Asymmetrics - Picking it up when it's going wrong

How to keep your head screwed on when it doesn't go your way

When it comes to 49er racing, Peter Greenhalgh’s lucky number seems to be 7 – 7th at last year’s Worlds, 7th at last year’s Europeans, and a not so lucky 7th at last weekend’s open meeting at Rutland Sailing Club. In fact, following his runners-up position at the JJ Giltinan Trophy crewing in the 18-footer for brother Rob, Peter and 49er helm Alister Richardson haven’t had the best beginning to this all-crucial season to decide British Olympic selection. So it seems appropriate for Peter to talk about the importance of retaining a positive mental attitude at all times in skiff racing.

Getting back on the horse
It would be easy to get down about our recent performances in Cadiz and Rutland, but it would serve no purpose whatsoever. Alister and I are disappointed with the way we’ve gone lately, but not disheartened. If we have a strength, it is to be able to look on the bright side of things, even through the tough patches.


Taking the knocks, part of the game

Skiff racing, like many sports, is a lot about form, and the tiniest things – a slight change in how you gybe, or just missing out a few gusts here and there – can make an enormous difference to your end result. The important thing is not to let those little dips in form affect your whole outlook. It’s a confidence thing.

With the thing we’re going through at the moment, it would be easy to let our confidence slip, but we’ve got to look on the bright side of things. We know what we’ve got to do, and the best thing to do in this type of situation is get back on the horse. You have to accept that you can’t sail brilliantly all the time, it’s really a question of being positive through the downs.

Next weekend we have another meeting at Queen Mary, and we’ll practise prior to the event and make the manoeuvres smoother, iron out some of the inconsistencies from Rutland. The other thing I’ll do is run back through our past performances in light winds when we’ve won races in world-class fleets – at Kiel Week, Sydney International Regatta – and remind myself of what it felt like when we’ve smoked through fleets in light winds. Whilst our recent performances have shown us performing better in the strong winds, there was a period when the only time we scored good results was in the light winds, so we have a track record across all conditions from which to draw confidence.

If you are still very much in the learning curve and don’t have the luxury of a track record to gain your confidence from, then the answer is practice, practice, practice. And the next time you score a personal best in your weakest conditions, make a point of remembering what you did right. It’s too easy when you’re self-coaching to dwell on what went wrong – which certainly is important – but make sure you give yourself and your team mate some credit when you do things right.

Being honest with yourself – and others
Skiffs more than any other type of boat, rely on good teamwork, so you have to be able to talk frankly with yourself and your team mate. But save it until after the race. The last thing you need to do is fall out with each other in the middle of a race. When you’ve got up to four races a day, sometimes you need to chat things through between races, or otherwise have a debrief at the end of the day to talk about how you do things differently to improve.

With Alister and me, when we’ve got a point to make, there’s not much holding back. We’re not terribly tactful, there’s not a lot of beating about the bush on our boat. Remember that it’s often good to use a bit of humour and banter to make a serious point.

Look at the bigger picture
In skiff racing, the gains and losses can be big, and they can happen in the blink of an eye. The important thing is to keep a level head when it is happening to you. If things start going against you, it’s important to keep a lid on your emotions, because if you let it get to you, it’s easy to lose even more.

You’ll sail much better if you can keep your eye on the bigger picture, and remember that typically in a 49er championship there is anything up to 24 races across the week. So if you chip, chip away at the opposition – aiming to pick off one boat at a time - rather than trying to roll the dice all the time for the big win, you’re much more likely to profit by the end of the championship.

You can do a lot to keep each other on the boil, rather than boiling over. This is one of the strengths that Alister and I have, that we get on as well as we do. We’re good mates, and when you’re in it for the long haul, as you inevitably are for an Olympic campaign, that counts for a lot. That’s not to say you have to be best mates, because there are other teams that disprove that theory. You can make it to the top and be unhappy too! But given the choice between sailing with a super-talented sailor or a good sailor that you get on really well with, I’d select the latter. Because it’s not normally the most talented sailors that end up winning the medals – it’s the ones that keep it all together through the good and the bad times.


A case of 'Always look on the bright side..'

You can read an interview with Alister and Pete, here.

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