PROFILE – MARK RUSHALL
HOMENEWSPEOPLEPROFILE – MARK RUSHALL
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MARK TALKS STRATEGIES WITH TWO OF GB’S SAILING TEAM
MARK RUSHALL WON HIS FIRST NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AT THE AGE OF 16
MARK’S SAILING EXPERTISE SECURED HIS PLACE ON THE GB RACING TEAM
MARK WAS THE GB SAILING TEAM’S STRATEGIST FOR THE RIO OLYMPIC GAMES
MARK TALKS STRATEGIES WITH TWO OF GB’S SAILING TEAM
MARK RUSHALL WON HIS FIRST NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AT THE AGE OF 16
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18 Feb 2021
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Mark Rushall – coach, strategist/tactician, mentor and author – certainly has an impressive CV. He’s been a coach with the British Sailing Team since 2006, was the team’s racing strategist for Rio in 2016, and is currently working on Tokyo and Paris.
A prolific content provider, Mark produces training videos, is a regular contributor to Yachts and Yachting magazine and a visiting lecturer at Chichester University.
In 2007, his first book, RYA Tactics, was published and the third extended edition was released in paper and e-book form in December 2019.
Following his first national championship win aged 16, Mark has continually notched up National, Euro and World championship wins in a range of dinghy and keelboat classes. Not bad for someone who completed teacher training with no formal career plan and whose life goal is to ‘be outside as much as you can’.
A self-proclaimed ‘terrible swimmer’, aged eight, Mark was tasked to swim a length of his local pool in Rugby; if he did, his father agreed to help him build a boat. Having held his breath the entire length, the rest as they say is history.
Higher sights
“Sailing became my life. In the Mirror dinghy with my younger sister Ruth, we set our sights higher each year.” Both Ruth and Mark’s wife Liz competed in 470s as part of the British Sailing Team.
Lured by the reputation of London University, Mark studied ‘team racing’ and physics, and trained to be a teacher. Though he won the British Universities’ Team Racing Championships an unmatched four times, he was underwhelmed by the teaching experience. “I was too young, too naïve, and expected everyone to be as enthusiastic about science as me.”
Instead, Mark began repairing wooden boats in north London, moving into jobs with Racing Sailboats, Proctor Masts, Selden Masts, and Hyde Sails. “With no lottery funding, like many of my peers I found that working in the marine industry enabled me to compete and live.”
Mark moved to Emsworth in 1990 to join Proctor Masts. “I fell in love with Emsworth, aged 16, and when I met Liz ten years later, I found it was her spiritual home too.
“A part of my job was always helping customers improve their performance, but my first formal coaching opportunity was at the inaugural ISAF World Championships in 1995. Olympic sailing was becoming more professional, it was a chance to see opportunities appearing. There’s a subtle difference between teaching and coaching and it became clear where my passion was.”
Pro-sailing
In 2002, Mark returned to self-employment, combining coaching, writing and project management with pro-sailing.
“The strategic specialism was a natural progression from pro-sailing. In bigger boats I felt the need to put some substance behind those apparently automatic decisions. As in real life, if the whole team is on-board with the rationale, buy-in and execution will follow. The models I developed found their way into my writing and coaching, and a series of strategic and tactical articles for a new magazine gave me the basis for the book.”
While Mark’s sailing expertise secured his place on the GB racing team, he’s quick to point out the coach doesn’t have all the answers. “My philosophy is that the coaches own solutions have more chance of success than those imposed on them. My role is to help define the problem or goal, encourage the right questions, and support the search for a solution.
Mentoring
“Being a RYA coach developer gave me a chance to complete a professional mentoring programme and explore and develop this philosophy further.”
Mark’s love of sailing and coaching are clear; when discussing career highs, he says: “Every time you help someone achieve their goal, whether novice or professional, knowing you’ve helped someone improve or enjoy the process it’s a high.
“And having a goal, no matter what the project, is vital. If you don’t have clear goals, how will you know if you’ve met them?”
Club racing
He concludes: “The landscape has changed since I grew up dinghy racing. There are less boats club racing, however lottery funding enables the very best to make a go of full-time sailing, and there are more career opportunities for racers outside and post-Olympic racing. There’s more training and coaching, but I think it’s vital the emphasis is firmly on fun rather than performance, especially with youngsters. That’s the only way to get and keep people in the sport.”
Outside of work – although Mark suggests that as ‘work is fun’, there’s no great differentiation between this and his hobbies – he likes to cruise in his 60-year-old wooden classic boat with Liz.
“Seas and mountains are good for the soul, so long as they are with us we are equally happy on foot, skis, bikes, or boats.”