Fitness & Food

Fitness and food

Emirates Team New Zealand fitness trainer David Slyfield is no stranger to elite athletes. He has been the strength and conditioning trainer to New Zealand Olympic medalists including Rob Waddell (rowing), Sarah Ulmer (cycling), Hamish Carter (triathlon), Barbara Kendall & Aaron McIntosh (sailing).

The team starts training at 6.30 am at Les Mills Gym most mornings and lasts for 60-75 minutes. When the team is putting in a full day’s sailing, training is typically 4-5 mornings a week.

When the team is not sailing, grinders and bowmen do up to nine fitness sessions a week. Training is made up of a combination of weights, running, cycling, touch rugby, boxing and kayaking. Grinders and bowmen do more weights and trimmers and the afterguard do more cardiovascular training.

Testing of strength, fitness, grinding ability and body-composition occurs three times a year. Sailing team members also enter local fitness events and races.

Emirates Team New Zealand fitness statistics:

• Fastest 3km run time: 10 minutes 46 seconds.
• Fastest 100k on a bike: 2 hours 50 minutes.
• Highest handle speed while grinding in a sailing manoeuvre: around 200rpm.
• Heaviest load on the headsail-sheet that a grinder is required to grind in: 4 tonnes
• In a typical gym session a sailor would lift around 10 tonnes of load
• Heaviest yachtsman in the team: 125kg
• Lightest yachtsman in the team: 74kg
• Every second month sailors do a "fun" fitness session. These range from log sawing races, to over/underground orienteering.
• The combined sailing team of 17 men must weigh less than 1570kg. To ensure the team’s weight is correct for the big regattas, each member of the sailing team is required to achieve a target weight that is set for them two years in advance of the Louis Vuitton Cup.
• In the sailing season, yachtsmen’s blood is monitored three mornings a week. They are checked for nutrient status, hormone status and signs of fatigue. The results lead to modifications to their meals, supplements and training patterns.

Food, nutrition and "emergency" rations

• Food is a big part of a yachtsman’s life. On a typical sailing day a grinder eats six meals and drinks 3-4 Musashi protein shakes. Breakfast, lunch, morning and afternoon snacks are prepared by the team chef Peter Yeo. Meals come in different sizes for different sailing positions. For example, grinders eat twice as much as members of the afterguard.
• Trainer David Slyfield divides the crew into two groups - nine with very physical jobs (the grinders, mastman, the pit and bow) and eight not so physical (the afterguard and trimmers). Food volumes are tailored to match.
• Every day during testing, Peter Yeo and his assistant prepare 45 lunch boxes for team members who spend their day on the water. Meals are roughly 30% protein, 40% carbohydrates and 30% vegetables. And at lunch time there’s no confusion about which lunch box is for the grinders - there’s a large black "G" on the lid.
• If an army marches on its stomach as Napoleon said, an America’s Cup sailing crew is not far behind. In addition to breakfast and lunch, there’s the "tow-out box" that’s broken into as the yachts are being towed to the training area - morning tea of muffins, sandwiches and fruit.
• On the tow back in, there’s the "tow-in box", which contains juices, Musashi recovery products, protein shakes and electrolyte drinks mixed with Waiwera Infinity water.
• And just in case testing is extended for the day, there’s a sealed "emergency" box of food on the tender.
• When the team is competing at Valencia, Malmo (Sweden) and Trapani (Sicily) this year Peter Yeo will be preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner from his new portable kitchen.