Ask what separates the truly great from the very good in almost any sport, and often the answer is Mental Strength. Few sailors are more qualified to talk about this subject than Jimmy Spithill who skippered Oracle Team USA to one of the greatest comeback victories in sport when his crew turned around an 8-1 deficit to win the 2013 America’s Cup.

One of the most decorated sailors in the world, at the age of 30 Jimmy made history by becoming the youngest skipper to win the America's Cup. His sailing successes go far beyond that... but that’s not what you’re here for!

In this exclusive session, we dig in and find out what makes Jimmy so different from your average sailor. In just 60 minutes, the sailing legend reveals his entire approach to growth and continued success on the water.

Over the next hour, you’ll get an insight into...

• how Jimmy bounces back from failure
• coping in high pressure situations
• how to properly prepare (to the point that success is almost inevitable)
• the power of the squad mentality
• laughing in the face of adversity 💪🏼

Below are timecodes along with some of our favourite quotes from the session, but to get the most out of it and soak up Jimmy’s winning mentality, we recommend watching the entire hour. And FYI there’s an MP3 download link at the bottom of the page if you want to listen to the session on the go. As was the case with me, I’m sure you’ll find your mind turning with possibilities as you listen to his words of wisdom...

Jimmy is also a big fan of what we’re doing at Road To Gold, and we can’t thank him enough for his support. For more details on our 12-step racing program, check out this link: https://roadtogold.net/p/program

TIMECODES

00:00 Introduction

06:00 Did Jimmy start out with a large amount of confidence and self belief?

08:18 Having ginger hair makes you tougher

12:45 What does boxing have to do with sailing?

18:05 How to spot when somebody lacks the winning mindset

21:05 The difference between Confidence and Mental Toughness (and can it be taught?)

24:06 Jimmy’s approach to handling defeat

33:08 Building blocks for self confidence

35:35 Sports psychology in sailing

43:25 Jimmy’s thoughts on Road To Gold

45:52 Managing regatta expectations during a major event: What mental tools do you use when you're ahead in a series (compared to when you're behind)?

53:25 Calculated Risk: Is Jimmy a big risk-taker?

1:02:48 How do you bring out the best in a team?

KEY INSIGHTS

Putting in the Work

“Let's face it, equipment is very important in the sport of sailing. But I think one of the other key factors is the amount of time you put in, and making sure that the hours add up.”

“In boxing there's no hiding, there's no shortcut. You can't trick yourself into thinking you can get away with not training very hard. You're going against people that are the same weight and putting in the same amount of training, and it really exposes you.”

On being bullied

“There were times that were uncomfortable, I'd say almost frightening. But when I look back on it was actually really, really important and quite critical. Some lessons you have to learn the hard way.”

Finding the Right Support Group

“As you get on in your sporting career, especially in team sport, you start to see how important it is to be surrounded by good people. Not just on the boat, but especially off the boat.”

“I take self confidence in the people around me. When I look at the people around me and the attitude they display, and putting their team before themselves.”

“You see very few personality conflicts when you're winning and things are going great. But the guys I want to start with and be surrounded by are actually in the tough moments and the bad moments. And that's kind of strange, because you obviously don't want to go out there and have those bad moments. It's not like my big strategy is Oh guys, let's go out there and just throw off the race and put ourselves in a real bad situation here.

“Sometimes you'll go into programs and you'll see, it's really easy to talk about what you're good at, in the debrief talking about what went really well, whereas the biggest growth rate is typically what didn't go well, and why. I know it seems strange when talking about self confidence, but the more vulnerable you can be and expose yourself, actually the more confidence I've got from it.”

Talent vs. Being Prepared

“I'll just be completely candid: I don't think I have any more talent than someone living next door, or the guy down the road. So for me, the approach was I’m really going to have to outwork these guys, to look under every stone and try and tick all of the boxes. Some guys can get away with not doing everything, whereas I felt like I didn't have that option. It had to be an all-in approach.”

“No matter how well you prepare and you tick every single box, there's no guarantees. And I actually really like that about sport, because that's what makes it so tough and engaging, and at times character building.”

