Yoga Should be Compulsory for Skipper Training

This morning I webbed my toes and gripped to my yoga towel, clung for dear life and obediently “found stillness”.

I have a Sunday routine and it’s wild. This is a phrase normal people don’t say. But maybe you relate? As of July, I both differentiate a Sunday from any other day and have been in one place long enough to press ‘Book again’ on the yoga timetable!

How many times do you have to repeat something for it to become a routine? For a sailor: more than twice.

And what a treat. I get to hold 26 uncomfortable positions, twice per-side!! in 40-degree heat and 40-degree humidity. The intense conditions demand absolute focus and makes them more mentally nourishing. Or translated: the yoga is so hardcore and gross that you can’t think about anything else or you’ll slip in the pool of sweat on your now-not-non-slip towel and end up in some extremely undignified position.

Is it me, or does this sound like sailing?

I suffer from the high-achiever chronic illness of needing to earn relaxation. So, this 8am yoga class routine started so I could better enjoy buying the Sunday newspaper, sitting in a café and drinking coffee. I trade 90 minutes of minor-suffering for 90 minutes of pleasure.

You can take the sailor off the sailing boat, but can you take sea out of the sailor?

Yoga might sound awful to you, but maybe you agree there’s nothing more pleasurable than beer, fresh greenery and dry linen after 1000NM upwind.

Reading-th’papers on a Sunday is a simple pleasure I idealize when sailing. So, I’ve been relishing it. It’s like the ultimate yin compared to the yang of life at sea. It’s comforting in its nostalgia and takes me back to days climbing into my parent’s bed with my brothers to reading the comic section. And to be clear, I can’t really stomach much news right now, but I find immense satisfaction in doing 35% of a crossword.

After my Sunday routine today, I walked home and asked myself the same question I ask after every sailing race: do I actually like it?

Should I keep yoga-ing or find some other payment plan for my paper ritual? I could trail run, sea-swim or possibly liberate myself and just sleep. Is yoga like sailing and ‘type-2’ fun? Or no fun at all? Just character building?

And I made a surprise conclusion. Sailing and yoga are actually both fun! Who knew! I’d even go as far to say that they are type-1 fun. Yes, really.

I realized, I actually enter the café with the paper (aka crossword) more relaxed than when I leave. And it’s because I’ve come from the mental spa that is yoga.

Why is that burger and full nights sleep so enjoyable after the offshore trip? Is it because you’ve suffered so much? Or because, your mind is at rest? Because you’ve been so engaged with the present moment your taste and your senses are extra pronounced and you’ve slowed down enough to pay attention.

Which makes me think maybe we’ve branded sailing wrong. Should sailing, like yoga, pivot into the mindfulness arena? We sell sailing as adventure and growth and resilience. Maybe the greatest gift sailing really gives us is space - “find stillness in sleep deprivation.”

Then I made another conclusion. And it’s a bold one: I think yoga should be compulsory for skipper training.

Because sailors need to be flexible and fix things in weird positions in sweaty, humid places! Well, true. But that’s not the reason. I think skippers – maybe even all sailors - should practice yoga because it’s training for being present and releasing your ego.

As a skipper ego has only ever gotten me into trouble at sea. Competitively, if I give my ego too much airtime I get desperate and make desperate and probably desperately bad decisions.

From a safety point of view, any egoic notion like: “I’m in control” usually rubs nature up the wrong way and she tends to respond with a cloud “we didn’t see coming from anywhere!” Definitely wasn’t in the forecast – how weird. So weird it happens pretty much every time.

And, then as a leader - the easiest way to isolate yourself from your team is to build yourself a stage so high up that no one can hang out there with you. On a long trip, that’s lonely and sad and suppressing those big emotions ends up with an irritable, snappy version of the skipper and a psychologically unsafe environment for everyone else.

So, yes – yoga makes sailors safer! Because it helps you release your ego. Who’s with me?

I know for you yoga cynics, it might be hard to believe that yoga is a spiritual exercise in ‘letting go’ when you see the extortionately expensive leggings, airconditioned kitchen-yoga for tik-tok and ‘#SundaySelfCare + yoga emoji Instagram tags. But this isn’t the rooted real yoga – it’s just the highlight reel.

In real yoga, the only way to hold the pose is to clear your mind and think about nothing. Compare yourself with your neighbour… draw conclusions like ‘the instructor must hate me / fancy me (or both?)… think how great your tree pose looks… or wonder if Spain or Argentina will win football tonight… and you’ll fall over and look like a cartoon of an anxious spider. Whichever way, ego loses. And presence wins.

It’s the same in sailing. The 30 second highlight reel of a Fastnet does not include when you bit your fingernails so low whilst deciding to go east or west of the Scillies. And the sunset on deck photo doesn’t show the crew-member down below furiously cleaning up oats out of someone’s Dubarry boot before they notice the breakfast has become porridge. These moments are the real sailing. They are what make the memories. They’re what keep us going out there. Why? Because you are fully, singularly present.

I’ve realised while writing this, that so many expensive, embarrassing or emotionally draining mistakes I've made offshore had one thing in common: Ego. Pushing sails too hard, desperation to win, refusing help … and more.

Sure - age, experience, having less to prove - all help shed ego. But, time in nature, time self-reflecting, and time in the yoga studio have helped too.

So, if you need any last encouragement to give that 1 month yoga trial a go … read on and learn all the things you could avoid!