May 19 2009
Psyche of Sailing
[Ed. Note - We welcome Tim Warrhol to SLSailing.Com as a regular columnist. He's new to SL, he's a very fast learner, and he is a great sailor both in RL and in virtual seas. He hits the street running with his first column and promised not only to be a fun read, but to teach a lot of us some good lessons along the way (between the stories of his newbie experiences.]
It is always intriguing to me when someone new comes to a community; whether it be in real life, second life, or any other life. Some come in and quietly blend with the community, some come and fade away, while others come with a fire storm. Three weeks ago some of you had probably never met Tim Warrhol, but sneaking in and blending has never been my style. Especially when it comes to sailing. Mark has asked me to start this column as a result of my tendency to enter a room with my feet stomping and my constant search for involvement. Now that the 2009 Fizz Cup is well underway, I don’t feel that I need to introduce myself by making some big production. I was delayed in writing this first editorial, and in hindsight I am glad. Prior to “The Cup,” I had only entered a single race in SL. The experience so far has been one of the best ever. I feel that now I have some background to write about, because in my own little world, my favorite topic is winning. Everybody wants to win, says they will win, but yet often you see the same few people winning all the time. The boat, the course, and the wind never seem to matter. Ever wonder why? What lies deep within your own mind is the answer.
There is a psychology to winning in sailboat racing regardless of whether it is real life or Second Life, and the principles always remain the same. As with most sports or games, mental preparation is the first step to winning anything. If you’re not confident in your own ability to win, you simply won’t. It’s important to always strive towards eliminating confidence busters such as, “I cant get boat speed like he does…” or “She knows how to use the rules better.” Things like speed, rules, strategy, and tactics are easy to overcome with frequent and good practice. As an example, for the opening round of the Fizz Cup, I new I would be disadvantaged as a new sailor and proceeded to sail the course nearly 100 times before the first event. Come race time, I didn’t have to think about the course and my mind was focused on the race at hand. It is not so easy to apply your knowledge in a pressure situation so you can only fall back on what you have practiced. Your practice becomes your reality and good practice becomes good reality. A real life sailor once said this about confidence and preparation:
“Sailboat racing has often been called a game of psychology, a game that the most confident and determined players will win. This is especially true in stronger winds, where a racer too timid to make the right move has no chance of winning, and will have a better chance of capsizing. Any sailor who has prepared himself and his equipment properly and has practiced enough to be confident, has as good a chance as anyone else on the race course. Good psyche is the ability to concentrate on the race and the conditions without being intimidated by them”. – Gregg Fisher
Have you ever lived this scenario? Your well into the lead and you are jumping up and down in your chair because you are about to slam dunk the best sailor in your fleet. Approaching the upwind buoy, you know you are on the layline and it is going to be tight. “Oh no I’m not going to make it” you say and in an attempt to save yourself last minute you turn up sharply, your boat stalls, and you hit the buoy. By the time you do your penalty and return the boat to course and speed, that skipper you never beat is long gone. Consider for a moment that you have just done yourself in by your own mind. In almost every sailing fleet around the world there exists what some may call a “pecking order,” and most skippers truly come to believe in that order and struggle to improve more than 1 or 2 places. Olympic sailors describe the phenomenon as “doing better than your mental image of your position in the fleet.” So you start screwing up. The scenario mentioned earlier, was it really accidental that it happened?
So why do the same sailors win time and time again. Well it’s these simple psychologies that exist and the skippers may not even know they are doing it, but I bet my best Linden they do. 1. Visualize yourself as a winner and never lower your expectations to match your ability. If you want to win, make constant adjustments to improve you knowledge and skill. 2. Never subscribe to the “Pecking Order” and you will never exceed your own expectations. 3. Last but not least have fun and relax! A mind that is in a calm state will always execute more precisely than one that is nervous or fearful.
See you all at the races!
