Hugh Styles (38)

Ireland bound, for the delights of the emerald isle.

Also to catch up with friends whose wedding I missed this time last year.

This week in weymouth coaching the Radial girls has been great lots of good lessons.

Looking forward to Holland regatt next week. Hope that the Mosquitos are not to hungry – normally you get eaten alive!

Hugh

Ive just been in Perth coaching for the GBR Olympic Sailing team for the ISAF Worlds.

The team of 5 girls worked hard in the build up to the regatta and had some really great individual race results, winning plenty of races in the course of the regatta. The highlight was Ali Young finishing 7th, well done to her and all of the girls.

Now thinking of Xmas and seeing the folks.

Next thing is the training for the Olympics with the girls in Miami in the new year and then the build up to Weymouth in the summer.

All the best.

Hugh

ISAF is delighted to announce that Hugh Styles (GBR) has been appointed as the World Youth Sailing Trust’s coach and will be present at the 2011 ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships in Zadar, Croatia to coach sailors on ISAF’s Athlete Participation Programme.
Styles, who finished sixth in the Tornado at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, has 20 years of elite level competitions experience and will bring invaluable knowledge to the sailors who are selected as part of the Athlete Participation Programme.

“I like to think I can be a role model to the youth sailors,” said Styles. “I’ve come from a background of sailing in the Laser but I have experience in two person dinghies and catamarans as well. In each of those areas I have been able to achieve a really high level.

”I’ve won medals at World and International Championships and been successful in teams in the Extreme 40s and races like the Sydney to Hobart.“

The sailors on the Athlete Participation Programme will be able to benefit from Styles’ extensive knowledge and experience of Olympic Sailing and coaching.

Having coached a wide spectrum of athletes ranging from Optimist sailors to Olympic athletes and professional sailors, who have gone on to achieve domestic and international success, Styles plans to bring the athletes together before the 2011 ISAF Youth Worlds.

”The focus is to try and connect with all of the participants before the event. There is a massive opportunity to use technology and establish links with people through social networking websites such as facebook and twitter.

“I would like to be in a position that when we come to the event we are not meeting people for the first time. Social networking is a massive benefit and the forum side of it will help us build towards the 2011 Youth Worlds and onwards.”

The 36-year-old from Poole, Dorset is a Royal Yachting Association qualified Level Three Racing Coach. From 2003-2004 Styles was the RYA Hobie 16 Class Coach and focused on a squad of eight sailors who delivered an ISAF Youth Worlds gold medal for Great Britain.

With a strong coaching methodology and success in the past Styles already has plans and goals in place for the 2011 ISAF Youth Worlds.

“We are looking to give everybody the best opportunity to achieve their ultimate goals and personal bests. Whether it is to just be in every race, place in the top ten or win the regatta it doesn’t matter. It is about allowing people to achieve their personal goals and the way we measure is through our coaching approach.

”This will focus on the individual with an initial assessment period before the event via social mediums to see what their needs are. Having done that we can benchmark their aims and objectives.

“When we come out of the event they will have an individual legacy that will help to positively contribute to their learning and improvement in the future. Through the opportunities they have had at the event the sailors will be able to have a structure going forward and will ultimately help them become the next Olympians, America’s Cup Sailors or Round the World Yachts people.”

The ISAF Youth Worlds take place from 7-16 July in Zadar, Croatia this year and Styles is looking past this year’s event and focusing on the long term legacy.

“I hope that in the next 5-10 years we can raise the game of youth sailing internationally and with the ever increasing ability to get online more people will be able to see what is going on in real time.

”The legacy of this event is really important because it builds into our sport. The ISAF Youth Worlds can help us develop links with the emerging nations in Asia, Africa and South America and from there we can build more opportunities for these countries to become even more successful."
On the appointment of Hugh Styles, World Youth Sailing Trust Chairman Carlos Ribeiro Ferreira said, “The World Youth Sailing Trust look forward to working with Hugh as we continue to support young sailors from emerging nations at the ISAF Youth World Championships.

