University of Brighton     Tim Randall

Expertise and High Performance

Performance Development in Dinghy Sailing in the United Kingdom

1 Introduction

Dinghy racing in the United Kingdom is held at club, regional, national and international levels.  Sailing clubs are available throughout the United Kingdom and membership is open to all.  Entry at club level typically occurs in childhood, following in parents’ footsteps.  Some club sailors enter the sport in later years during youth or adulthood.  Sailing schemes recognised by the Royal Yachting Association (RYA), the National Governing Body for sailing, teach practical sailing techniques and an introduction to basic dinghy racing.  The RYA racing award schemes are practical with on the water training, supporting lectures and demonstrations ashore.  Courses are conducted by RYA certified instructors at clubs and sailing schools. 

The majority of dinghy sailors participate at club level.  As the standard of competition rises through area, national, international and Olympic competition the numbers participating decreases.  At national and international levels there is at any time only one national or world champion or Olympic gold medallist per class.  Elite World and Olympic sailors may be funded by grants allocated by the RYA or corporate sponsorships from national and global businesses.  Between the club sailors and the elite internationals are national champions operating with skills and performance levels ahead of club sailors but less advanced than the elite core.  

Future elite sailors typically start sailing in early childhood.  They probably commence sailing as a fun activity before becoming interested in racing, demonstrating some potential and with parental encouragement, develop precocious skills from a young age.  Good coaching is acknowledged by the RYA as essential to the success of training and development of high skills. The best young sailors are selected to RYA youth squads for skill development and preparation for area, regional, national and international competitions.  RYA squad membership is motivational and gives status to young people.   Squad members are introduced to the benefits of coaching for improving skills and the concept of self-development.  Each squad member takes personal control of their own development goals.  They train hard and time spent in practice and preparation for competitions would preface rising levels of performance and commitment to reaching the peak levels of sailing. 

2 Progression and Development in Sailboat Racing

Coaching and training aids rapid improvements in performance and broader experience is gained from contact with other expert young dinghy sailors.

The best young people have a strong desire for improvement, a commitment to personal performance and process goals and the extensive practice required to attain the goals.  The most expert youth dinghy sailors race against ever more skilful opponents and progress to adult dinghy classes coincidentally with their maturation and physical development.  The sub-divisions of sailboat racing cater for most physical sizes so that maturation is a contingency but not a limitation on progression and development.  The best young sailboat racers can progress to the RYA’s Skandia GBR Olympic Development Squad and the ‘World-Class’ Performance programme.  The ‘World-Class’ Performance programme supports the development of elite sailing athletes and those with the potential to win premier international regattas and Olympic medals.  Elevation to this level brings with it support from top coaches, the RYA’s Olympic management team, and funding facilitated and administered by the RYA.  Full-time involvement as part of the ‘World-Class’ Performance programme is a strong indicator of future success in Olympic sailboat racing.

3 Attaining Peak Performance

Empirical studies have shown that generally the highest levels of performance in sport are attained by individuals at particular ages. In vigorous sports the age range for peak performance is narrow and occurs mainly in the twenties.  Interestingly, the age ranges for the highest achievers in activities involving fine motor skills and predominantly cognitive activities (a feature of the skills of sailing) are much more variable with the highest occurrence typically in the thirties or even forties.  Differences in the age of peak performance implicate the important role of preparation.

Research has indicated the necessity for preparation for those with the desire and potential to improve their performance.  As a general rule about ten years of preparation is necessary for those seeking to attain high performance at international level.  According to this ‘10-year rule’ of necessary preparation, not even the most ‘talented’ individuals can generally attain international performance in less than 10 years of preparation.  The majority of international-level performers have spent considerably longer in preparation.  It is recognised that child prodigies can attain international performance relative to other children of comparable age, but the very best performers are usually adults.  It is not sufficient however merely to attain 10 years of relevant experience in order to achieve international performance.

Intense preparation is inferred from gradual increases in performance.  Performance levels in dinghy racing are generally described and understood by results achieved in competition. On this basis, levels of individual performance are measured by the standard of competition and the results achieved by those participating.

4 Stages in preparation for expert performance

Rising levels of performance are mediated by a desire to improve and develop in stages as ability increases and preparations continue.  Athletes with the ability and determination to attain peak international performance would typically spend many years in intensive preparation, working with coaches who had acquired that level of performance or had coached others at that level.

