Intervju s Trevorjem Millarjem

   05.06.09 @ 15:41

Med spring cup-om sem naredil intervju z vrhunskim jadralnim trenerjem, trenerjem, ki je z Vaskom osvojil vrsto velikih dosežkov. Intervju je v angleščini. Žal ni na voljo slovenske verzije le-tega.

 

I hope, you know Vasilij Žbogar, a sailor on Finn at that moment, but in his early history he got two medals in Olympic Games with the most popular boat in the world. To achieve such result, you have to train a lot and also you need coaches. I would like to present his coach Trevor Millar. Trevor Millar is director of SailCoach. This is a company which organizes and coaches young as well as top level sailors. During Spring Cup 2009 I asked Trevor for an interview.


Trevor, you are one of the best sailing coaches in the world so could you tell me something  about your past? When did you start sailing? Which classes? And when did you begin coaching?


I started sailing when I was at school. I built my first boat out of wood in the wood work department. That is how I started in the sailing program.  Then I had first laser in Ireland in 1973 or 1974 but I had to go to handicap racing with over single handed boat because there were no other sailors on laser to sail against. Then in the late 70ies I had some problems with my back and I stopped sailing and started coaching. So, I’ve been coaching since 1979. That is 30 years.


Is it possible for an untalented sailor to become one of the best?


It depends on how you describe talent. Talent is something which is very difficult to put your finger on. So I think that people who are dedicated enough can always make it to the top and the talent will always help and sometimes talent gets in the way. 

But if you work hard can you achieve a good result?

Benefit sportsman is a mixture of lots of different things like: talent, dedication - hard work. And if those two things work together you have better chances of being successful. 


Slovenian sea is very small and there is also not so much wind. Are you likely to achieve a good result in international regattas if you train just in one bay, like Slovenian Adriatic sea?


Yes, on some point you have to move away to get international competition. But Slovenia has a very good record for such a small country. In Laser, Finn and 470. But at some stage you have to move away and get exposed to international competitions and contribute in international competition. Again there isn’t one rule to say that this is the way to do it. So, It is a mixture of different things.


Which good sailors did you coach?

Oh, my first world champion in the Laser class was Lawrence Crispin. That was in 1985, when I was a British coach. Since then there has been quite a number of youth world champions. I haven’t got another Laser champion, but Vasilij’s olympic medals are set very  high on my list of achievements.


With Vasilij you have been recording sailcoach DVD. When will we be able to buy it?

We hope it will be ready by the end of the summer. It is always quite complicated to put everything together. But we are working hard on it.


In Slovenia there are many young sailors on Optimist. But there are just a few world ranking sailors like Vasilij. Why?

There is a very small population of 2 million people and everybody can’t be at the top of the world rankings. But I saw that Laser class is very very healthy in Slovenia. And we will see a lot more Slovenian olympic medalists in the future.


How important are talent, physical and mental preparation, technique and tactics?

I mean, it all depends on the individual,  again. There is no single formula to say this is the best. Everyone is a little bit different. But physically you have to be the right size and the right shape for the class on which you sail. That is the first thing. Then you have to be strong enough to be able to sail in strong winds. But physical strength is not enough you also have to be mentally well prepared.  Sailors might start to sail much younger, at the age of 7. As a coach at the top level you don’t have to deal with tactical situations because when you are 18 - 20 years old you are enough experienced in tactics. And at the top level it is more about mental side, making people confident that they can do well and achieve their results. 

 

Trevor, thank you for interview and good luck in future,

 

Tim Podlogar