”Hugh has fantastic credentials both as a competitor and as a coach and through his experience we hope to achieve the Trust’s aim of ensuring young sailors return home after the ISAF Worlds enriched by the experience."

www.TimeontheWater.co.uk

ISAF Youth Worlds Site

ISAF Youth Worlds Facebook Page

ISAF Youth Worlds Twitter Page

World Youth Sailing Trust Microsite

Saturday the 20 November saw a keen group of Flying Fifteen sailors attend a coaching workshop provided by me on behalf of Towergate Mardon and my coaching business TIME ON THE WATER. 10 boats were involved and several other class keen helpers were along to assist in the days coaching.

The weather was cloudy but a good 10 knots of wind and every now and then there was a little drizzle but generally it was a good and nice day. The focus for the coaching was racing skills and after an initial session of assessment of the ability of the group we got out on the water nice and early.

With a simple windward leeward set the sailors were put through their paces and learnt about their starting approach, time and distance, identifying the bias in the starting line, getting transits, creating a gap to accelerate into off the line and executing a good start. The sailors made some great advances during the day, the most notable being Nadia who by the end of the session was mixing it in the thick of the action at start time, well done.

We also worked on the sailors boat handling, tacking and gybing on the whistle, initially with mixed success, but eventually the teams were tacking without the jib flapping and the kite filling all the way through the gybe.

The next steps will be for the sailors to practice all of the little lessons and when we have the next session in the spring we will be able to gear up for the season and go for it at the next open meeting.

Ill be coaching 49ers at the weekend, so a change of speed and angles, but it will be interesting to see how the team have improved since i last saw them in the end of the summer.

Saturday saw the first day of the Grafham Water annual catamaran regatta, which was attended by a couple of hundred teams, across classes as diverse as the single handed Dart sprint 15 through to the NACRA N20 twin wire beast, this year as a special support for the sailors Towergate Mardon in combination with Hugh Styles of TIME ON THE WATER and NACRA provided a free coaching session for sailors at the event.

With catamaran sailing in the fore front of the sailing press at the moment now that the next Americas Cup will be raced in AC45 and AC72 catamarans, there was a real buzz at the event and the sailors jumped at the chance to get some coaching help and an opportunity to improve skills through accessing the free coaching.

The day saw a mix of conditions, but with a biting northerly wind, the wind chill signified the onset of the winter. But this didn’t dampen spirits and the gust and shifty wind was unpredictable to say the least. This made it tricky for the race officer to lay an even course and for the sailors to be able to decipher the shifts until many of them had come back to the beach and discussed it at length in the bar.

The schedule for the Saturday and Sunday was three races and TIME ON THE WATER coach Hugh was on the water observing and taking video of opportunities for teams to improve performance. This was then debriefed shore with both individual and group debriefs and a number of Q&A sessions.

The evenings debrief in the Grafham Water Sailing club, the focus of the session being in two parts:
Tactical and strategic positioning on the race course relative to the course axis and the gust and wind shifts
Mark rounding processes and how to create better tactical options by improving mark rounding smoothness.

Point 1. Was eagerly discussed by the participants, and with some simple rules of thumb provided by Hugh the sailors broke down the scenarios they had experienced and generated game plans for the how they would attack the race course the following day. The biggest hurdle most sailors felt was dealing with traffic and keeping options open to be able to sail their race strategy.

Point 2. Most teams were pushing too late with their spinnakers up too close to the leeward marks to be able to make a good mark rounding exit. Using Video analysis the sailors were able to see exactly how far in advance of the mark a good rounding should start. This was then used to improve routines with a more accurate assessment of the time and distance approach to the marks. Conversely at the windward marks teams found that there were many more options open to them than just following the boats in front, the focus of clear air and keeping in the gusts was highlighted as the priorities going forward.

The opportunity for the future of catamaran sailing is bright at the moment with the added benefit of the Americas Cup 34 in catamarans. In order to support this TIME ON THE WATER is running coaching sessions in catamarans as well as monohull’s during the winter months to help raise the level of skill in the UK fleets across the board, if you are keen and want to fast track your sailing please contact Hugh Styles on email Hugh@timeonthewater.co.uk.

Many thanks to Towergate Mardon and NACRA who made the coaching session possible, but also to Grafham Sailing club and Paul Wakeline for helping make the day a resounding success. Thanks also to Magic Marine for the clothing support for the coaching team.