Athlete and Coach Training in Sarasota, Florida

March 14-19, 2005

(L-R: Back Row: Steve, Jason Berry, Cam Watt (Coach), Rob Fox (Coach), Ian Hogan (Coach), Tyler Woodbury, Amy Goman (Coach), Tommy Wharton (Coach); Front Row: Joanne Prokop, Maggie Vincent, Dmitri Cherniak, Dan McTavish, Cam Mason, Paul Brikis, Amanda Berry (missing: Ken Dool and Marc-Andre Littee))

Coaches work with athletes to improve their performance, but who coaches coaches???

Tommy Wharton (formerly RCYC High Performance Team Coach recently hired as National Team Coach) has been organizing and running training camps in Sarasota, Florida for a number of years.  This year, Tommy decided to add a bit of a twist to the camp.  Why not have the coaches coach the athletes and each other??  While athlete’s received the expertise from coaches like Ken Dool (National Team coach now on sabbatical working with one of the Volvo Ocean Race teams), Rob Fox (CYA Regional Coach), Cam Watt (CYA Coach of the Year), Marc-Andre Littee (Quebec Provincial Coach), Ian Hogan (Oakville Yacht Squadron Coach), and Amy Goman (Ontario Provincial Coach), the coaches also benefited from evaluating and working with each other.

Each day the camp ran with 1 lead coach, 2 evaluating coaches, and 4 coaches sailing in either a 29er, Laser, or Byte.  The intensity and focus on and off the water was incredible.  Athletes would show up early, have their boats rigged ready to go and waiting for their briefing.  Even in winds gusting up to 28 knots during starting drills, the sailors were hungry for more.  Two sailors, Joanne Prokop and Maggie Vincent indicated that they were motivated by the fact that their coaches were on the water with them running through the same drills.  They also said that they enjoyed having coaches in boats able as they were able to do live demonstrations and walk through any areas they were struggling with.  Moreover, the coaches also found the experience to be extremely valuable as it was a rare opportunity to receive feedback from peers as well as have the ability to work so closely and learn from one another.   

“I found the week personally very rewarding, challenging, and exciting” Ken Dool.

Ian Hogan wrote in a letter to the coaches, “I learned a whole bunch from each of you and look forward to working with you guys again”

All in all the camp was a success.  Thanks to the initiative taken by Tommy Wharton the future of training athletes and coaches will continue to improve as we hope that similar camps will run in the years to come.  Great training, great coaching, great combination!