ROSS WILLIAMS
My best advice is repetition and practice. The more starts you do the more comfortable you become. You will be become better at gauging where you are in relation to other riders and how close to the line you are, where you can accelerate and how to look at your line to the first mark. Also you will figure out what end of the start line to use. So for me practice is the key. If you try ten starts a day that will help you dramatically. Use a watch that you are familiar with and have it on your front arm not on your wrist. You need to be able to quickly glance at your watch and know the exact seconds. Before I start my final run, during the last minute, I look at my watch and then keep glancing at it right down to 18 seconds. Then I am almost looking at the line and the other riders. Right at the last few seconds I will glance again just to check I am not too early. A small start line or a biased line can pack people down. If you are confident in your speed then maybe you can avoid the pack. There are different little tricks for every setup. An even start line is probably the most difficult. Everyone can read it and everybody is on it and we all start together in a close pack! Starts can be so tough. When you are coming to the line and the wind is light, you can be in the position where you want to be and then get hustled. Because there is not enough wind to manoeuvre into a new position you can get pigeon holed where you are forced to start in a bad place. That happened to me in Korea, I did not get a good start because I was cautious. It was not a terrible start but together with mediocre rounding of the buoys I was out in the first heat! A few of the guys take more risks than others, especially towards the final. It depends how confident guys are with their speed. You have to calculate who is in your heat, how much is at stake and size yourself up mentally against your opponents.
“ You have to calculate who is in your heat, how much is at stake and size yourself up mentally against your opponents. ”
