Race hard, race fast - and share it with the world!

For competitors, coaches and spectators.

Do you possess a great deal of patience or do you want everything 'now'? Would you prefer a McDonalds hamburger now, even though you know it to be low in nutritional value, or can you wait for 30 minutes for a healthy home cooked meal?

Studies of successful people in any endeavour show that the ones who end up making it 'big' are those that have put in over 10,000 hours of time towards that particular persuit. If you are interested in this, read the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell in which he has undergone studies of successful men and woman in business and sports and determined what they did to achieve their goals.

In the same way, in sailing, you must have the ability to 'grind' if you wish to achieve long-term success, or build a career out of yachting. I came through a very competitive yacht club and some of the people I sailed against and regulary beat in races, ended up skippering America's Cup yachts. Did they possess extraordinary levels of talent? Not always. In most cases the ones that went the furtherest were the ones that 'hung in there' and kept going while others dropped out of the sport, one by one.

In the same way, if you find yourself behind the fleet in a race, you usually are better to pick off a boat at a time than take a massive punt which will more often than not put you even further back (there are exceptions to this such as races where the course is very short and you have not sailed a drop race yet).

A lot of the components of success and winning are not always going to be 'fun'. For example, two boat tuning, where you sail on one tack or gybe for a long period of time to see who is the fastest, may not be that exciting. Going to the gym and lifting heavy weights to build your stamina and strength is not exactly 'fun' either. It takes a lot of mental strength to push your body to the limits. But both these things get results. Training, training, training, day after day, wind and rain and shine will improve your sailing fitness and give you an edge over those who only train occasionally. It may become a bit tedious at times, but come regatta day you are going to feel prepared, which means you will feel you deserve to win.

Having the ability to grind it out, and make these repetitive tasks as fun as possible is the key to success. On a cold rainy day, for example, it might seem more agreeable to stay inside and watch a DVD, but some people will still go training. In a race, this may mean sticking with the fleet and fighting for your position rather than leaving the fleet and taking a punt, whcih would bring temporary relief from the pressure.

The ability to 'grind' may also be called the ability to 'stick in there when the going gets tough' and some psychologists call this the ability to 'delay gratification'.