Today’s focus will be on starts in light air, and lane holding upwind. At the end of practice, we will come in and debrief. Each team will discuss one gear shifting, and one communication discussion they had and how they practiced it. See below.

Practice for the week:

• Starting preparation
• Lane holding upwind
• Lane holding/finding downwind. Since leaders downwind can be covered, unlike upwind, this is a much different skill, a vital one, and is often overlooked
• normal boat handling work

Each team will work on the following this week, with your partner:

• Shifting gears in changing conditions
  • weight trim (be proactive and work in tandem)
  • sail trim (discuss sail trim out of roll tacks, weather sheeting amount and when to change, changing sail trim to match conditions, etc.)
  • modes. Point mode, foot mode, speed.
• Communication
  • actively discuss this week how/when/when not to communicate. Learn something each day. Be sure when you change partners you figure out how to do the basics right away.
  • Types of communication
    • general strategy
    • coaching during boat handling & sailtrim communication… positive of negative? Examples:  ” OK… hike a little..”    -or-    “SIT OUT NOW”.
    • pre-start
    • boat-to-boat (tactics).  Who does what? When to listen, when to ignore, when to be quiet?
    • roles as a team
    • frustration/anger management