Jon Rogers and I (Dave Perry) are excited to meet and teach you as much about match racing as we can at the upcoming San Diego S.O.D.A. Youth Match Racing Clinic, March 1st – 3rd at the San Diego YC. It will be fun! It will be intense!
Here are some thoughts to help you get ready for the Clinic.
SCHEDULE
Friday, March 1
Plan to arrive at the San Diego YC by 3:45pm on Friday, March 1. Come to the Jessop Room. We are going sailing that afternoon, so bring your sailing clothes and PFD, and a change of clothes as well. You will be given dinner after sailing, and then I will do a Welcome to Match Racing presentation after dinner. Plan to be picked up at 9:00pm.
Saturday, March 2
Plan to arrive around 8:45am. We will start promptly at 9:00 a.m. in the Jessop Room. Bring your own lunch. We will be on shore in the morning, eat lunch, and then we’ll be sailing in the afternoon. You will again be given dinner. We’ll do a video debrief from the sailing that day called The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. Plan to be picked up at 9:00pm.
Sunday, March 3
Plan to arrive around 8:45am. We will start promptly at 9:00 a.m. in the Jessop Room. Bring your own lunch in a bag you can take on the boat. We will hit the water sooner on Sunday and do some real match racing. Plan to be picked up at 5:00pm.
Meals
You are on your own for breakfast. You need to bring your own lunch and water both days. You will be given dinner Friday and Saturday evenings.
Clothing / PFD / Watch / Water Bottle
It could be on the hot side and it could be cool and raining, so the best advice for clothing is “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.” You’re sailing on a keelboat, so it doesn’t cost you anything to bring a bag of clothes during the clinic so you have options. And be sure to bring a change of clothes each day.
Also be sure you have some good sailing gloves, a PFD, a water bottle, and a good sailing wrist watch. A very good watch is the Timex Ironman 30 lap, WR 100m (~$50).
Pre-Clinic Homework & Video to Watch
The assumption is that you have not done any formal match racing. To be the best prepared for the Clinic, here are some materials you can download and study. The more you study these materials before the Clinic, the more you will get out of the Clinic.
For pre-clinic materials, go to the US Sailing Match Racing webpage:
Four recordings to try and watch:
On the US Sailing Match Racing webpage, scroll down to the section called:
North U Welcome to Match Racing 101 and Match Racing Master Class Series
There, scroll down to the link at the end of the section called: North U Match Racing Series Recordings, then click on “101”
There you will find recordings for the four sessions: The Prestart, The Upwind & Downwind Legs, The Mark Roundings, and The Penalty System. Each recording is about an hour.
If you only have time to watch one of them, watch Session 1 – The Prestart. The Introduction tells you a bit about match racing. If you are tight on time, you can skip the Introduction and go the beginning of the section on the Prestart, which is at counter 8:50.
Hopefully you will make the time to watch all four before Friday, March 1.
The North U Match Racing Playbook
On the US Sailing Match Racing webpage, scroll down to the section called:
North U Match Racing Playbook by Dave Perry
There you will find the FREE North U Match Racing Playbook I put together. It explains all the tactics in The Prestart, The Upwind & Downwind Legs, The Mark Roundings, and The Penalty System. Plus it has several pages of drills that are helpful for match racing, many of which we will do during the Clinic.
It would be helpful to skim through the section on the Prestart before Friday, March 1. Clearly the Prestart is the most different part of the game from fleet racing, so the more advanced study you can do on that before the Clinic, the quicker you will become really good at it.
As I said, this will be fun...and it will be intense (in a good way)!
If you have any issues at all, contact: Erik Hallback at 619-758-6320 See you Friday, March 1.
Dave Perry
