Sports Psychology

The psychological component in sailboat racing may be more important than in almost any other sport. That’s because sailing is such a mental game. You need intense concentration for hours at a time, and you have to make thousands of decisions in every race. Then there are all the pressures of competing against other sailors and trying to win.

If you get excessively nervous, fold under pressure, don’t get along well with people or have trouble absorbing lots of input all at once, success will be difficult. This applies to racing around the buoys as well as managing your campaign. Here are some resource articles on sports psychology for sailing that may help you “keep it together” when the going gets rough.