Peter Hart Technique

Issue 310 - OCT 2011

THE LONG (FRONT) ARM OF THE LAW

You use your whole body windsurfing but is there one key part? Harty reckons so.

A

fter a week long improver’s course out in windy Egypt, one bloke, a few beers to the good, suddenly declared: “you know Harty - instead of luring us out here into the desert at vast expense, you could have just sent us all a big bit of paper with the words: “KEEP THE FRONT ARM STRAIGHT!” written on it. Because it seems to me that that is all you have to do!”

Although it gets people thinking in the right direction, the mantra isn’t strictly correct. You certainly don’t want to keep your front arm straight all the time.

He had a point. Dodgy acceleration, slow waterstarts, stalled carve gybes or stacked forward loops seemed to draw the same old cry from the coach.

In the following few pages I shall aim to prove that you can transform your windsurfing just by focusing on this one humble limb.

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What is true, however, is that the better you get at windsurfing, the more you use the front arm for power control and just about everything.

PUSH (to get in the straps)

Sliding into the straps and onto the plane is all about kidding the board that nothing untoward is going on. Heavy feet and sudden changes of trim are bad news. The trick is to put as much distance between the mast and your front shoulder as possible so you can move back WITHOUT pulling the rig back. It’s all possible if you keep the front hand back on the boom and power up the sail by extending the front arm.

The front hand is almost touching the harness strap and the front arm is extended, which allows him to push body and hips right back whilst keeping the rig upright

Physical conditioning In all sports a lot is made of the ‘muscle memory’ phenomenon. It’s a misnomer in that muscles don’t actually have memories but it describes the process of progressing from the cognitive, to the autonomous stage of learning. That is to say moving from having to actively think through every movement, to a state where, where through multiple repetitions, the sequence of movements is automatic.

You all experienced such a transition on day one of windsurfing. Hiccups on those first runs were almost entirely due to a lack of instinctive power control. Gust flies through the trees and hits sail.

Brain tries to remember what to do. Too late. Sail in water. However, by the end of that first session, your pratt-fall count has halved just through you learning to open the sail to dump power before you reach tipping point.

Now here’s the downside of this muscle memory lark. Muscles don’t know necessarily know the right way to do things, they just know the path most travelled. So it is that the reflexes and responses garnered on that first day stay with you unless you make a very positive effort to beat a new path. That’s also why that bad habits picked up on day one can be so engrained and destructive.

But it’s not always about bad habits so much as stunted growth. A certain technique, which may be appropriate on day one ends can end up restricting your progress unless you develop it.

That’s absolutely the case in the way we learn to use the arms to control the sail.

In that position, all he has to do is tuck the front foot under the knee and he’s away with no upset.

Asked the question ‘where lies the secret to expert windsurfing?’ painful recent experience may persuade you to answer: “arms of steel;” or “supreme balance.”

The answer, of course, is “power control.” All the well-meaning tips of “stand tall, relax, bend the knees, lean forward etc” are unachievable if you’re the slave to that unruly sea-through bag.

More dimensions The classic beginner error is letting the mast dip over to leeward as you feel pressure in the sail.

It’s a position from which you have no leverage.

So momentarily you assume the shouldersforward-bum-out Turkish toilet squat before dropping the rig and diving in after it.

The corrective instructions, and I can hear myself bellowing them multiple times across a Berkshire gravel pit circa 1982, is: “hold the mast upright!

Think of the sail as a door and your front hand is the hinge. The hinge doesn’t move. Just open the door to let wind out and close it to catch it.”

It works but it’s very 2 dimensional. You’re trying to imitate a dinghy. The mast stays still and your back hand is the mainsheet letting the sail in and out. Right from word go, the front hand is taken out of the equation and power control is uniquely a job for the back arm. That’s bad news as you try to climb the ladder.

The secret to windsurfing and the universe It’s an unavoidable fact that your first experience on a windsurfer is all about pulling and resisting.

High winds do nothing to dent that impression.

Sail pulls one way. You pull the other and off we go.

