Steps Toward the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

The Dinghy Academy, a hub for elite Finn training in Valencia, Spain, offers this advice for sailors looking to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games…

Start training from mid November 2016. Continuity is the name of the game so choose a venue with good wind and weather all year around. Make this venue your home, love every minute of training, and plan the quad at present in a fairly general way.

Use the first two years to become the best at boat handling and starting. Do not waste any time on the gear at this stage. Just go sailing, do it in a group, and have fun. Plan to sail at least twenty days a month.

Shape your body for the class you love. Make sure you are the right weight, work a lot on endurance, and make sure your recovery times are the best possible. Learn about yourself, your mind and your emotions. Write down your sportive history and try to identify your repetitive patterns.

You should race but not too much, learn about how to eat properly, learn to go to bed early, and split training session during the day so that you avoid getting catabolic while still learning to push yourself. Do not focus on results but rather focus on your learning curve.

Learn to race with the mobile phone switched off from a week prior to the main events; forget social networks and all distraction. Learn that your sport is your job and learn to give it the best all the time.

Do not over-train. Always keep sessions not too long as when they get too long, you are learning to sail slow. It will be impossible to be intense all the time, though by training with continuity you will get better and better every day.

Find a good coach that has simple clear and positive ideas. Forget about politics – never get involved in any issue. Just focus on being the best regardless of the trial system or wind condition. Think positive, think that you can do it.

Once the ground work has been done, once two years of solid training will be yours, then the third year work on gear to make sure you get to be among the fastest.

Learn about the ideal life span of sails and hulls. Take care of your boat, love your boat, and race as hard as you can. Results will get better and better, and so if you will have qualified you’ll use that last year to prepare the Games.

Don’t travel too much and forget about going back and forth to Japan like a maniac. Instead, train hard and get there with a happy mind and alert. Get to the Olympics rested and ready!

This is what we do at Dinghy Academy. We start the 15 of November, we build up our training group, we make our passion our life, and we become a group of friends. Some will win, some will not, but all will enjoy taking on the Olympic challenge, the greatest sportive challenge you can find.