Close Quarters Combat

These drills are just a fun and exciting way to practice the fundamental skill of holding position. Being able to hold position is most important skill for the competitive aspect of starting, and can be sharpened alone with focused time spent doing bow on the bouy, using the bouy to simulate different starting positions. Going one step further, AMWOT drill can help sharpen the maneuvers you will use to hold position, to help you do the basic bow on bouy drill with more control. Become better at preventing backwards/ side slippage, and opportunities for you to upgrade your space in the front row will appear naturally and inevitably. As you gain better control and awareness/foresight, you’ll notice the people to windward gradually slip into you and get forced to tack, giving you an opportunity to conquer more space with a double tack. The people to leeward will also slip away from you, allowing you to be more comfortable sitting in a tight gap when you have time left in the sequence, giving you the ability to win battles in tight spaces at the favored end. Anticipation/ foresight is a big player here, understanding that tight spaces usually don’t work out late in the sequence (not enough time to build space to accelerate), and being able to read the flow of people so you can see where space will open up/ where space will close. Understanding what's possible for holding position in given wind, wave and current conditions is critical, better foresight to read situations that can improve over time, vs situations that inevitably lead to a dead end.