Britain’s Olympic Sailors have a fearsome reputation, and one of their great skills is their ability to focus on the stuff that matters, and cast aside the worries and distractions that bother most sailors. Here are the Six Things that the RYA Olympic coaches get their sailors to work on. Everything else that comes your way, it's just a matter of the right attitude...
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, then maybe your name is Russell Coutts. If it’s not, then read what the three-time America’s Cup winner has to say about keeping calm in a crisis.....
Paige Railey has won the Laser Radial Europeans 2009. This victory means a lot to the American who spent a year of soul-searching, asking some hard questions of herself after losing the US Olympic Trials to Anna Tunnicliffe. Railey is incredibly frank and honest about the changes she has gone through to get back to the top of her game...
Santiago Lange has represented Argentina in five Olympic Games, but it wasn't until his last two outings in 2004 and 2008 that he finally won medals, two bronzes in the Tornado. Maybe this had something to do with his crew, Carlos Espinola, who had already won two windsurfing medals at previous Olympic Regattas. Nothing like having someone there who's been there and done it before. Santiago talks about how some sailors thrive on pressure while others buckle under it, and shares his advice on what young sailors with high hopes should do as they find their way in the sport.
Match racing is a tough win-or-lose game, which makes match racing sailors very good at analysing their races in fine detail. It’s a skill that fleet racing sailors would be well advised to copy...
Elsewhere we’ve talked about the power of incurable optimism. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, such as an realistic expectation (hope?) of how far you are from the start line...