The Development Squad
Of the 16 sailors in the IOCA Development Squad 2006/7, two were from the Lymington Optimist Flotilla. You can see the Lymington Development Squad in the Members Area. These sailors have worked extremely hard to earn a place in the Development Squad and will train throughout the year. They attend five weekend training sessions over the winter months.
Selection Criteria for the Development Squad
This year the Development Squad has an excellent team consisting of coaches with a massive range of experiences.
For the first weekend at Rockley Point we have myself, Nic Sawyer (Cardiff Bay front man), and Tom Mallindine. It is intended that
all of the 16 sailors in the squad will get as much ‘sea time’ as possible. Although there will be a fair share of work to be done ashore,
it is my intention to sail, sail, sail.
Currently we have 6 weekends, for which we have provisional bookings at a range of events around the country.
I am keen for the sailors to sail at mainly coastal venues (where possible), taking into account the geography of residence.
The typical schedule for a Development Squad weekend will be as follows:
- 8:30 Arrive and unload boat
- 09:00 RIB Launching
- 09:30-09:45 Coaches Briefing
- 09:45 General Briefing (parents also)
- 10:00 Parents Meeting (Sailors change, rig) Classroom
- 10:30 Nic and Tom (Coaches to brief sailors)
- 11:00 Launching Session 1 Slipway
- 13:00 Ashore for lunch
- 13:45 Brief for Session 2
- 14:15 Launching Slipway
- 16:30 Ashore and de-rig
- 17:00 Afternoon Debrief Classroom
- 18:00 Hometime/Next day plan
Clothes: Remember that it could be very cold on the water, so please make sure that you have the right clothing, and that you wear it. If the weather makes sailing impossible we will find something else to do. So as well as your sailing kit, please bring with you a track suit or something similar, trainers, games shorts and T shirt, waterproof top, swimming kit.
Please bring a notebook (your sailing diary if you have one), pens, pencils, etc., and ideally a waterproof bag to put everything in.
Dai Thomas (Lead Coach)
Development Squad Coach
Squad Dates & Venues for 2006/7
Dec 9/10 '06 - Grafham
Jan 20/21 '07 - Warsash
Feb 24/25 '07 - Weymouth
March 10/11 '07 - Mumbles
March 24/25 '07 - Pwllheli
Article for Op News
Op news would like to put some details about the dev squad/winter training in the next edition - due out April-ish. They are looking for - photos of the development squad, a list of names plus comments on the training, the experience, funniest moments, memorable moments, etc., If you want to email any ideas, comments etc to me I'll pass it all on as a single dev squad batch. They need all submissions before 20th March. Sharon (find her email address on the development squad website)
Lymington Development Squaddies sport their new black jackets
