Game Plan Philosophies
Different teams matched against different skill levels require varying game plans. A team that wants to take control early might want to aggressively attack their opponents during the pre-race engagement. Aggressive controlling actions will intimidate the competition. On the other hand, a team that is confident that their boat speed alone will prove them victorious throughout the race course and across the finish line, might not want to Team Race at all. If the team is confident that they will beat their competition on speed alone, they might want to use fleet race tactics and stay away from alternative penalty 360’s or potentially risky protests. Although this strategy does not seem to be in the true spirit of Team Racing, it can be effective to minimize threatening losses, losses that may cost the trophy!
One philosophy proposed by U. C. Irvine Team Racer, Jamie Malm, is to stop the race whenever your team is losing. In other words, stop at a mark and condense the race, hoping for a favorable outcome. An example of this might be to have the person in second place, of a 2/4/6 combination, stop at the reach mark and try to make a passback with the team mate in fourth. This is sound team racing philosophy but should be quantified as a component of Team Racing strategy, such as the goal of obtaining a winning 2/3/4 combination from a 2/4/5 combination.
Another philosophy, not necessarily in the spirit of Team Racing, is the effort to draw rule infringements (fouls) or protests from the opponents. Team Racing history is scarred with these type of races in which an inferior team has taken advantage of potential protest situations whenever possible, knowing that their only hope of victory would be to draw fouls from the other team and win in the protest room. This manual does not support that type of ‘draw penalty’ oriented game plan.
Execution of a solid game plan is contingent upon all team members understanding the current combination. This is accomplished by simply seeing it on the water or being signaled the same information by a team mate. Once all team members know their current combination, they must also know what their next move will be, whether to maintain or attack from their position in the combination. This manual is all about accomplishing your game plan. The paragraphs to follow will introduce a foundation from which you may develop sound Team Racing strategy - a versatile game plan.
A solid Team Racing game plan is based on the fact that the team is made up of individual members who each think and act independently to contribute toward the common team goal, a particular winning combination. This manual is based on the strategy of achieving and maintaining one of three solid winning combinations:
1/2/X 2/3/4 1/4/5
The X in the 1/2/X represents any position and places the importance on maintaining the 1/2. As will be demonstrated, all other possible combinations can be converted to one of these three solid winners. Another strength of these particular combinations is the difficulty they pose for an opposing team to break through and convert to a losing combination. Therefore, this manual will suggest that these three solid combos be the core of your team’s game plan.
