I had a great day down at Gosport today. The wind was shifty and the course a bit one sided but it was a great test of how to avoid missing the major shifts. I avoided most of the pitfalls and the boat speed seemed OK. Thankfully they are not suffering from weed at the present time.
Starting to think through tactical options for the next big event and rehearsing them through videos in the mind. Current sports Psychology says you can achieve as much with mental rehearsal as real practice.
There is a great post in Road to Gold covering this subject, see Here
It talks about how up to 50 percent of your practice can be in the mind and is as effective as 100 percent practice on the water. Don't take my word for it read the paper in the link above. So if you cant get on the water enough of the time you can still train through mental rehearsal.
Thinking about ranking, national and world events, scenarios I am rehearsing are:
Tactics for good speed, average speed
Positioning for Starboard and port bias start lines
How to manage bunching on the start line
Creating a gap for the start
Powering off the line, how do I tune the boat, weather helm, lee helm, perfectly balanced
How do I set up high mode and VMG mode and when should I use it
How do I handle wind bend v wind shifts plus tide
Consider boat set up for flat water, choppy water
How do I handle broken winch, shroud failure, rudder servo replacement, mast failure
Consideration for port bias course, starboard bias course
Round the spreader mark, how do I set up for the run and keep clear wind, which side do I want to prepare for at the leeward mark
Smooth tacking upwind and downwind
I still make fundamental mistakes in crowded fleets so I am hoping the rehearsals might help me in the future.
If you are going to Fleetwood for the IOM ranking, I will see you there.
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