I’m a better sailor after Caprera Academy
THE PERFECT GIFT!
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The master’s degree of champion Roberto Ferrarese has come to an end. at the Caprera Sailing Center Academy. We gathered the testimony of Fiamma Briziarelli, a super-experienced sailor and instructor at the sailing center since she was 18, who was thrilled. Here is what an athlete who has the opportunity to attend the highest level coaching offered by the CVC experiences, how in just one week the crews learned to develop the technical and mental aspects to make their boat go faster.
I’m a better sailor after Caprera Academy
I have always gone sailing, and I have been an instructor in Caprera since I was 18 years old, the island even before being technical is nautical, and before being nautical is a unique place where each of us can understand who we are. I started racing when I was 17, taught assiduously at dinghy courses, having a lot of 420 experience, participating in European and world J24 championships, sailed on many classes and in international regattas on offshore boats, such as Beneteau 25, Farr40, Swan 45, IMS and many Rolex Cups.
MY EXPECTATION AND GOALS FOR THE COURSE
Each of us students, came with our own personal backgrounds, the first point from which we started was the expectations of each. My expectation of the course was to meet Roberto Ferrarese again, to have the opportunity to have him as a coach to learn, as many cues as possible to perfect the technical and especially the mental aspects.
CAPRERA ACADEMY TRANSFORMED CVC
The Caprera Academy, whose training course ends precisely with the Master’s course, has created the opportunity for the Caprera Sailing Center to evolve from what was perceived twenty years ago as a sea school, far removed, almost incompatible, from the world of racing, into a center of excellence for highly experienced athletes. The magic of the place, the island life and the human relationship established between student coaches and instructors are the added value compared to any other high-profile technical course.
THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRAIN WITH ROBERTO FERRARESE
Being able to train with Roberto Ferrarese and his son, Simone, was unique. Their fellowship and energy, they are in perfect symbiosis with the spirit of the island. When I come aboard on professional boats, I am called with a specific role, and even when you are abroad among professionals, the crew is formed because the glue is the role to be played, and the technical part the result of personal experience. In this week of the Master Academy, however, The real glue of the crew was really the coaching.
FORTY MATCH RACES IN FIVE DAYS
Every day we would do the briefing in the morning defining our goals, go out on the water for training, and then go back to training in the afternoon refining based on the advice of Roberto and the other course instructors. We did in 5 1/2 days, training and 40 match races.
WHAT IT MEANS TO BUILD AUTOMATISMS
In our minds we must have an extremely quick ability to choose maneuvers, starting from the in the four minutes before departure, and these automatisms are to be perfected in a thousand nuances. We learned to build these automatisms with a crew of strangers. In fact, we usually train with our own crew or when we are called to regattas we go with our mates with whom there is already cohesion. At the course we met on Saturday and there were those who came from very different experiences. The coaching allowed us from the very beginning to overcome all the gaps by accelerating the cohesion process.
FEEL THE EFFECTS OF FINE TUNING
Let’s take an example, in the finesse of constant adjustment of backstay and mainsail carriage, on the J80s used at the course, we learned to “feel” the effects of fine tuning by automating adjustments, not only individually, but through cooperation between helmsman and mainsailer. Roberto, who is great at simplifying complex concepts when explaining, was able to make us match technical baggage that each of us has (the theory of how to adjust the sail) with the sensory aspect of the instant, which resulted in essence, in being able to tie half a knot, an extra knot.
WHEN THE COACH COMES ABOARD THE BOAT BECAME FASTER
We constantly had the dinghy with coaches Simone and Roberto following us. The coaches knew how to give us advice over the radio, to correct trifles that were not even visible at first. On certain occasions they got on the boats and we had them on board with us, joined by the CVC instructors. It was great not only to listen to what they were teaching us, but also to see how they could with just a few words transfer their experience effectively to us. By the end of the course we had figured out how to fix perceptions of finesse in our minds, maneuvering cohesively and fluidly, how to communicate and share, and yes, indeed the boats ran more.
THE MENTAL COACHING OF ROBERTO FERRARESE
After the technicalities, the most fascinating part of the Master’s program is the mental coaching: Roberto gave us lots of insights and techniques for human and personal management. The format over a week then, allowed us to address the effects of stress in the team, issues typically experienced only on offshore regattas.
HOW NOT TO LOSE CONCENTRATION
To give an example, if the tailer makes a less-than-perfect maneuver, the whole crew knew what to say and what to do, to get him out of that mental situation in five minutes that would have him mulling over the wrong maneuver devolving into the performance needed for the upcoming next start. In such situations the helmsman must know how to say “okay guys, we did well but we made this mistake, now take a minute break and then concentrate for the next race.”
MANAGING EMOTIONALITY ON BOARD, FROM LEARNERS
Roberto taught us just how to manage the emotionality of yourself and others, gave us a reading of focus in and focus out, how to get into the flow curve, what you need in the pre-start, of how you can focus after the start. Going back to being students, for those of us who are used to being instructors or doing regattas with those who are paid to do them, is a unique opportunity.
HOW MUCH WE HAVE IMPROVED
It was sensational to see the evolution of the crews day by day. I noticed as a coxswain, that at each regatta, after the instructors had gotten on the other boat, the tables were turned, because the performance went up and we had to get back into the game, even if we had maybe won two consecutive races against the same crew. Then there are the side aspects of the course, and we realized how much the participation of us students, and the interaction with the exchange of impressions, opinions, stress management, and the sharing of these elements contributed to the success of the master,and I am convinced this can happen so spontaneously only at the Caprera Sailing Center.
I’M EXCITED ABOUT THE COURSE BECAUSE IT LEFT ME VERY
I went into the course with enthusiasm and came out with an immense amount of positive emotions. I was happy to helm in a match race having Roberto Ferrarese at the helm of the other boat, or having him on board with me. The water is my environment, but when the week after the course, I went to Greece as a mainsail trimmer on a Swan 68, I marveled at how all those perceptions and automatisms that I experienced aboard the J80 , I had consolidated them within me and automatically brought them aboard a hugely larger and more technical boat.
If I had to sum up one feeling, with the Caprera Sailing Center Academy Master Course, I realized how a crew can get in tune and vibrate with the same frequency as the boat, any boat.
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