The next step

During the summer, my results at my peak competitions were far worse than the goals that I had set for myself. Initially, amid all of the emotions associated with a big loss, I viewed this discrepancy between my goals and my results as a failure that I would have to work to recover from. However, after some time had passed and the emotions had worn off, I realized that this past year was definitely not a failure. I had progressed massively in a lot of important areas. These regattas from the summer simply underscored a crucial area where my abilities were lacking.  This is the area of strategic and tactical decision making. Now that it was clear where I needed to improve, the next challenge was to figure out how to do that. While I was going through this reflecting and evaluating process, I was also transitioning from the laser radial class (women’s Olympic class and youth class) to the laser full rig class (men’s Olympic class). Although it is just the same boat with a bigger rig, what this meant was that I was no longer able to work with the coach and training partners that I had been working with over the last year and a half. I spent a lot of time trying to decide what would be the right program for me to continue my development. After a lot of research, a lot of conversations, and a lot of help, I think I have found what I was looking for. As I a writing this, I am on a flight to Sydney, Australia where I will be training with internationally renowned coach Brett Beyer and the small group of international sailors that he coaches. We will be training in Sydney until the end of November and will then compete in the ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne and Sail Sydney before I return home on December 21st. This is a sort of trial period to decide whether or not this is the right program for me to be a part of in the long-term. 

If you would like to follow my progress, you can check back on my website or my Facebook page. 

Thanks for reading,

Fillah