As a result over the years we have run "self help" training weekends, as well as hired in top coaches (Mark Rushall vvvvgood, Jim Hunt vvvgood), run tuning weekends (Charlie Cumbley vvvvgood, Jim Hunt vvvgood) and Rules weekends (Chris Atkins vvvvgood).

Whilst the training has been Solo specific and paid for by the fleet, we have also seconded our coaches to the Cadet classes for a Saturday morning session, which has been inspiring.

There is a very open relationship between the front and back of the fleet, everyone knows that they can chat with anyone to get advice on how to set the boat up, how to sail it aand how to sail around our harbour.

The effect is that a number of our fleet members have closed up with the front of the fleet when racing, and our drop out rate is negligable.  We regularly get between 15 and 30 Solos club racing.

The above has been acheived by self help, rather than any RYA initiative.

The club also runs a ladies that launch session on a Tuesday for all types of boat, the effect is that we now have a significant number of ladies sailing Lasers, Solos and Streakers.

The RYA have supported this later initiative in terms of helping obtain grants from Sport England for our fleet of Club Boats.

The RYA were also extremely helpful with regard to us obtaining Inspired Facilities Grants for our Changing Rooms.

I strongly believe that in any other sport we would expect coaching facilities, but coaching is not readily available in our sport, we tend to do all of our practice while racing.  

Tim Kerrison identified this as one of the areas that could be improved in the traditional approach to cycle racing, in Bradley Wiggins book he stated that traditionally cyclists turned up to the early events of the year and expected to work their way to fitness whilst Matthew Syed points to the need for 10,000 of purposeful practice in his excellent book Bounce.

Maybe posters could use this thread to share their experiences of coaching, and point toward good "pay for the day" coaches that can be brought in to improve the overal experience.

the current  RYA offering  offers  'white badge' and 'blue badge' race training courses in the adult  syllabus  instead of just  the old level 4   which was  effectively red badge ...  that seemed to be a bit of a gap in the old  days of the G4/88 and g4/93 schemes ( showing my age now)

WTF!

It's worth noting that a decent club racer can do a two day Club Race Coach course for around £70 and learn lots of useful on the water exercises as well as get training in delivering feedback, briefing, session planning etc.  Even if you aren't the best sailor in the club you can still be a good coach if you know how to put sessions together and can communicate with people.  We're all great armchair sailors because it's so much easier to see what's going wrong when you're watching, and sometimes that's as much as a coach needs

All I was suggesting is that we have brought Guru's into our club to improve handling, tactics, rules and boat speed.  We have done this in house in the past, but I would suggest that known names such as Rushall, Cumbley and Cockerell will ensure a good turnout.

The benefit is increased turnouts in our one design club Solo fleet.  Although it would be great if this were delivered by the RYA it does not need to be, none of our sailors are looking for badges or certificates, they just want to sail faster.

G4 is/was the code forthe RYA dinghy training logbook  which  held the sign offs for components and  where your certificates for the levels  when they   were levels 1 -5  were stuck 

Interestingly many centres ( regardless of status) ran the G4 scheme for all -I think the  youth start sailing and advanced sailing levels  were more of an NSSA thing although the qualifications were RYA  accredited .

/88 and /93 refers to the 1988 and 1993 revisions of the document 

G11 was the equivalent for the  youth scheme 

 In the 1990s there was a single 'racing' qualification in the 'adult scheme  - level 4  this is roughly  what is currently branded as 'Start Racing' in both the adult and youth schemes 

 The youth scheme of the 1990s had three  levels of 'Start sailing' beginners courses  covering levels 1 and 2  of the adult scheme  and then  3 levels of  Advanced sailing 'seamanship'  type training  ( covering material in levels 3 and 5  of the adult  scheme) ( red , white and blue  badges) and 3 levels of  race traing the red, white and blue badges 

G11 red racing  badge  was similar to G4 level 4 and the current 'Start Racing' 

G11 white racing badge was in line with the  current  'intermediate'   race training package

G11 blue racing badge wasin line with the  current  'advanced'   race training package

at that  time there wasn't any formalised race training  for the adult syllabus  beyond  level 4  

 In the youth side beyond Blue badge you'd be looking at  the official 'winter training'  for the youth classes  and the top performers there invited to / remaining in ( if still young enough)  the National Squads 

Buying in a top coach can be really beneficial; the Supernova Class recently brought in Tim Anderton ( Bart's Bash event manager) for a superb day's coaching.

badges - for adults?  Seriously....  

