That Extra 2-3%

Self belief is certainly true, and my open meeting results have always been better than my Nationals, mainly because I believe I'm good on small water and crap on the sea.

The upwind downwind thing. Upwind, the speeds are similar, but direction is everything. Downwind, especially in a boat like the 300, speed is going to really count. In a boat where the difference between flat out and quite competent is smaller, then I suspect tactical considerations and mark positioning will be relatively more important.

This is all 20% stuff, though, not 2%.

This is actually a really interesting thread. 

Originally posted by zippyRN  ' in the groove'  or a performance with 'sparkle'   it;s intangible  that comes after you have reached unconscious competence ...   some people never reach that level of  performance they can go through the motions  technically  well but they just don;t seem ot  m get to the bit  where the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts ...  It happens in the perfomance of any skill  whether that;s driving, sailing ,  dancing  or whatever...  It's what  gets the 'advanced' driver  his/her Class 1 / RoSPA  gold ,  it;s what gets the sailor  on the podium / that squad place; It's what get's the dancer the contract or the 'vocational school' place ...

We used to refer to it as being 'In the Zone', Not so sure I'd apply it to advanced driving, more likely to get you banned in a car, it's when everything comes as you anticipate it should, you're on a performance 'high' wether adrenaline or endorphin generated, only time I could artificially induce it would be by getting angry, either at myself for a foolish error or by someone infringing my progress, but once you get in it, you're superhuman, wish I could do it these days. An extreme example coming round the bottom mark 30th on the last beat and still finishing first, can remember it to this day and every shift on Derwent reservoir, the lake district one, I'd been knocked off at the gybe mark and was mad as hell..

There is absolutely not a snowballs chance in hell of me ever getting 'In the Zone' in a dinghy, but I can see guys who do, remember that quote from Ainslie about it being best not to make him mad...

Edited by iGRF - 13 Feb 17 at 11:49am

This thread does have some great comments and information. I used to watch boats "sail through" a fleet wondering how the hell they did that? They weren't sailing any faster or marginally. So what makes up the difference? I believe that it is more than 2-3% more like 10%. If a race lasts 60 minutes, 10% is 6 minutes. Where is that won and lost? Not boat speed, that maybe makes up 1-2 minutes? But starts, tacks, marks and gybes. AKA race management. Making clear, fast decisions, getting out of bad situations and capitalizing on opportunities.

Getting 'through' a fleet is only really er 'easy' if there are fast oscillating shifts and the reason you can do it is very often that far into a race, 'they' are all focussed on each other rather than the main event which is to get round the marks.
So, I tended to clear my head focus just on the next mark and ignore everything and everybody other than that, the mark provides a reference to stay in synch with the particular shift you are on, one must also always remember in these conditions, whatever shift you have, is not necessarily relevant to what others might have on different parts of the course, so you can only deal with what you have. By all means glance at other boat/board groups to ascertain what's going on and wether or not there may be more 'pressure' elsewhere, but fundamentally the mark is where you're going and you need to get there quicker than them, so just aim at it, as close as the wind will allow, on whichever tack that is - simples.

Er a quick qualifier to that, the only reason not to go directly to the mark is if there is significantly more pressure or direction on the horizon, likely to get you there quicker, that you should sail toward.

Edited by iGRF - 14 Feb 17 at 10:27am