First week of practice/Bus/Spring Break

We just completed our first week of practice in a variety of conditions (Tuesday was a very windy/puffy Southwesterly, Wednesday saw less than 2kts, and Thursday was a strong Northeasterly). We mixed up parings for this week to help get the less experienced people on the right track to start the season. Our practices were geared towards alot on boathandling, doing circle drills, follow the leader, cone drill, etc. Starting next week we will begin working on pairings for our qualifier regattas.

We were lucky to have Patrick Richards, NT alum and current Wisconsin sailor, attend practice this past Thursday. At the end of practice we had Patrick talk to the kids about the difference he has seen between high school and college sailing, what a typical college practice is like at Wisconsin, and some of the things he thought our sailors needed to improve upon. His three highlights for short course dinghy racing were confidence, starts, and boathandling. Also, his typical practice really surprised the sailors, were his team comes out and simply circles a mark 50 times and then turns the other way and does 50 more. Simple, repetitive drills to work on the basic mechanics of sailing and boathandling. The more you do things and the harder you work the better you will get.

Lastly, the bus. Arrival time Weds/Thurs was 4:30, which is about the same or earlier than kids have arrived in the past. For Matt and I, this allows us to have everyone arrive and leave at the same time. It also allows us to find out who is coming to practice today and modify the assignments accordingly, as well as makes our on the water time more structured. Another big point Patrick made was the need to get on the water faster. He was the first one dressed and on the water by over 10 minutes. He put it to the team to make a point of making sure you get all the chit chat done on the bus so that when you get to practice it's practice time not social time. I couldn't agree more with him. What we will do as a team from now on is that the last 3 boats on the water everyday will be on boat check and clean up duty.

Enjoy your spring break if your family is traveling. If you're home in IL we'll see you at practice Saturday and next week.

Matt and Frank