The few participating at the elite levels of performance and international competition will have mastered most of the skills their coaches are able to teach them.  It can be expected therefore, that generally there are common levels of expertise between Olympic sailors and that areas of improvement for peak performance will vary from one individual to another.  Elitists customise practice to hone their particular skills for superior performance and have an appetite for wider knowledge and skills.  They can be expected to spend significant amounts of time experimenting with activities, techniques and skills to optimise their performance and fitness levels. 

Given that practice can be associated with the acquisition of higher performance, it has implications for dinghy sailors at any level of participation aspiring to raise their performance.

5 The role of practice and preparation in the development for higher levels of performance

At most levels of expertise only modest improvements in performance can generally be achieved without acquiring significant new skills and knowledge. 

Those participating at the peak levels of dinghy racing have prepared, trained, practiced and competed over many years.  In contrast the time of the majority of participants in club sailing is spent racing, rarely on practicing skills while not racing.  Many search for technical improvements such as new sails, changing or re-tuning the rig, ultimate traveller settings etc., but it is unlikely that such limited technical refinements will achieve any significant improvement in performance.  Consequently most reach a position early on where performance levels off and continues only at a similar level, neither improving nor declining to any significant extent, regardless of the length of racing experience attained.  The degree of experience in dinghy racing is thus a weak indicator of future improvement in performance, while preparation through training and practice has been shown to be a strong predictor of future improvement of performance.

Whilst preparation through training and practice is recognised as a strong predictor of future improvement of performance and the degree of experience is a weak indicator, the two are mutually important under the pressures of competition.  Intensive preparation when combined with lengthy experience enables top experts to perform at optimum level in key situations.

To understand the meaning and role of training and practice, it is helpful to reflect on empirical work by K Anders Ericsson, Krampe & Tesch-Romer, reported in Psychological Review, 1993.  Ericsson et al indicated that the most effective training and practice is arranged around well defined tasks with a degree of difficulty appropriate to an individual with informative feedback and opportunities for repetition and correction of errors.  When all these elements are presents Ericsson et al used the term ‘deliberate practice alone’ to characterise training and practice activities.

When these criteria are applied to the most common activities in many sports, it can be found that the majority of active participants spend little if any time on deliberate practice alone.  In sailing, participants spend most of their time racing.  Although races offer some opportunities for learning, they are far from optimal for improving performance.  During races individuals rely on well entrenched methods rather than exploring others outside of their comfort zone with unknown reliability.  In these circumstances, an individual racing in strong winds who, say, gybes and capsizes could take part in many races before again having to gybe in similar conditions and the chance of another capsize remains high.  Another individual may lose places and distance on the reaching legs in race after race and is likely to continue sailing the reaches in the same way with the same result.  In contrast a coach could give countless opportunities in a single lesson to gradually improve gybing manoeuvres, or to experiment with different ways of sailing reaching legs and perfect them with many repetitions and correction of errors. 

As a further recognition of the difference between competing and effective learning - individuals are released from the pressures of competitive obligations during training and coaching sessions and free to make and correct mistakes.

Deliberate practice alone is an effective means of learning for improving performance.  In terms of deliberate practice alone a training activity is where the goals and training tasks are designed between an individual and a coach and monitored by the coach.  A good coach will ensure training tasks are designed and adapted to the specific needs and skills of individuals and that after each coaching session individuals go away and practice those tasks in their own time to acquire new skills.  The individuals return to the coach for an evaluation of performance, any corrections and the setting of new tasks.  A good coach having established the present performance level of an individual will gradually broaden existing skills and knowledge and introduce new skills in order that the individual can progress.  This process of deliberate practice alone with assistance from expert coaches would help participants in club and higher level racing who aspire to raising their performance by gaining the new skills needed.  Time spent practicing in this way could enhance the enjoyment of their racing as well as their performance.

The amount of time spent on practising, the excellence of performance and results attained in competition, are measurable aspects of expertise.  The top experts are identified in terms of their performances.  Elite performers set standards that are aspired to by lesser experts.  Standards of excellence tend to cascade outwards from the centre of excellence.  Performances and practice regimes are reported in the media and observed at source by those participating in sailboat racing and imitated by others. 

