of ACTIVATE YOUR LASER. This is principally aimed at getting those boats and Laser sailors who 'don't do much' by way of encouragement, help and training. We have held two full coaching days with this in mind and continue to give assistance to sailors on Tuesdays and Saturdays. And we have run this course for the already activated.

My next step is to bring both groups together for a Saturday morning session of one to one mentoring. More details will be emailed to our Laser group shortly. This will be our ultimate push to get everyone out on the water and to get a shot at winning the prize of having Paul Goodison spend a day with us!

Good sailing, Tim

We hope to have DVD available to copy from Tim at weekend