The root of so many windsurfing ill lies in defensiveness. It may be psychological and that the continual prospect of being catapulted places you in the back seat – and that’s no place to be when you’re getting fast and complex.

Most of the moves demand that you go with the flow and move towards the power source. And that can only happen if you bring the front arm into play.

If you’re looking to pinpoint the reasons for lack of progress I can tell you with some confidence it’s because your rig control hasn’t progressed at the same rate as your aspirations.

Learning to use the front hand/arm properly, is counter-intuitive but will transform your windsurfing. Here are a few examples starting with basic straight line power control.

PULL and PUSH! So this is the key. You can sheet a sail in by either pulling in with the back hand OR pushing away the front hand – or both. Conversely you can sheet out by pulling IN with the front hand or easing out the back hand (or both).

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POWER CONTROL at SPEED (front arm)

Speed is glorious and adrenalising. However, strangely, one of the scariest things is depowering at Mach 10. Especially on small kit in chop, you know that if you suddenly have to back off the power, you risk losing control of the nose and that’s not an option at 35 knots. If you use the front hand subtly to sheet out then you can back off and maintain your stance, mastfoot pressure and your health.

As a way to steer people into good power control habits, I get them using a harness almost as soon as they can uphaul. Now I don’t want to teach you to suck eggs here but have you ever stopped to consider how you actually hook in. For many it’s a big heave with both arms to bring the line to the hook. It works but it’s knackering in a big wind. The easiest way is to use the front arm. If you just pull on the front arm, you not only engage the line but you also depower the sail momentarily – a real bonus in a blow . It also means the whole process uses less than a micro-calorie of effort. As an exercise in a marginal breeze try hooking in with just the front hand on the boom.

Anyway the very best lesson from this is that having bent the front arm to engage the line, you then have to straighten it, and push the boom away to power up. It’s a life changing concept and critical to the next paragraph.

Push for speed (and a happy harness life).

Harty getting a little air off some chop on the Sotavento speed course. The problem is landing with a shock load on the fin and then spinning out and tripping. He backs off the power by bending the front arm slightly and moving forward towards the boom. He’ll then land more on the front foot and will just extend the front hand to power up again.

So there you are minding your own business, cruising along taking in the scenery when Johnny Speedster rattles up behind, his intentions abundantly clear – to overtake and humiliate. To avert this catastrophe you search for a new gear and instinctively (and correctly) tighten stomach and legs to deliver more power to the board. The reaction, which doesn’t work well is to seek more speed through sheeting in harder by hunkering down and pulling on the boom. The way to more knots, assuming you’re not wildly overpowered, is to push the front arm away.

The benefits are immediate.

- By pushing you drive power into the harness and away from the arms. Your core is far more powerful than your arms - You put more distance between your front shoulder and the mast and so gain more leverage and control.

- You push the rig forward and upright, gain more power, level the board off and prevent tail drag.

Many speed sailors, like Karin Jaggi, favour an underhand front hand grip when they’re maxed out. It’s a strong grip, which can make some defensive but it also makes it easier to pull and depower in a crisis.

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And talking of pushing for power – perhaps you suffer from that annoying habit of hooking out by mistake. It often occurs very early on in harness life when you’re reluctant to commit to the harness; and then again later when you move into strong winds and chop. The instant reaction is to question your set-up - boom too low? Lines too long? Both of which might place your hips too far from the boom. Nice try but it’s surely because in a mild crisis you revert to those old reflexes,

take the pressure on your arms and pull on the boom when you feel the power.

You only have to bring the boom an inch closer to your hips to release the tension on the line.

Premature unhooking is cured instantly by pushing on the front arm to drive the hips away from the boom and load up the harness.

Early plane - push away The speed at which you release onto the plane tests every aspect of your basic technique and is a litmus test of your ability – board trim, sail trim, wind awareness. So when it goes wrong, there are plenty of areas to inspect. However, the most common mistakes are choking the power as you accelerate and heading up as you move in the straps. Both those are down to the way you use the front arm and the position of the front hand.

