Gold and Silver Level
Our BaseCamp concept is by far our most popular ILCA training programme and for good reason. Designed to be highly flexible, BaseCamp allows sailors to train with us for anything from a few days to several months, depending on their goals and availability.
BaseCamps are hosted primarily in Malta during the winter months and in Valencia, Spain, throughout the summer, taking advantage of the best seasonal sailing conditions each location offers.
This programme gives athletes access to some of the world’s best ILCA coaches, a strong group of dedicated training partners, and one-on-one support from our in-house strength and conditioning coach, who will help take your fitness to the next level.
What more could an ILCA sailor ask for?
Beyond training, SailCoach’s BaseCamp is about immersion. Sailors get to experience the daily routine of professional ILCA athletes from their training discipline and equipment preparation to their approach to recovery and mental focus. Simply being exposed to this culture is an eye opener for many sailors and often becomes a turning point in their development.
So what does it involve?
Sailors can stay for up to one month at a time at our Malta or Valencia SailBases, being introduced to an Olympic sailors way of life, getting into a routine of sailing, fitness, briefings, protein shakes and sleep. BaseCamps have a broad focus, giving sailors the opportunity to work on different areas of their development. Primarily aimed at ILCA 7 and 6 athletes campaigning for a goal regatta, the beauty of BaseCamp is that sailors get to experience and practice in every type of sailing condition as the weather varies throughout the month. Athletes can get into the routine of a true ILCA professional and often sailors make the biggest improvements in performance during BaseCamp training stretches. Athletes get to work with a coach for a prolonged time and therefore perfect specific techniques. Competition is provided by the other ILCA sailors in the BaseCamp making the training sessions competitive. Fitness levels benefit also from working out a couple of times a day with our in house strength and conditioning coach. Often address body weight issues are addressed as there is a reasonable and consistent time frame to achieve such goals.
Another major bonus of the BaseCamp programme is that sailors become members of the SailCoach ‘family’. Friendships are formed with training partners and coaches as the SailCoach team live, eat and sail together usually in a wide mixture of cultures. These friendships and cultural interactions can be important for the development of athletes, both in their sailing and in their life experiences. We see this as one of our important strengths.
Furthermore, English is the first language of Team SailCoach with all coaching and life conducted through English. This gives BaseCamp sailors the chance to develop the language and often they return home with a much-improved vocabulary.
If you are a ILCA 6 sailor we run ILCA 6 BaseCamps from time to time, so please ask when the next one is planned.
From our gallery
Ten additional benefits of BaseCamp!
What you can expect
A typical day
Depending on the venue the day will start with a physical training warm-up session, sometimes before breakfast, sometimes after. These physical training sessions will be conducted by our in-house fitness coaches, with care being taken that the exercises are suitable for that age group and to ensure the safety of the sailors taking part in the sessions. This will be followed by a briefing on what the coach plans for the days sailing sessions, pointing out the areas where the coach intends to focus, taking into consideration the prevailing weather conditions. Depending on the venue and the weather forecast the coach may decide to run one longer session instead of two shorter sessions. After a late lunch, there will be a debrief on the days sailing session. The fitness coach will take control of the group again after sailing, running a gym session and a cool-down session which sometimes involves an ice bath or swim. Again, depending on the venue there will be a debrief on the day’s activities either before or after dinner. There will be some time set aside in the evening to relax before bed… the next day it starts all over again! We are flexible giving you the opportunity to fit in with your study/work schedule by letting sailors join the BaseCamp programme for a number of days or weeks instead of the usual month.
