From triathlon training to youth sailing

Carlos Insa, Head Optimist Sailing Coach at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club (Oyster Bay, NY), this past summer introduced a different way of planning and structuring their racing season.

He found that most Optimist coaches plan their season regatta by regatta, but as a triathlete himself, he approached the planning like how triathletes build toward a big race: in macrocycles and microcycles.

Insa applied the same periodization principles he uses in triathlon training to youth sailing. Rather than planning the season regatta by regatta, he structured the sailors’ 2026 season as one long macrocycle, progressively building from smaller summer regattas toward a championship peak at the end of the season.

In his report, From Macrocycle to Podium: What Triathlon Periodization Taught Me About Coaching Optimist Sailors, Insa shares the reasoning behind this approach, how he implemented it with the team, and what he believes it can teach us about developing young sailors—not only technically and tactically, but also physically and mentally.