The trick to accelerating is to maximise the power from the sail by holding it upright and then leave it upright as you step into the straps. When you place the front hand as far back on the boom as is comfortable and then extend the front arm, you not only power up but also put the greatest distance between your shoulders and the mast. Effectively that allows you to step into the straps without drawing the rig back and upsetting the trim.

By contrast when the front hand creeps forward on the boom and when the front arm bends, you depower the sail and can’t help but draw the back as you move into the straps. That releases the mastfoot pressure, the tail goes down and you head up - the smaller the board the more severe the problem.

Pulling on the front hand and bending the arms is an instinctive way of choking the power. It’s habit spawned by a few catapults and scary, windy moments. It’s a destructive reflex that messes up so many moves where you need a surge of power, waterstarts, gybes etc. However, bending the front arm, in many situations IS the best way to depower – so long as it’s on purpose and done the right way.

Pull to depower The less you move the rig when you’re planing, the more settled the board is on the water. Lots of sheeting in and out, delivers surges of power and in chop especially that gets the board and rider jumping like kids on a bouncy castle.

CREATING the SURGES (cue the front arm)

There’s a strange similarity between the waterstart, the loop. All demand a dynamic power surge to make things happen. Success comes primarily from a superman style punch with the front hand. It’s not just about powering up but also de-powering. To maximise the surge, the front hand starts bent to sheet the sail out, before uncoiling and extending to glory.

Chris Muzza Murray preparing to launch into a forward, sheets out by bending the front arm, an act which frees up the nose.

He then springs and initiates the rotation by punching the front hand forward and to windward.

It’s the same with the waterstart. A bent front arm holds the rig low to the water in the preparation phase.

In that position, all he has to do is tuck the front foot under the knee and he’s away with no upset.

Good sailors, notably racers, handle gusts and lulls by changing direction rather than opening and closing the sail – bearing away in the gusts and heading up in the lulls.

However sometimes, you do need to dump power effectively. It might be when at speed you’re hit by a monster gust; or you may need to back off speed to settle the board on the water coming into a choppy gybe, a bottom turn or indeed any manoeuvre. The trick is to sheet out without changing the board’s trim.

If you just open the back hand you not only cut off mastfoot pressure

and invite the nose to kick up, but you also get pulled inboard over the centreline and lose your shape.

The best way is to work the arms together, bending the front arm and extending the back arm slightly. But crucially you don’t bend it by pulling but instead by moving the shoulder towards the boom. The rig stays forward and crucially, to maintain mastfoot pressure, you drop onto the front hand, pull down on the boom and use your bodyweight to hold the nose steady. The crisis over, you extend the arm again and ease back into your stance.

Creating power surges Here I sit in glorious Donegal.

The mission is to take motivated recreational sailors into meaty waves and get them jumping and riding like they do in the movies.

Many have got to the stage where they’re getting into the right positions, catching the right waves and heading the right way. The next is to inject a bit of slash, rip and paaaaaah! A good windsurfing performance in and out of the waves is represented by periods of calm – the relaxed stance – followed by moments of wild dynamism as board throws spray, gouges a turn,

or launches skywards. To get that to happen, you to have to sheet the sail in suddenly to create a surge of power. Once again that only happens effectively if the front hand comes into play.

Lets start with the turns.

Going with the flow.

Sheeting in during gybes and carved turns is key to maintaining speed and holding the edge.

To control the forces, you sailor project forwards to anticipate the acceleration and get into a position where you can dominate the board.

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BACKWINDING – it ’s all in the front arm.

There’s barely a freestyle trick, new or old school that doesn’t involve a back-winded moment. It’s confusing in that all the controls are reversed. So many pull when they should be pushing and vice-versa. Forget sheeting in and out – it’s all about moving the rig in the windward leeward plane, raising it to power up and dropping it down to depower. All that control is done with the front hand. In all the moves check the position and attitude of the front hand – way back on the boom to give the sailor maximum room and NOT gripping.

Jamie depowers the rig by pulling in the front hand before hurling it forward and launching into a Taka.

