Issue date
Interview with Francisco Lardies, coach of the Kohimarama Yacht Club ‘Hard core’ Optimist Squad.
Frankie is a full time professional coach; he spends his summers in New Zealand coaching for Kohimarama Yacht Club, then his winters coaching in the USA. He has some impressive race results behind him as a sailor with a 2nd place in the 2009 420 World Championships, and competing internationally in the Optimist, SL16 and 470 classes.
Hello Frankie, you were the coach of the KYC Hard Core Optimist Squad at the Optimist Nationals. You had five sailors in the top ten, 3 in the top 5. Four of your sailors made it into the Optimist World’s team. Very impressive result!
Really happy with the results at the Nationals, the sailors peaked at the right time giving their best results of the season.
How was the rest of the season?
Not our best, we didn’t win any of the other regattas, in the previous season we won every regatta. We lost a couple of the top sailors as they moved out of the optimist and the others didn’t step it up until right at the end of the season.
What were your thoughts on the Optimist Nationals at Worser Bay?
Awesome event, super close for the top 5 spots, it was a little unfortunate about the weather. The regatta only ran on three days because of strong winds and those three days were windy. This could have affected the results a bit, making it tough for the lighter sailors, the top 2 ranked sailors didn’t make the worlds team so that was disappointing for them. That being said some light guys still did make the top 5, it was very tight with the top 7 sailors going into the last race.
What 3 things made the Kohimarama squad so successful?
1.Quality time on the water over quantity
2.Getting the right group of sailors together of a similar ability to push each other
3.Really well prepared, the whole season was planned and mapped out in October; everyone from the parents, sailors and coaches agreed to the plan and committed to it. From there it was just about getting stuck in.
What was your programme, how much training did the squad do?
We would have a week off after a regatta, leading up to a regatta we would be training three times a week plus normal Sunday racing, the rest of the time was one training day a week. We competed in all the ranking regattas plus the pre Nationals and Sail Auckland.
What would you recommend to other coaches trying to help their sailors achieve better results?
Get to know your sailors, their goals and how they are going to achieve them
Planning and ‘buy in’ from everyone involved
You are now the coach for the NZ Optimist World’s team, what will you bring to the role?
Professionalism, planning and a decisive approach to the regatta.
What does the training programme for the Worlds look like?
Very busy, this year we are doing things a little differently, we will have all the travelling teams training together, so 32 sailors training almost every weekend; it is going to be full on.
What other coaching are you doing?
I’m the head 420 coach at Pelon in Marblehead USA, this will be my second season with them and I will coach there over the NZ winter.
You recently qualified as a YNZ Regatta Coach, how did you find the course?
Good, was a really good format with a lot of discussions on different coaching techniques. It was good having other coaches there to bounce ideas around and share knowledge.
