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Teambuilding for match race teams

Maybe you wonder why I’m writing about teambuilding for match racing teams. Probably the correct title would be: how much more can you improve teamwork.
Since we all saw the Alinghi team working as one perfect team during the America’s Cup, at least in the 2003 Cup, everybody knows that you require a high level of teamwork to perform in a boat.

Imagine now you get engaged by two top match race teams to improve their teamwork. As an example a normal good crew on a 30 foot boat takes about 15 -20 seconds to hoist the spinnaker, those guys sailing in the top 50 and 30 of the world ranking list do it in less than 12 seconds and they are not happy.

Therefore it is quite a challenge to support these 2 teams, what kind of advice would you give them, how do you advise them on areas to improve without compromising the already high level of teamwork?

The main area for improvement that I helped them to apply was communication between the team and the decision making processes. This can be applied on an overall tactical level but also in, for example, the hectic pre-start period.

The learning curve is never over and there is always room to improve, which is clear after such a training session.

We divided the training into 3 main steps:

• Assessment: Know your strengths and weaknesses
• Agreement: Of the strengths and weaknesses
• Improvement: Apply this new knowledge

At the end the spinnaker came up in less than 10 seconds which was an improvement but the major change was in the communication between the team, there was almost no shouting on board, they all knew what they had to do and how to talk to each other.

You may ask yourselves why is communication so important? Imagine you are sitting in a meeting with 20 knots of wind and big waves crashing over the table. How do you make joint decisions in no time often without clear communication channels, but be working seamlessly and instinctively as a team with the same goals and desired outcomes? That’s where teamwork comes into play.

Sailing, like many team sports, can be an excellent tool for focusing attention on teamwork. If there is a misunderstanding about roles and responsibilities you find out within seconds, not days, weeks or even possibly months later as often demonstrated in the business world.

Today I will join the Swiss Sailing Team in Magglingen and we will spend a 2 days and talk about rules. After several discussions with sailors involved in the Olympic selection, Swiss and some of other Nationalities we realized the knowledge of the medal race details (Addendum Q) is quite poor even among some the top world class sailors aspiring for a medals at the games.

Interesting fact considering that federations and sailors invest a lot of recourses to get sailors to the medal race, and once they are there the hardly understand the rules of the game. Some months ago I was involved with a similar session for another Olympic sailing team, we did the ISAF medal race Quiz which contains about 20 questions. Most of the sailors got right from 7 to 13…..

Normal racing rules will also be discussed and for sure will also talk about rule 42, I think it’s becoming a bit of an emotional issue. The rule 42 is clearly described however there is still some room for interpretation and some judges go harder on the subject as others which may create a bit confusion.

It’s a great way to work with sailors and learn more about their concerns and point of view , will be really curious what will be the key lesson learned for them and me.

Jürg