Busselton Training Weekend

A long weekend down the South West of WA, Watching the Dockers in the Grand Final, a day of sailing and coaching then an evening debrief with a great meal and a coaching seminar. This was an excellent way to spend a long weekend.

Before the re-cap, many thanks to the coaches, Ron Jensen, Kayne Binks and Scott Olsen. 

Also many thanks to Brendon Green for trailing his powerboat down for the weekend, and to Jim Mahoney for the video footage from the day and again to Ron and Scott who used their personal boats as coach boats for the day.

Travelling down on the Saturday to get there in time for the start of the Footy was a relaxed start to the weekend. Some Tasar sailors watched the Footy at the Yacht club, others watched at their accommodation, but unfortunately Freo could not recover from their slow start to silence the West Coast fans (Strangely supporting the Hawks).

9am Sunday a briefing was held before two demonstrations onshore showing the tacking sequence, the pole launching and gybe sequence.

This set us up for our first session. Sailing around a windward Leeward course the three coaches following the fleet of 7 around the course. The coaches rotated around working with individual boats as they sailed around the course assisting the boats with improving the skills and developing the techniques learnt onshore. 

Lunch was called just after 11 and everyone headed to shore and tried to not freeze..

1pm, back on the water. The afternoon session was commenced by a series of short races.

3 minute start sequence with the boats confined to a box behind the start line to make the boats jostle for position. The starting practice was great, position your boat on the line to take advantage of the favoured end, and also to be able to take advantage of the first shift.

Initially we were sailing windward returns, then once we were all starting a bit better the box was removed and a wing mark was laid. This format was backed up by the coaches again rotating around the fleet, guiding the boats with techniques through tacks, gybes set and drops.. Then we started sailing triangle, sausage courses. There were multiple races with minimal time between starts, this meant lots of practice in the pre-start and plenty of first works. The racing was really close and competitive which emphasised the importance of a good start.

After the sailing we packed up our boats before everyone reconvened at Ron Jensens' house for an evening meal, debrief and seminar. The seminar was an excellent addition to the days sailing. Some of the skills we had been working on during the day were reinforced in the presentation. We also reviewed the video footage which is a great way of highlighting what the coaches were trying to emphasise on the water. There were also some great examples and case studies to show everyone for where we can improve next time. There was so much to take away from the weekend. The boost in skills from each boat, the improvement over the day. Then the relaxed evening, nice meal, great company and excellent knowledge shared to all.

The whole weekend with the coaching and racing, 3 of the best coaches in WA, 2 comprehensive on water session and an extensive debrief and seminar to top it off was a great success..

Many thanks to TAWA for organising the event, the coaches and all those who attended for making such a fun few days.