OFF-SEASON CONDITIONING
OFF-SEASON CONDITIONING
Improving Your Laser Sailing During Off-Season To Better Your Results
Laser sailing is one of the most physically demanding boats in the dinghy world. Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a high performing international competitor, fitness is one of the most important things you can invest in for many reasons.
Improving your level of fitness can impact your speed and boat handling in a laser. Sailing a one design boat means that many variables are relatively the same across the fleet. So, in general everyone across the fleet should be theoretically going the same speed. However, we all know this isn’t exactly the case but if you were to remove a lot of these variables what’s left is the sailor. Any laser sailor knows the harder you hike the faster you will go, having a higher level of fitness can greatly impact your ability to hike harder and go faster.
Improving fitness can help reduce chances of injury. Whether you are just joining the class or have been in the class for multiple years injuries are something any athlete in any discipline will endure throughout your career. Strength training to build muscle and endurance can greatly impact your hiking position and how efficient you are in your movements on the downwind legs. Laser sailors don’t just need strong legs for proper hiking, having a strong core and lower back are important things to also focus on as these muscles are used to support your body while hiking upwind. Notice how the word “proper” is used here, a hiking position should be almost straight legs with your upper body extending outwards away from the boat with shoulders being pressed down towards the water. This is why a strong core and lower back are vital to support having your body extending out of the boat. Putting your body into a hiking position isn’t the best thing for your joints and over time laser sailors can experience ankle, lower back, knee and hip problems. Ensuring your strength is developed will mean your muscles can do a better job at supporting these joints by taking pressure off your joints and allowing your muscles to support.
As Canadians we have a small window to train and build tiller time throughout the year. That said, having a higher level of fitness can ensure you maximise the time in this window. We love being Canadian but as sailors we hate the short season. If you’re serious about your laser sailing maximizing your time during the spring, summer and fall months is very important. During the winter off-season working on conditioning to have the goal of being fit for spring will mean you will spend less time “brushing the cob webs off” when you first step back in the boat.
Enjoy the boat across all levels. Lastly one of the most important reasons which applies to everyone is overall enjoyment of sailing the laser. This doesn’t mean that the fitter you are the more you will enjoy the boat but it will help. The laser can be a tricky boat to sail and many laser sailors find building confidence especially in windy conditions very difficult. High levels of fitness can help build confidence knowing that you are fit and prepared will make any session more enjoyable. Many times sailors will attribute a bad day or bad training session to getting exhausted too soon.
