Making youth sailors stronger and smarter

With a week off from school, more than one hundred of America’s best young sailors from the East Coast to Hawaii are spending time in another classroom: the California International Sailing Association’s 37th annual Advanced Racing Clinic, held April 5-8 in Long Beach, CA.

CISA Clinic Director Andrew Campbell, 2008 US Olympian and now a member of the Oracle America’s Cup team commented, “We’ve reformatted a bit this year to expand our coaches’ impact on the sailors through four full days of clinic. I’m excited to have the support of the US Olympic Team with USST Development Director Leandro Spina as well as performance specialist Fuzz Spanhake joining us on the coaching staff fresh from the ISAF Sailing World Cup.”

The annual CISA Advanced Racing Clinic has been at the forefront of top level clinics for top US aspiring sailors and has been seen as the kick-off for most high level racing. This year the sailors are taking part in intensive on-the-water and classroom training in Lasers, Radials, 29er, I420, C420 and CFJs. Laser full rig sailor Richard Didham commented, “I have attended the CISA clinic for the past 4 years in a row now and every year, I leave the clinic as a stronger and smarter sailor than I had been before.”

Several of the teams attending the ISAF Youth Worlds to be held in Tavira, Portugal this July are using CISA as their pre-training event. “CISA is always a great event to solidify our early season training,” remarked 29er skipper Quinn Wilson. “The clinic attracts top competitors and the coaches put everybody through rigorous drills and competition settings that are hard to duplicate elsewhere.”

Evening programs include CISA Board member Pete Melvin sharing his recent role in the America’s Cup and the new rules, Tom Burnham from Quantum Sails leading a panel discussion on managing a campaign and sailing program for top results, and the USST Fuzz Spanhake talking about sail dynamics and set ups.

The coaching staff includes three Olympians and current sailors training for Rio in 2016 as well as previous Olympic campaigners and coaches.

Source: Information provided by CISA/www.cisasailing.org