All the control when back-winded (and in the air) comes from the front hand pushing the rig almost horizontal to the water.

Harty in mid back-wind gybe. There’s a load of power as you jump round on the plane. Control once again comes from the front hand pushing the rig way down. The back hand is almost redundant.

Front hand position is especially crucial for backwinded moves like the heli tack and upwind 360. The further back it is on the boom, the further forward you can throw the rig to get the nose to turn.

The issue with sheeting in solely by pulling on the back hand is that it gets you moving backwards. There’s also the concept of matching feet and hands. If you pull on the back hand you’ll load up the back foot.

That may be the aim if you’re looking to pivot around (slam gybe) but is absolutely NOT what’s wanted in a fast planing turn.

Everyone’s favourite classic old school, backwinded move is the carving 360. It’s frustratingly elusive. Success beckons when you let the front hand do the work, holding the rig down and pulling it back to a position where it doesn’t over-power you as you get back-winded.

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By sheeting in with the front hand, you load up the front foot and drop the nose as you initiate the carve – essential if you’re to engage all the rail.

The trigger is important. Many people’s cue to gybe or bottom

turn is either to pull on the back hand or stamp the back foot – i.e, a backwards movement. But if you initiate by extending the front arm, your first movement is forward.

A technical point here is the position of the back hand. The further back down the boom it goes, the less you have to do. Just hold the tension as you bear away and extend the front hand to centre of the turning circle.

Sudden surges Visually very different but there are stark technical similarities between the forward loop and waterstart.

- You need a surge of power to make things happen.

FRONT ARM GYBING!

Every bone in your body is screaming ‘power off!!’ as you enter the gybe. Hence the instinct is to start the gybe by pulling on the front arm. Not only does it dump power and slow you down but also causes you to drop back on the tail. Life changes forever when you initiate by extending the front arm and pushing the rig forward and into the turn. The benefits are many. You sheet the sail in and accelerate. The mfp drops the nose and engages the rail.

The rig pulls you forward on the board. And with the rig forward and out of the way you have space to project into. No argument then.

Front arm extended into the gybe sheets the sail in, engages the rail and gives you room to move.

- They go wrong when you just pull the back hand.

- They go right when you power up by extending the front hand.

In the waterstart you learn an important lesson that windsurfing is not all about digging in and resisting but often about going with the power. There’re a force (the rig) trying to pull you along, up or around, so let it!

In both the above moves the surge of power comes from working front and back hands in unison. Pushing the front and pulling the back.

In both instances the instinct is to pull on both arms to get the power. However, that doesn’t change the angle of the – it just pulls the whole rig back. It’s when you push with the front and pump with the back hand that you change the sheeting angle most dramatically and suddenly – and find the power to rise or spin.

Front arm bent, sail sheeted out, sailor falling back, board bouncing on the tail.

In both those moves, the top tip again is to creep the front hand back right up to the front harness line attachment.

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The good ol’ body drag. It’s one of the very few moves where you deliberately and correctly bend both arms throughout the move. Just don’t let it be habit forming!

The further back it is the harder you sheet in when you extend the arm.

Backwinding Vital to so many freestyle moves ancient and modern, is the art of back-winding the sail.

That is to say controlling it when you’re on the ‘wrong’ side facing the wind.

Power control comes not so much from sheeting in and out but in altering the rig’s pitch – leaning it down to windward to reduce the effective sail area. It’s all done by the front hand.

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Mistake number one as you attempt the helicopter tack for example, is pushing on the back hand as you get back-winded – an act which just powers up the sail and drives you onto your back – great spectator sport. Feeling over-powered, the sole remedy is to push the rig further down with the front hand.

In all the freestyle images capturing a back-winded moment, check the position and attitude of the front hand – back on the boom, no gripping, relaxed and holding the rig right down where it’s in no position to fight.

More technique wisdom from Harty in the next issue. In the meantime, feel free to contact him for his monthly newsletter on harty@peter-hart.com or check out his website for information on his legendary 2011/12 clinic tour www.peter-hart.com