I think you are missing the point  somewhat.  the aim for the   racing training scheme is not about badges or carrots  it's about getting meaningful hours on the water  and  the opportunity to do lots of purposeful activity -  it doiesn;t matter   about conditions although a mix across the time you spend on the course  is useful  - also by doing the  the 22  race training / boat handling exercises that  used to appear in the dinghy coaching handbook  you  have  defined outcomes to work towards you can do dozens of of starts , mark rounding  etc in a short  period of time  as well as  improving  boat handling techniques 

it will depend on your students  - level 2  has never tried to produce fast  or technically good  sailors ,'just' safe sailors who can sail indepdently  in moderate condtions . 

that's the starting point you have to assume for new racers 

as another poster has pointed out   it is relatively straightforward to get the level 2  coach training  if you have suitably  experienced  sailors who wish to do it  and for  'Start racing'  and 'intermediate ' levles  if you have  among your trainers  people with a good regional record and/'or  some national tinware  the  'extra' level of skill and knowledge is probably there  and alot will hinge on their  teaching / coaching / mentoring abilities 

at the 'advanced'  ( youth blue badge of old) and 'beyond advanced' (what  youth did/ does at 'winter training / Squad selection' is where  wanting the  truely fast ferrets of the world  on the coaching team comes into it;s own  as the  those who take and develop the skills taught at this levle are the ones who will be looking  to  the tinware locally / regionally and putting in decent perofrmances at  the national level - the key factor really being how much time  they  are prepared to put in )

there is  at present  a structure  which supports  staged  race training  for both youth and adult sailors 

this is an improvement over the position of the not so distant past ( although this more a point for the  'what have the RYA ever done for us'  thread)  where there wasn;t  a great deal of adult  race training activity between G4 scheme  level 4 and  'elite' 

 to a greater or lesser degree until you are are the 'intermediate'  level  WRT race training  bringing  in an external  big name is  possibly  excessive ( but  if you cvan afford  it why the hell not) ,  in the deep dark past of my  experience of race training  as a youth  i'm quite sure my intermediate / white badge   course would have been just as useful without  the presence of JERS  but it was  nice to have the input of the king ferret ...

the presence of the bigger names  was useful at Winter training  - but at that point   credibiliy  = tinware = credibility  ( virtuous circle) 

there's three aspects to good race training 

1. make the boat go fast 
2. put the boat in the right place 
3. integration of 1+2 above 

I've deliberately  put it in that order  as  significant parts of 1  come first 
if you  boat is not set up to a reasonable 'norm'  of base settings  for the crew mass  it takes an exceptional level of 2 and 3 to perform 

as a not officially an AI because they didn't  exist  at the time , I could generally out pace  99% of learners even level 2 to 3 improvers in a topper despite being ' over weight ' for a topper - because i'd hads thousands of hours on the water by that point  across maybe a dozen different classes ( but significant hours in topper, raser ladial and standard  rig laser) and could sail by 'feel' -  the unconciously competent  stage of the 4 stage  model of skills .


i should also point out at this point i hold an NQF level  6 teaching and assessing award  and have been involved in teaching and assessing  in a variety of 'workplace' settings including  emergency care , acute hospitals and the logistics  industry 

I don't think many people who race are bothered by badges or certificates, they simply want to get out and race, and enjoy ad hoc training or class training when it is available.