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Peter Soosalu realised the value of a good coach as a 13-year-old.
He had been a decent sailor in Canada up until this point but said a "switch got flicked" when former America's Cup sailor Kai Bjorn opened his eyes to the possibilities available to him.
"I got this really cool coach who basically said, 'here are these really cool opportunities'. He had just finished an America's Cup campaign so that certainly opened my eyes to it. He showed me how to train really hard, work really hard, chip away at the programme; a lot of the coaching values we have now.
"He was, not to put anyone else down, the most influential coach I have had. I have had many who have been big influencers but he was the first one who helped me realise what I could do."
Soosalu is now trying to have a similar influence over young sailors and coaches as Yachting New Zealand's new coach development officer.
It is a key role for the national sports organisation, especially as Sport New Zealand have identified good coaching as one of the key drivers of participant satisfaction.
Soosalu will lead coach development, support, education and training opportunities, from novice towards high performance. Part of his role with Yachting New Zealand will also see him involved in regular coaching with the youth programme.
The 30-year-old has lived in New Zealand for the past four years and worked predominantly in a coaching and management role at the Murrays Bay Sailing Club. He's played a large hand in the success achieved by youth sailing world champions and former 420 world champions Seb Menzies and Blake McGlashan but is ready to extend the reach of his coaching philosophies.
"For me, it’s about making sure it’s a really sailor-centric model, helping them to work towards the goals they are trying to achieve," he said. "If they’re not sure what they want to do, you can always show them some of the different options out there. But it's really making sure they’re the ones really driving the programme; get them inspired and excited about the whole thing.
"A lot of what I have seen so far is this conversation on participation versus performance and seeing them as two separate things. To me, having fun and enjoying the sport is a necessary pre-cursor to having that performance. You can link the two. Even while you are performing, you need to enjoy it. Those two things go hand in hand."
Soosalu's original ambitions were as a skiff sailor but he recognised he wasn't really big enough for the 49er and also realised he had a passion for coaching. He completed a sports science degree in Canada and started coaching fulltime in Canada and the United States before moving to New Zealand to further his sailing education.
Some of his sailors won Canadian national titles and he went to his first world championships as a coach in 2014. He's been involved in various New Zealand teams and this week travelled to Oman with the New Zealand squad to compete at the Asian Optimist championships (pictured above).
He still has ambitions as a sailor, and next month will compete at the J24 world championships in Miami, and he also dabbles with the WASZP.
"I see the WASZP as a local boat to keep chipping away and learning about things," he said. "My other philosophy is coaching and sailing, one makes you better with the other so why not let that play into it as positively as you can? I need to keep learning about the new stuff coming out and foiling is the next step. If you are going to keep leading the trends, you’ve got to go somewhere with it.
"I wanted to join Yachting New Zealand because I think it’s a world-class support network of people, a place where you can go and be good at what you do. I want to improve as a coach but also help other coaches improve their skills. You can’t do it by yourself. I love being part of a team while trying to work towards the same thing."
- Peter Soosalu can be contacted on peters@yachtingnz.org.nz