Empirical work has indicated how experts across different sporting domains train for improved performance. Those participating at club level and wishing to improve would typically spend up to two hours per week in deliberate practice alone.  Those participating at area level could be expected to spend 4-6 hours per week practicing, at national level 6-10 hpw and at international level 20-30hpw.  In many sports considerable research has been conducted to establish how experts practice within a domain.  Training methods generally include practicing activities, physical training, mental training, watching DVD’s, reading books and articles and time spent in reflection and visualisation.  Practice for performance can be alone, with others, with coaches, domain related or every day activities such as relaxation and nutrition.  Top experts in dinghy racing might be expected to work with a coach and on their own practicing their skills, tasks, activities, techniques, tactics, two boat tuning, and boat handling; physical fitness; maximisation of water, wind and weather conditions; boat preparation and tuning; mental rehearsal and reflection; reading yachting articles and journals; watching sailing and participating in professional conversation. 

From extensive experience in dinghy racing, experts acquire large stores of knowledge that they are able to access while racing to solve familiar problems rapidly and intuitively.  The better sailors are able to recognise key features of situations that develop in a race relating, for example, to previously applied strategies or tactics, wind, tide or weather conditions, angles of other boats.  They can visualise a given situation by recognition of the appropriate cue and instantly access information from memory that is relevant to it.  The recalled information is processed rapidly to solve current problems and opportunities by recollecting what happened in the past, the action taken and the outcome.  The information is then modified to react to the current situation. 

The capacity to solve problems of familiar type rapidly and without explanation is difficult to analyse and for coaches to teach.  Generally however it may be explained as a product of the training and experience of top experts and attained mental skills of reflection and visualisation.  An expert sailor will instantly recognise the nature of a problem, classify it and solve it in one move.  A novice presented with the same problem may miss its significance or initially classify it wrongly and slowly and thereby apply inappropriate solutions.  Having failed to resolve the problem, the novice may re-classify it and find a different solution, but in racing terms the error and delay could be costly. 

It is for coaches to raise awareness of the importance of problem recognition and the need to accurately and rapidly classify and resolve them.  A slight weakness of coaching for sailing is that much teaching tends to focus on motor and technical skills in a sport where there is a strong perceptual-motor skills dimension.  It is important to be able to look at what is happening outside of the boat and to learn to be aware of situations and other boats.  For example, sailing to windward you are headed, is it - 1) an oscillating wind 2) a wind bend 3) a change in wind pressure 4) the onset of a new wind 5) gas from another boat or 6) something else?  Clearly the accurate classification of the problem and the solution to it is important!

Although it is well known how top experts in dinghy racing practice, little is known generally as to what they practice.  Research is needed to clarify what expert sailors practice.

6 Conclusion

Performance development of participants in dinghy racing generally commences at a young age.  Child prodigies are encouraged by parents, youth Class Associations and the RYA.  Development of precocious children is based on a squad system, strongly supported and managed, a common purpose and the acquisition of expert performance.  The squad system is mediated by the best young sailors, top coaches, years of preparation, deliberate practice alone and international competition.  Those progressing through the transitional development squads organised and supported by the RYA and partner class associations are most likely to attain peak levels of performance in international competition. 

Participants at the highest international levels of dinghy racing prepare and practice to acquire and develop optimum levels of expertise essential for success.  The highest levels of performance are attained over at least 10 years of intense preparation.  The strongest indicator of participants likely to improve performance is a willingness and motivation to learn new skills by undertaking deliberate practice alone.  In sailboat racing, there is clear evidence of individuals representing the United Kingdom in Olympic competition having undertaken such intense preparation and practice.   

Those participating in sailboat racing with lower levels of expertise tend to focus on racing and the enjoyment of participation.  Less time is spent in preparation and practice for improved performance.  Skill levels and experience are sufficient to ensure enjoyment of racing, but lengthy experience alone is insufficient to ensure any significant improvement of performance.  Most in the sport thus remain at a level of skill attained relatively early in their participation. 

The higher the level of performance the more certain it will be that participants engage in deliberate practice alone to prepare for optimal performance.  Few data are available as to the nature of the practice activities of expert sailboat racers and research is needed to clarify what they practice.  

10.02.09