Self-Evaluation

Before heading into any new phase of your sailing career, it’s smart to do a bit of self-reflection. By evaluating your strengths and weaknesses, it’s much easier to identify the path you must take to achieve your goal. Here’s a good story about how this concept applied at a particular regatta, written by David Dellenbaugh and reprinted from Speed & Smarts newsletter.

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Evaluate Your Strengths & Weaknesses

Every once in a while I do something especially careless on the race course and create unnecessary problems for myself. A good example happened during a recent one-design regatta. The weather end of the starting line was favored, and the wind was predicted to shift to the right. So most of the 69-boat fleet decided to start near the committee boat. Not surprisingly, we had many general recalls.

After getting caught in some tight jam-ups during these starts, I had a “great” idea. Why not come in a little late at the committee boat? That way we wouldn’t have to fight the crowd, we didn’t risk being over early, and we’d be able to tack immediately for the favored side of the course. It seemed so logical.

Unfortunately, as we lined up for the next start, it became clear that we were in big trouble. About a dozen boats, who had the same idea I did, were redefining the concept of barging. Half of these got peeled off on the wrong side of the committee boat and came back for a second try; the other half were luffing, dead in the water, at the committee boat’s transom. There was no place to go.

When the gun sounded, we were stuck head to wind, waiting for the traffic jam to clear out. When we finally crossed the line, the front-row starters were crossing well ahead. It wasn’t a pretty picture. And, of course, there was no general recall this time. As we sailed up the first beat, I kept flashing back to our bad start. Wasn’t there something we could have done to avoid this problem? Of course there was!

Several weeks before the regatta, I had sat down and made a list of my own sailing strengths and weaknesses. I did this primarily because I had never before sailed with my two other crewmembers. I figured if I told them all my weaknesses, they could cover those areas. Similarly, if I shared my strongest points, they wouldn’t have to worry so much about those.

I did a very simple exercise: I drew a line down the middle of a piece of paper (it was actually a page in my sailing notebook); on the left side I wrote the heading “Strengths,” and on the right side I put “Weaknesses” (you could be more positive by calling it “Opportunities for improvement”). Then I made two lists as follows:

My Strengths
A strength is something at which you are particularly good. On my list, strengths included such diverse things as match racing, starting in the middle of the line, playing oscillating shifts, and good eyesight for seeing marks. Any skill you have that might help you get around the race course faster than your competition should go on this list.

Listing your strengths is a good way to build, or re-affirm, your own confidence in yourself. It also gives you a useful catalog of your strategic and tactical weapons. Your goal should be to sail each race in a way that allows you to take maximum advantage of your strengths.

For example, in the last race of the regatta after my bad start, we had to beat one other boat to win. Since I’ve had a lot of match racing experience, that tactic was part of our game plan. We didn’t have to use it, but we were ready in case.

My Weaknesses
A weakness is any area of the game where you feel you have a competitive disadvantage. I know, for example, that I’m not very good at going all the way into a persistent shift. I also keep my head in the boat too much, and I get frustrated in very light or fluky wind.

In hindsight, it’s clear to me that almost every problem situation I get into is somehow related to one or more of my weak areas. Identifying these weaknesses is therefore a necessary first step in avoiding future problems.
Making a list of strengths and weaknesses is just the beginning. Once you’ve got your list, here are some things you can do to maximize its usefulness:

1. Read the list before every regatta. Reviewing your strengths will help make you confident and get you psyched up for achieving your potential. Reminding yourself of your weaknesses will help you develop a learning attitude, which is so important to have while racing.

2. Share your list with the other people in your boat, especially if you are sailing with new people. Your team will function more efficiently if everyone can “play to” their strengths and get support in their areas of weakness.
I usually tell my crew, for example, that I am good in tight, tactical situations involving the rules, and they let me handle those situations. I also tell them I don’t always look around enough, so they make sure to keep their heads out of the boat and tell me what’s happening.

3. Make a plan for how you can add to your list of strengths and reduce your list of weaknesses. One of the best things I’ve done in the past is sail with people who are strongest in the areas where I am weakest. Remember, your goal should not always be to avoid your weaknesses while racing. The best way to get rid of them is to attack them head on, and a good time for this is during races that don’t count so much. If you have trouble starting at the leeward end, for example, get in there and fight it out. As they say, practice makes perfect.

4. After each regatta, make any necessary changes to your list.
In theory, making a list of strengths and weaknesses should have prevented the disastrous start I described earlier. Unfortunately, I made two mistakes. First, I didn’t spend enough time thinking about and going over that list with my crew before the regatta.

Second, I never told them that occasionally I do impulsive, off-the-wall things like coming in late at the committee boat. As one of them later said, “If I’d known you were planning that, I never would have let you do it.” He probably would have suggested that we start nearer the middle of the line, giving up a bit of distance for a more conservative, clear-air start.