“Of course you need confidence and mental toughness, but I think a lot of it comes from the preparation you put in, as well as going through the good and bad moments. That's all part of the process.”

“In your preparation, you know if you've taken any shortcuts. So if you've put in the time and the dedication in the lead up to a big event, you can take self confidence in that. You can truly say to yourself, ‘Well, look, we've followed all the steps, we've put in the time, in the technical side, the preparation, the physical side.’ And when all of those parts come together, that really does affect the mental side, because it gives you the self confidence that you deserve to be competing here. We can go in with the confidence of knowing we have a shot, because we haven't taken any shortcuts and we've put in the hard work.”

“My original view on big wave surfers was that they’re huge risk-takers – just get out there, off you go. But you’ve never seen a more prepared bunch of athletes, that turn over every single stone. And just to see how they’re approaching a life-and-death situation, the way they build themselves up to what is seen by so many to be high risk is actually really calculated by them. They give themselves such a high percentage chance of success through everything they're doing. There's free-dive courses, special techniques, their fitness and their safety teams, the communication flow, and all these pieces to the puzzle that you really had no idea of. What they're doing really reduces the amount of risk. So yeah, I think it just comes down to to the preparation, leading up to whatever you're doing. What is perceived as quite risky can actually be quite calculated.”

Facing Adversity

“You've only got so much time and energy during the day. And so my belief – what I’ve seen work – is that you might as well spend it on the things that really are going to help you be more competitive or give you a better chance of winning.”

“But through experience, and through time, I think that's where you learn some of those traits. Because you have to be completely open and expose yourself, and really be quite candid about Well, what isn't working here? What are our weaknesses and how do we learn from that?”

“Clearly, I can't go back in time and change that call, or go back and undo the mistake I made. But what I can do is look at what I could have potentially done a little bit different leading into that decision. And at the end of the day, that call, or that mark rounding, etc shouldn't be the deciding factor. The deciding factor will be how you deal with it, how you learn from it, and then apply that in the next situation that comes up.”

Calculating Risk

“I see risk in a couple of ways. I would say sitting on the couch and doing nothing would be real risky. Because what are you really learning about yourself in that situation? For me, risk is not going out in an irresponsible way, just going out gung-ho. Whereas making calculated risk is a really fascinating part of it.

Also the risk of putting yourself out there, putting yourself on the line, facing competition. In some ways that's a bit of a risk, because you're going to be judged, one way or another. But for me, putting yourself out there in those sort of situations is really where you learn the most about yourself. You just don't learn much about yourself sitting on the couch at home. Yeah, there is risk out there, but for me, it's calculated. I really think long and hard with a really great group of people around me about what we're going to take on, and how we're going to do it.”

“A few mates of mine were in the Special Forces in the military. I remember this just sticking in my mind where he said, Listen, you need to get comfortable being uncomfortable. And let's face it, they do life-and-death risk. But in some ways, the way they approach certain scenarios isn't that much different to us when we go into a high pressure sporting moment. Trying to calculate the risk, set up a way of operating and communication. How we assess that situation, and then making a decision.”

Thoughts on Road To Gold

“To me, the Road To Gold program is a no brainer, because it's a way that you can get online, look at some of these tools and methods, hear from different sailors that have different backgrounds and experiences, and then apply that in a way that can help you grow as well. So it's good timing, this program, because yeah, I do have a couple of weeks to try and get better leading into this next event for me, that's for sure!”

Jimmy has such a powerful mindset when it comes to racing, learning from failure, mental toughness, and a whole host of other topics, honestly we could listen to him all day! We’ll definitely be inviting him back on to chat with us more soon...

🧠 BONUS DOWNLOAD

Want to take your mental training to the next level? Below you can download our free ebook Sail Mental. It'll take you through the process of incorporating mental rehearsal into your racing, start to finish (so you can make progress even when you're not on the water)

If you enjoyed this session with Jimmy, then be sure to sign up for our back-catalogue of Q&As, with such sailing champs as Pete Burling & Blair Tuke, Hannah Mills, Torben Grael, Mat Belcher & many more!

👉🏻 Sign up to get stuck in right away 👈🏻