Gérard Vaillant is a professional coach "accompanies human beings in a quest for performance, to solve difficulties or get through difficult times." For this edition of the Vendée Globe 2024, he is working with Jeremie Beyou and Eric Bellion on the mental skills to be applied on this new round-the-world race.
Portrait of a coach, Gérard Vaillant listens to athletes
A former professional volleyball player and PE teacher, Gérard Vaillant coaches companies as well as top-level athletes. The 60-year-old coach also works with INSA Rennes to train top-level athletes. For the 2024 Olympic Games, he was responsible for the "excellence sportive" structure of Agathe Guillemot in athletics and Antoine Praud, bronze medallist in para-athletics, accompanied by a fellow coach from the Bretagne Sport network.
Converted to the world of professional coaching in 2010, he is trained in Neuroharmonization and certified as a Master Hypnosis Practitioner. He is also a supervisor. He accompanies professional coaches and mental trainers to analyze and observe their method, framework and coherence of practice.
"Neuroharmonization training, similar to EMDR, allows us to look back on a trauma. For sailors, it can be damage, a mast breaking, a casserole in the spinnaker... It can be significant, and even prevent them from being competent" explains Gérard Vaillant.
Years of practice with ocean racing skippers
He accompanied Charlie Dalin in the Figaro, then again for the 2020-2021 edition of the Vendée Globe. 11 years ago, he also worked with Christian Le Pape at the Pole Finistère Course au Large in Port La Forêt, on an exercise program with skippers. On the Solitaire du Figaro, he accompanied up to 6 performance projects. His experience comes from years of working with different skippers.
Learn to manage the consequences of your choices
In the world of sailing, the coach's remit is very broad, and varies according to the skipper's needs. Coaching covers both the skipper's work with his team and all that this entails - grouping, managing, running the team and his company - but also the skipper's personal relationships with his family and the emotions felt. The support also covers the preparation of the boat, not in the technical or physical sense, but rather in terms of choices.
"There's so much to do, not to mention public relations, that skippers can find it impossible to prepare physically and mentally. I help them find the time to get ready. In some projects, budgets are also quite substantial. Strategic choices are therefore important. If they receive technical support in making choices concerning performance, in coaching, choice is not an issue. It's the management of consequences, and not the choice itself, that we work on. For example, what are the consequences for me, my team and the competition?" introduces Gérard Vaillant.
The role of the coach in general
Gérard Vaillant also trains sailors in sophrology, meditation, emotional intelligence and the ability to cope with difficulties. "To work with people, the quality of the relationship is brought to work with the tools we develop. The memory of working with a coach or mental trainer leads them to self-coach independently for the Vendée Globe Gérard.
If a skipper tears his sail or breaks his rudder, he has to ask himself what to do. He must ask himself what questions the coach would ask him, and how to act without rushing. In the case of a torn sail at the front of the boat, going fast could put his life in danger. The aim is to have a reaction that is not governed by emotions. "Project management is very complex. You see a beautiful boat on the pontoons, but it's a colossal job upstream and the issues are very different. Jérémie has a big partner, Charal, with an ambitious preparation. Eric has supplemented his budget with various partnerships that require a lot of public relations work. Even among the foiler boats, the sailors are very different and the needs are different" concludes Gérard.
It's a question of good timing, adapted to each skipper
carbon footprint mean that we often practice from a distance. I'd also be in Les Sables-d'Olonne for departures and arrivals. But it's not really necessary. The important thing is to create a good quality relationship and get to know each other well. The telephone or face-to-face doesn't change anything", concludes Gérard Vaillant.
