Struggling to take the next step

Phil Muller, US Sailing Youth Performance Manager and Team Leader for the US Team at the 2023 Youth Sailing World Championship, explains the challenge in developing youth performance for U19 sailors:

The developmental classes like the Optimist, high school sailing, and Club 420 are robust with nationwide distribution. We struggle as a country to transition sailors into the Youth Worlds classes. Clubs and programs invest in low performance boats that fulfill a great need to introduce young sailors to racing.

As youth athletes grow into their teenage years, they are capable both physically and mentally of taking on more demanding challenges. There are a lot of niche performance centers, and if we [US Sailing] support the growth of Youth Worlds classes, clinics, camps, and events, I think we’ll start to see more robust participation in performance classes.

When it comes to coaching, each generation teaches what they know to the next cadre. We’re finally at a point where we have a critical mass of coaches with experience in performance classes, or those who feel overworked and underchallenged in certain ways and looking for something new professionally.

I certainly felt like that about five years ago. One of my goals is to produce more high performance coaches so that we can expand high performance sailing in the US. I want to help this generation of coaches in their development.  - Full report