Disability Sailing Support Profile

All information correct as of July 2012

Sport: Disability Sailing
Performance Director: John Derbyshire
Athletes EIS work with: 8
Investment in EIS services since 2009: £ 976,034.10*
EIS services accessed: Performance Psychology, Performance Lifestyle, Physiotherapy, Performance Nutrition, Performance Analysis, Sports Medicine
Hours of support received: 1,503

* Investment figure includes investment in Olympic as well as Paralympic

The EIS team behind Disability Sailing

The English Institute of Sport (EIS) provide a range of sport science and medicine services  in support of GB Sailing delivered from the RYA Performance Centre in Portland, Dorset, or at camps and regattas overseas.

The multi-disciplinary team is closely integrated with the sailors, coaches, management and the wider programme, providing a performance-focused and solution-based approach with the overall objective of creating a positive environment for the staff and sailors to work and train in.

The nature of Sailing provides a number of variables and ‘unpredictables’ that the Sailors and support team have to contend with including the weather and positions of other sailors on the water. Sport Science offers a level of stability, ensuring the base work - mental state, physical condition, equipment - is taken care of so the Sailors have the ability to control the things they can.

With water-based training and racing liable to change in both length and intensity at short notice depending on the weather conditions, the land based support must also be adaptable. Sailor’s time on water can vary from an hour to a full day with the Sport Science and Medicine delivery having to adapt to this.

Another facet of the sport is that the sailors need to have the organisational and planning skills to manage their own campaigns, including the logistics of moving boats across the world, finance, media and sponsorship.

To meet these varied needs the sport has invested in a range of EIS services throughout the current Paralympic cycle, with Performance Psychology and Physiotherapy in particular providing a key feature of the athletes support network, whilst Performance Analysis has played an important role with regards to equipment development, the provision of high quality quantitative feedback as well as more standard ‘across the board’ support with coach video and GPS feedback.