Mental preparation for an ocean regatta
Few sporting competitions require the attention and consistencyrequired duringa regattaon theocean's waves. Since the unexpected is always around the corner, this means that you can't afford any lapses in concentration or not thinking clearly. You have to try to keep these precarious stages to a minimum, which is an essential condition if you are to succeed in finishing an ocean regatta. This will be Ambrogio Beccaria's goal aboard his “Alla grande”, in a race in which he will need peace of mind and composure first and foremost, followed by some luck, which always comes in handy in any sport.
Ocean regattas are endurance races, both physical and mental. That's why mental preparation is at least as important as athletic preparation. In an endurance race, over a long period of time, the number of variables that can affect the outcome of the race is limitless, you need people who can maintain an optimal level of mental lucidity. "Every athlete, every individual has trigger points at which they achieve their best", explains Paolo Benini, sports psychologist, who has also worked with the Italian Sailing Federation at length. "At the end of the day, it comes down to Zen philosophy”, Benini adds; “It's a bit like the art of thinking and not thinking. A state of flow. An athlete is called upon to maintain this condition for as long as possible at an optimal point, which is obviously optimal for them and only for them, a point at which decision-making processes are always ranked up to the maximum."
A common mistake is to think that you have to travel very high both emotionally and psychologically, but that is simply not the case. "There is a risk of moving towards unpredictable ups and downs: both when we are very high and when we are very low, we run the risk of making errors of assessment and application," Benini says. For every individual, even before every athlete, the peak performance is provided by a very simple equation: subtract from the individual potential all interferences, all those external and environmental factors, or internal factors, such as thoughts, feelings, and states of mind, that disturb the free flow of consciousness. When a sportsman enters this state they reach the peak point at which they are most performing. This obviously requires training, but it is also a preparation of feelings and moods, an attempt to get to know oneself and understand which psychological mechanisms can help in times of difficulty.
Breathing exercises, for instance, the most basic and common ones, may be the same for all sailors, but their value is not universal. Breathing correctly affects the emotional and physiological response to the events to be faced, and is therefore always the first in a series of the winning strategies. Another form of training includes visualisation processes: using the imagination, creativity, to predict likely scenarios, or even setting out optimal conditions to head towards mentally. You might want to keep a diary to record all the states you go through. However, to make another example, music might help, with playlists that trigger the right mental conditions.
"First of all, an athlete must have a very strong belief in their abilities, confident that they have the skills and the ability to do well in this competition, deeming themselves competent to do the job they are called upon to do," Benini says. When it comes to self-confidence, however, he specifies: “I don't mean self-esteem, which is a general sense of self, self-confidence in this sense is limited to doing, in practice: no one climbs to the top of Mount Everest without thinking that they can. They may be convinced that they can do it but things happen preventing them from succeeding, but that's another story."
By mixing psychological training with athletic training, it is important to learn how to regulate sleep. The solution adopted by many sailors in such long regattas is to divide an ideal night's sleep into shorter slumber periods, called micro sleep. These are moments of sleep that last between 10 and 30 minutes – they may vary depending on individual personal needs, on the type of boat, the navigation area or the regatta itself.
"Studying your sleep cycles can help you win a race like this – Benini explains – where it is clear that there are no typical Sunday lie-ins. You have to find microsleep periods at your optimal point, usually for a few hours around midnight. Then everyone divides their sleep into periods." An athlete, for instance, may need to learn how to self-induce sleep, using relaxation techniques that facilitate falling asleep, which provides physical but also mental rest.
Read also: Athletic preparation for an ocean regatta
