EFFECTS OF VERBAL INSTRUCTION AND VIDEO INTERVENTION ON START IN SAILING REGATTAS

Abstract

João Santos, Gonçalo Dias e Duarte Araújo

This study aimed at investigating how the performance of young sailors emerges at the start in sailing regattas according to different types of intervention, namely: the verbal instruction provided by the investigator and uses the viewing of the video of the main aspects of the start to improve its performance. The sample consisted of 12 male sailors, Optimist class (12.00 ± 1.41), with 3-5 years of experience, in the regional and national ranking. The participants were divided into three experimental groups with 4 elements each: Group I (Indirect Intervention – Video) and Group II (Verbal Intervention) and Group III (Control Group). The video intervention group shows a better performance trend in the six starts, getting a relative frequency of verbalization with 71.8%. With regard to self-perception of the sailors, it appears that the video intervention group was the one that had the best perception, reaching 87.5% of utterances corresponding to the reported position. We concluded that the type of instruction provided to sailors prior to the start may have influenced their performance, especially the use of an indirect intervention (video). Probably, this type of intervention has directed sailors’ attention to the main technical aspects of the regatta start, facilitating the decision-making process.