The Ian Walker Interview - Part 2

Getting fit is a serious business for Ian Walker, as are his concerns over the future of the America's Cup, post-September 11

Ian Walker's prime focus during the early weeks in Auckland is on getting the sailors up to speed, including the latest intake who joined during the last month. Aside from training on ACC boat GBR 44, the sailors are taking it in turns to match race the Challenge’s two Etchells 22. It is a useful learning process, particularly for those who are completely fresh to the sport like the gold-medallist rower - now grinder - Greg Searle.
"We’re really on a massive fitness push at the moment," says Walker. "These next few months are the time when we really need to address our fitness and strength goals, and it should be much easier to focus on that over here.

"The fact is, whatever job you do on these boats, you can always do it better if you’re fitter and stronger. Even the navigator goes on the handles, so the afterguard have to work on the fitness almost as much as the other guys."

The training for the different positions on the boats is highly specific, with the grinders working much harder on their pure upper body strength, while other key positions like the bowmen might work on their agility and flexibility. "Some of the crew are doing yoga sessions," says Walker, "because it is not just about being fit but about avoiding injury too."

Walker talks through a typical week of training for himself: "I’ll do a morning session from 6.15 to 7.45, working on strength on Monday, followed by something like basketball or touch rugby on Tuesday. Then it might be aerobics on Wednesday, circuits on Thursday, a fat burning session on Friday, and a run or weights on Saturday - depending on which part of my body aches the least. Then it’s a day off on Sunday."

He says the squad will be fitter than most Olympic sailors, with the exception perhaps of the singlehanded sailors in the Finn, Laser or Europe. "I know I personally will be a lot fitter than I was for the Games, but that’s not saying much," he admits.



Getting the rowers like Searle and Ian Weighell on the team has been a big bonus on the fitness side, says Walker. "In some ways they are not ideal because in rowing all your power comes from the legs, whereas in grinding it is all upper body strength. But in terms of culture, rowers are very similar to sailors. I don’t know what it is, but there’s a good fit there. We tried people from all sorts of backgrounds - powerlifting and other sports - but the rowers were culturally the best fit."

Walker says the popular view of a grinder as just a meathead is completely wrong. "Fitness and strength are just part of it, but the grinders have quite a complex job. They can run up on to the foredeck to help out there, they’ve got to select the right gear on the winch for the right sail, and they’ve got to know what is going to happen next. They need to be able to pre-empt the helmsman’s next move, especially during the pre-start." This, says Walker, is why it is so crucial to build up the match racing awareness of all the crew through the Etchells sailing.

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