Laurence has raced competitively in NZ and overseas in junior classes. During this time Laurence progressed through the Yachting NZ Instructor programme. In 2004 he graduated with a Diploma in Coaching from Massey University. At this time Laurence founded the New Zealand Sailing Academy (NZSA) to provide aspiring young sailors with the very best coaching methodology for the development of their sailing skills.
A qualified coach and accomplished sailor himself, Laurence’s experiences first as a youth sailor and later as a coach led him to the conclusion that highly focussed coaching of small groups over an extended period of time provides the best results. Laurence has coached Carl Evans, the youngest person to win the 420 2006 World Championships and Chris Steele, the first New Zealander to win the 2007 Optimist World Championships.
Faith Fauchelle is a registered Psychologist and a registered primary school teacher. Faith is also a director of NZSA and helps in the development and teaching of the Psychological Skills Training component of the programmes (PST).
Gary conducted his first clinic for Torbay Boating club in 1960 and provided informal coaching assistance to other sailors until joining the Army in 1961. Gary was trained as an Army instructor and became chief instructor for the Army School. When Gary returned he introduced Training Systems methodology to sailing coaching. Gary is committed to incorporating the concepts of ‘Human Performance Technology’ when designing sailing programmes. Human Performance Technology is a scientific approach to developing and applying strategies to improve human performance in a measurable way. It uses proven methods to reproduce exemplary performances in individuals and teams.
Gary designs ways to implement those strategies using ‘Criterion-Referenced Instruction’ techniques as developed by Dr. Robert F. Mager and Peter Pipe. The advantage to the sailor is that skills are developed before added knowledge is applied. Gary has spent large amounts of time analyzing how competent sailors carry out even the simplest tasks and Gary designs sailing programmes so time is only spent on proven effective activities. He believes that almost all skills needed to learn to sail can be best learnt out on the water.