Biomechanics -Proposal

During my analysis in windsurfing I will be looking into 3 different areas within the race. These are;

Tacking,gybing and work rate. In order to look into these criteria I will be measuring if they are

successful or unsuccessful (Tacking/gybing). A successful gybe/tack can be measured on the

effect it had on the other sailors and wether the tacked/gybed into better areas of pressure. ‘A good

tack is a tack where you continue to make maximum progress upwind. The aim is not to tack as

quickly as possible, or to come out as fast as possible, but to continue getting closer to the

windward mark as fast as you can”. (J, Emmett 2008) I will also measure the amounts of tacks/

gybes on Port (left) and starboard (Right) to see the amounts of tacks/gyves per beat/downwind.

Work rate will be measured in the amount of pumping (movement of sail and body together to

increase speed) over a time period of 30 seconds which I will mark down.

To analyse these criteria I will be videoing 1 individual over 2 separate races (windward/leeward

courses). When I analyse the data I would expect to see that f the individual has a higher success

rate in their tacks and gybes and higher work rate the better the result obtained at the finish. I will

be videoing the race instead of doing notational analysis during the race as I feel that this will

allow me to look more carefully into the race, because if I took the notational analysis during the

race it would be a higher possibility that I would miss certain aspects of the race that would be vital

to the end analysis.

The research I will be using to help with my analysis will be books including (RYA Tactics, 2007)

and (Be Your Own Sailing Coach, 2008) Within these books there are sections that will help me

analyse the races and help come to a conclusion. These sections include things such as “Upwind

tactics- Covering” and “effective board handling”.