Calm conditions this morning prevented the inaugural Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships Emerging Nations Programme camp athletes from taking to the waters off Fremantle Sailing Club until just after 13:00 local time.
ENP Coaches Arthur BRETT and Belinda STOWELL used the morning to test the athlete's concentration, footwork and balance in a series of ground ladder drills before again putting the Laser and Laser Radial sailors through another round of gut busting land boat training drills.
Focussing on posture and technique, the athletes endured two sets of 15 minute land hiking exercises as BRETT circled and corrected athletes on their hiking styles. In a bid to show the athletes how much their hiking efforts varied, STOWELL photographed each athlete from side on and projected each image onto a big screen for the group to discuss how each athlete could improve their technique.
After receiving feedback from each of their fellow ENP colleagues, the group was again sent back to their boats to implement the posture and technique suggestions given to them by their counterparts for an additional 10 minute session of land boat training.
"We have included a substantial amount of land hiking into the programme over the past few days and each athlete is starting to show a considerable amount of improvement in their technique, posture and core strength," BRETT said.
While the Laser and Laser Radial sailors had their feet hooked into their boats the RS:X sailors combated the windless conditions by taking advantage of the newly assembled RS:X simulator to practice sail pumping.
"The simulator gave us the chance to see how powerful each athlete was in pumping the sail in off water surroundings. To make it that little bit more challenging for the athletes, we deflated the tyres and took them off the grass and into the carpark to see how hard they were prepared to work to get the simulator moving through pumping," STOWELL said.
Having arrived home from Lake Garda, Italy yesterday, highly respected ISAF Measurer and Technical Officer Barry JOHNSON spoke with the group on the importance of having equipment that was class compliant and registered with race officials ahead of participating in regattas. He discussed how previous events he had officiated at saw athletes and teams disqualified for not using the appropriate race equipment and relayed how disappointing it is for athletes to lose valuable points and potential medal placings through racing with equipment that is not registered or class compliant.
He showed the ENP group where on their vessels they can find the serial codes for their equipment to help ensure the correct information is given to race officials to prevent disqualifications arising from incorrect equipment usage.
With the sea breeze now blowing with some force, the Emerging Nations Programme athletes took to the water shortly after 13:00 to further improve on their acceleration off the start line. Having been taught over the past week on the three phases of acceleration, the group had in excess of 15 start line set ups where they were forced to implement their tactics on line placement, awareness and acceleration to help them achieve the best start possible.
"Races are not won on the start line, but you can certainly lose a race from a bad start," BRETT said.
"The athletes have had a marked improvement in their starts over the past week but there is still scope for them to be more bold and confident in their line placings and how they position themselves compared to their competitors," BRETT said.
"Tomorrow will be their final chance to get their starts as close to perfect as possible as it is the final on water training day. Belinda and I will still be there to offer guidance, but we want to see how the athletes perform without constant on water coaching."
The athletes will return to the waters of the Indian Ocean tomorrow for the Emerging Nations Programme/Fremantle Sailing Club Sprint Series at Fremantle Sailing Club. It will be the group's final on water training day as the inaugural camp formally concludes on Monday 3 August.
The inaugural ENP camp, which is being held at Fremantle Sailing Club, is the first of seven ENP intensive training camps to be held in WA between July 2009 and the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships in December 2011.
The ENP is designed to encourage and assist developing and emerging sailing nations to participate in the Olympic Sailing Competition, increase the number of participating ISAF Member National Authorities (MNAs) and subsequently the number of competitors at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships. From this World Championship, it is hoped 'emerging' talent identified during the ENP will qualify to represent their country in sailing at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Acclaimed Australian Olympic sailing coach Arthur BRETT and 2000 Sydney Olympic Games gold medallist in the women's 470 class Belinda STOWELL are guiding the Laser, Laser Radial and RS:X athletes, sharing the knowledge and skill that has seen the pair help spearhead modern Australian Olympic sailing success.
Over the course of the seven ENP intensive training camps, up to 40 athletes from as many nations (not represented in any sailing discipline at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games), will be invited to Perth to improve their chances of earning a place in the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships through their involvement with the ENP.
The Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships Emerging Nations Programme is proudly supported by the Australian Federal Government and the Western Australian State Government.
Find out more about the ISAF Sailing World Championships at www.sailing.org/isafworlds.