Laser Sailing Basics: Stretching

At a regatta a few years ago I watched one of the top Laser skippers amble off to a patch of grass still damp from the morning dew. For the next five minutes he worked his way through a routine of stretches that focused on each major flexible joint in his body. Bit by bit he reached, twisted, bent and folded; then he ambled over and launched his boat and won the regatta.

I’ve always hated stretching. My body is no good at it.  I remember about 20 years ago setting a goal of touching my toes. I was pretty diligent about doing all kinds of gentle twists and reaches and over time I could slowly begin to see my fingers creeping downwards toward the toe box on my running shoes.

One day, after more than a full year of working at it, I swore I felt nylon and called my ex-wife to look at what I’d done. She pointed out that my shoes were higher than my toes and challenged me to do it barefoot.

My current wife of seven years celebrates when I can get past my shins. My feeling is that a flexible attitude and mind are more important than a bendy body.

So, you can imagine how pleased I was to read that stretching was over rated.

Most of us were taught to stretch to keep from injuring ourselves, but studies show that stretching isn’t all that helpful, and determined stretching may in fact cause an injury.

I just want to take a second to acknowledge that there are a number of you reading this who are rolling your eyes disdainfully at my silly resistance. You have probably always been able to not only reach your toes, but hold them in the palm of your hand. Well, be aware that eye rolling is not considered good form or an approved stretching exercise for sailing.

The bottom line is, Laser sailors don’t need to stretch, unless of course you want to sail well at the start of the first race.

So now I’m back to stretching, but with two clearer and much more interesting goals – stretch to help prevent post exercise stiffness and to shorten the time between a cold start and sailing at my best.

Stretching does seem to help prevent the next-day soreness associated with pushing your physical limits. On those breezy days when you’ve hung out for most of the windward legs and squirmed through hundreds, if not thousands of small steering twists, you may find that some basic stretching will make it possible to sail again the next day.

And similarly, on those days where wafting breezes have forced you to crouch all hunkered up in the cockpit, you may find that a good stretch routine will bring you back to your full height. All this is especially true for Master sailors. I’ve found that particularly during multiday regattas, stretching makes a major difference in my scores the second day. This is most obvious on those days where I had such a hard time getting out of bed that I skipped the whole day.

The other key thing to expect from a good stretch before a race is that you will take less time to warm up and therefore will get into the rhythm of your tacks and gibes more easily. A good roll tack or gibe needs to be carefully choreographed and fluid. When you’re a little tight, the fluidity is interrupted and you’re more likely to stumble. Flexibility helps you get your head out of the boat instead of struggling to handle it easily.

In order to stretch effectively you need to have your muscles warmed up and that is a challenge for many of us on a regatta day. As much as we like to think of ourselves as independent, strong minded individuals, it is hard to overcome the sense of silliness from jumping rope or doing jumping jacks in one corner of the rigging lot.

Taking a short run is an option, but that requires a bit of planning as most people show up with just enough time to rig before the skipper’s meetings. Warming up on the water is a great option, except then the stretching afterwards is challenging unless you leave time to return to shore. Again I’m not talking to those of you who can stretch on the fore deck without flipping.

My preference is to wake up a bit early, warm up and stretch at home or at the motel. Then after I get rigged I try to take a short brisk walk or run if I have time and re-stretch my back, arms, neck, hamstrings and quads.

There are excellent books on stretching and even some good stretches in the common Laser books, but I’d like to underline a couple of points.

·       Bouncing while stretching is a sure way to get hurt. Many of us learned in gym class to bounce while trying to touch our toes. Don’t do it. The best stretch is a slow hold of up to 30 seconds or more, with just a sense of gentle pressure.

·       Too much pressure causes your muscles to fight back and inhibits the stretch. This is one of those cases where less is often more. Gently rest against the resistance of your tight muscle and hold it for a good 30 seconds or more.

·       If your back is tight, try working on your hamstring muscles (back of your leg). Many of us find that what feels like a tight back is a tight hamstring. Men particularly need to pay attention to this.

·       The more strength you build in a muscle the more important it is to stretch that muscle to maintain flexibility.

A good stretch routine takes about ten minutes, but any gentle stretch is better than none.

Master Laser sailors need to find and practice a stretch routine and evaluate how it helps their sailing. You may decide to skip it, but I’m betting that you will feel a real difference in the fluidity of your moves and the ease of walking after a hard workout.