Mixing with the Elite
I am just back form a very exciting and enjoyable week. The 9th and 10th October we had our second national ranker which was windy, we didn’t see anything under 15 knots and due to sailing in Weymouth Bay there was a big swell, so it was hard work, but a great racing atmosphere.
We attended an Olympic Development squad camp, which was fantastic; we had Pippa Wilson coaching us who is an inspiration after winning a gold medal in the 2008 Olympic Game in Beijing. We had four days of hard training on and off the water there was talks from the technical, lifestyle coaches, meteorologists, physiotherapists and many more specialists. Also a lot of sailing occurred as well. On Tuesday we had a starting specialist with us, which really improved our starting, we carries GPSs in our lifejackets so that when we debriefed in the evening we could analyse every start and race. This was a tiring week but was a great opportunity to really start improve our technique.
On Friday I was in Reading for the World Class Day. The Olympic Manager, Stephen Park OBE (Sparky) led the day and gave a couple of talks on the results from this summer and also the aims for 2012. The British Sailing team also have to name the new Dorset Cereal bars, which has been specially designed for sailors as it has more protein in it, for after sailing. So if anyone has any suggestions for names please get in contact with me.
I am also now a TASS athlete, which stands for Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme; this is very similar to what I had in Scotland in the East Institute of Sport. This scholarship is provided by the UK Government. I will get strength and conditioning support and £3000 worth of additional support, such as physiotherapist, this will be of great use.
We are going to sail every weekend and in a months time we have another training camp.
