Psychology

After winning a silver medal with Luke Patience, Stu Bithell made the switch to 49ers where the demands on the crew are different, and the tactical decisions come up faster than in the 470, although there are probably fewer decision points in the race because manoeuvres in the 49er can be costly....

Luke Patience won Olympic silver with Stu Bithell at London 2012. One of the deep thinkers in the sport, Patience is a big believer that you need to understand the ‘why’ of what you do, the reasons behind why the things you do.

Don't let the pecking order grind you down! That's the message from Sir Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy in Part 2 of ‘How to get good quick'. There's a fine balance between learning from the best in a new class, without making them the heroes you look up to, and therefore can never beat. Ben says: "I tend to look at the fast people's boats and the way they set them up. But you can't copy everything, you've just got to try to form your own style by taking the best of what other people do and trying a few new things of your own......"

With eight Olympic medals between them, Sir Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy are clearly very talented. But is this the only reason why they conquered the Finn and Star Worlds in their first season? We ask them how they learned so quickly, and how you can copy their approach for faster success in boats where you have limited experience....

Ian Walker talks through the lessons learned from winning two silver medals at the Olympic Games, one of which probably should have been gold, and one that probably shouldn't have been anything at all...

Ian Williams: what skills are transferrable from match racing back into the fleet racing world? Starting, mental strength, to name a couple. But boathandling and adaptability too....