Time to re-focus
It’s actually been close to 4 years since I was last totally able to focus on my sailing and the time has come again to go all in and really focus on my sailing career. On one of my second year placements, my supervisor was asking me where I wanted to work when I graduated and my answer was always caveated with a desire to be part of the team for the British Challenge for the Inaugural Women’s America’s Cup, which I knew would require a period of full time training.
It was always possible that investing in my Physio career would come at the risk of not being selected for some of the sailing teams that I wanted to be involved with and so it has been a delicate balance between gaining more Physio experience and progressing my sailing career. Does it come across that I’m not fully invested in the sport and my sailing career, am I putting in enough time to learning from each event that I am part of, do I arrive already fatigued from juggling multiple demands? How can you learn how to sail a new boat as well as learn a new profession - is there space in your brain for all of that learning?! These were all questions that I was worried would be asked of me and concerns that I have had over the winter, but I am really proud that I have managed to increase my experience and balance all of the work that I had committed to doing.
Gone are the days of Olympic class training for me, where we trained on the water a minimum of 200 days a year to be competitive, great for muscle memory (neuroplasticity), but with SailGP - no one has access to the F50’s between SailGP events meaning that no one is out there training and we all have access to the same video feeds and data from all the boats which allows for progression and learning between events. This means that I have been able to spend some time working for the NHS - for the last 6 months I have been working as much as I have been able to in Community Outpatient MSK (Musculoskeletal) Physio on the Isle of Wight - seeing patients from age 18 to 93 with a whole range of MSK issues. Many of these were complex patients with multiple underlying issues which really tested my clinical reasoning skills - which is exactly the challenge I was looking for. It was a privilege to see some of the pressures within the NHS from the inside and see how the individuals who are working there often bear the brunt of patients who are dissatisfied with some long waits but are doing their very best to assess and treat patients to the best of their ability as soon as they physically can! Teamwork where the reward is on a person/patient level - working harder doesn’t necessarily mean you can have an impact on a wider scale however it means a huge amount to the people who have an appointment with you who are looking for help and guidance to reduce their pain and improve their function to get back to doing things they need to do or enjoy doing.
I am just about to head to Christchurch, NZL for the next event of SailGP, we will be on the ground for a total of 4 days so understanding how best to manage your energy with a 13 hour time change is essential and takes some knowledge as well as experience. We are expecting to have two training days prior to racing, which hopefully means I can get some training time on the boat in addition to supporting the team in a Physio capacity. Upon return, it is a quick turnaround to get packed up ready to relocate to Barcelona for our first taste of AC40 sailing in the venue that we will race later in the year. We have done plenty of hours in the simulator since October last year, so I’m really looking forward to putting all of the computer time to good use out on the water!
I’m excited to be fully immersed in sailing once again and give it my all, it really is a special opportunity to get to represent your country and so I’m looking forward to the pressure and responsibility it brings. For now - my timeshifter app which we use to help with jet lag is recommending its time for a coffee to help adjust to NZL’s time zone and who am I to argue with science?!
6 months of life in clinic on the Isle of Wight, working with some fabulous colleagues who taught me a huge amount
Emirates GBR Sailing Team Photo February 2024
