Part 2: Coping With Stress While Racing

Watching nationals and other regattas through the spring season rather than participating led me to think seriously about how I deal with stress more consciously, and the mechanisms other sailors use to get around it. I found a lot of it is simple and obvious, but it’s been helpful for me to slow down and really pinpoint the causes of stress when sailing, what it looks like, and how to cope with it. Thinking about this while I’m off the water has helped me develop a more specific coping-style that might be more effective when I start racing again. My previous article focused on how Nationals is more mentally strenuous than other regattas, but this is a list-format on the ways I identify and deal with stress when on the water. This also helped me review a crew’s role when racing, and reminders of what helps or not in tight situations.

 

Some signs that a skipper is nervous is that (s)he:

1. Uses too much tiller
2. Drops the tiller in tacks or tight maneuvering situations
3. Drops the mainsheet or over eases it out of tacks
4. Clenches the main (especially off of the starting line)
5. Points too high
6. Hesitates in simple decisions
7. Tacks too often, especially off of the starting line or in the top 3^rd of the coarse
8. They start saying every word 3 times and/or stutter, like “up, up, up.” Or “goo-goo- good”.
9. A big indicator that I use when I’m in the boat and is obvious to see from land is posture changes. It depends on the person but usually the cue is that a skipper will hunch over more and stay in the boat.

 

Crews are more likely to:

1. Roll too early
2. Miss or almost-miss the hiking straps (I have fallen out of the boat many times, and have seen other All-American level crews do the same just because of nerves)
3. Not notice details, or starts making slower movements and adjustments
4. Fumbling with pulling in the jib sheet, or dropping the jib sheet.
5. Take things to the extreme, boat handling and jib trim because less subtle and its either not enough or too much
6. Depending on the personality, a crew will either start talking a lot more or go silent.
7. In general, I think when a crew is nervous they become less aggressive in the boat. If your jittery I think it’s harder to put real muscle into something, or linger in one place long enough. Basically, it’s harder to take risks.

 

Here are some methods I have used during or before a race to “get into the zone” or recover from bad circumstances:

1. On the way out to the coarse, or before a race visualize the simple things. Having a mental picture of what you want to do makes the easy stuff more natural and lets you focus on more complicated things. For example, if the wind picked up between sets, reminders like “tacking from strap to strap now” help. It also helps to focus on fumbles or little mistakes from the last race, or little, nagging, problems that have recurred through the semester. Some of the time it’s good to talk about these things with the skipper/crew and have a solution. A lot of the time it helps to have both people acknowledge there was a silly mistake, and just make the decision that its not going to happen again.
2. Find a way to regulate nervousness. Everybody always hears that a little bit of nervousness is a good thing, and I think it’s an appropriate observance. Because I have a slow-response system, it usually doesn’t sink in that “this is nationals” until I hear the sequence of the first race. I’ve found that before an important race (usually the first one or two, or tiebreakers, or a last race) I sail best when I get butterflies in my stomach at 1 minute, 30 seconds. If I am nervous I try to hold it off until then, if I’m not then around that time I think thoughts that will psyche me out just a little bit and get it out of the system. A lot of the time doing this keeps me calm and collected by the time the gun goes off.
3. Mistakes happen to everyone. It all boils down to who can recover the fastest and minimizing the impact of mistakes. It totally depends on how big the mistake is and who your sailing with, but both a skipper and crew need to adapt to circumstances and know how to jump back in the game and let things go.
4. No harm, no foul. No matter how little or big the mistake is if you don’t lose significant ground because of it, don’t let it bring you down. A speedy recovery is just as important as doing something outstanding.
5. A common thing for sailors to say is “do one thing at a time.” This is especially important in sailing because so much of the sport is multi-tasking. But mentally it’s not too different from the more common sports term “keep your eye on the ball”. When your hand starts fumbling over something you’ve done a million times before, it helps to just zone out everything except that one thing, and once its done everything else tends to fall into place.
6. Know what to do in case you get into an “off” mode. When one or both people in the boat are a little nervous, things don’t click the way they normally do. No matter who you’re sailing with you can almost expect boat handling to be a little different in the first race or two of nationals. Personally, I like one or two word things to say. Just saying “we’re off” is a step towards getting back to normal. Being specific helps too though, depending on the moment. 
7. An expression I’m not fond of is “one race at a time.” Really what it means is to focus on the present, and not dwell on the past or think about the future. And not to make assumptions before any race. Personally, I need to think about the big picture, but when it starts to distract from racing its important to have a mental cue to snap back into the moment at hand. Switching between being totally focused on the race at hand and other stuff is often like turning on/off a light switch, which for me needs to be balanced.
8. Know who you’re sailing with. Even if you’ve been sailing with someone all year, Nationals can bring out a different side of people that normal racing just doesn’t do.
9. Communication. A lot of coaches and sailors emphasize good skipper/crew communication. At first it’s easy to assume that this means talking a lot. As a crew I definitely err on the side of not talking enough, but for me communication is also a lot of other non-verbal signs… because there’s not always time to say everything aloud. There are two people in the boat, and just small mood swings spread to the other person. Encouragement in some form is always good but if it isn’t sincere, don’t force it. On the other hand negative feedback rarely helps unless there is a realistic way to fix the problem. This doesn’t mean that venting is a bad thing (for guys especially its usually a good motivator and way to stay competitive in tight circumstances) as long as it doesn’t last too long.
10. Overall, I think you have to trust your teammates. This goes for the person you’re sailing with, whoever the 2 boats are in a team race, and the boat sailing the other division of a fleet race. A crew does better when they know the skipper trusts them, and I’m sure vice versa. Among the 2 or 3 boats sailing in a regatta, there needs to be trust also. Some of the biggest team racing mistakes happen when one boat feels like they “have to do it all” and tackle more than can do, while leaving another boat useless.