Managing Your Regatta Brain

 Our decision making ability deteriorates as regattas progress. As we get tired, our brains begin to try to moderate energy use by settling for easy choices – “I’ll keep going this way until I get a more obvious sign.” Both the power to focus and control, and our stamina to keep at it can fail us.

This is an important issue because as your skill level improves, mental “toughness” is what separates those at the front of the fleet. And we’ve all seen a competitor’s inability to control their emotions lose them places. In less obvious ways even those of us in mid-pack give up hard won distance or sacrifice potential gains by not being able to maintain our best mental game.

Research throws an additional huge caution at us; as our capacity to sort through possibilities wanes, our emotional regulation also begins to slip. Just when we need a damper on our inclination toward anxiety, anger or exuberance, our brains allow a freer reign. Suddenly the “I’ll show them!” urge has less “What are the odds of success?” monitoring to quiet it.

This double whammy gets played out on the course with boats heading toward the corners, tacking on rivals and betting on elusive wind shifts amid increasingly distracted and loud helmsmen. If we can manage our energy and emotions a bit better than other competitors, we may pass a few and see our finishing places in the latter races trend upwards.

Studies show that food helps you recover your ability to regulate your emotional self-control, decisions and discipline. Just a reminder, too much makes you fat. We tend to overestimate what we can afford to eat and underestimate how often we need to eat. Small amounts eaten every hour are the most effective.

Here are ideas to experiment with.

• First, as I’ve explained in a previous post, try to minimize the decisions you need to make before you get on the race course. Your ability to focus and exert self-discipline is a finite resource you need to spend wisely.
• Rules mastery means you aren’t wasting energy sorting through possible options.
• Boat-handling drills minimize excessive attention switches between tactics and head-in-the-boat issues that involve decisions about where to focus.
• Pre-race is not the time to deny yourself (also uses willpower); if you are trying to manage food intake too tightly or establish any other strict daily habit, you are using precious willpower.
• Sleep helps maintain your reserves. Recovery from exercise, injury or illness leaves you more vulnerable to brain fatigue. Plan your approach to important regattas so that you are rested and ready.
• Learn to mentally and emotionally relax between races and to fine tune your anxiety level – use it to motivate you but not drain you. Stress and exertion are cumulative. Save yours for racing.
• Keep refueling on nutritious energy foods. Refined carbs and sugar spike your abilities, both mental and muscle, but also causes quick crashes. Complex carbs mixed with both fat and proteins give your brain a steadier stream of fuel to recover. You want to learn more about the best regatta day nutrition plan for you.

In future blogs I’ll look at techniques that you can practice off the water to increase your self-regulation.