What is the Zone of Proximal Development and how can it be applied to coaching sailing? 

The zone of proximal development (ZPD) refers to the differences between what a person can do without help, and what he or she can achieve with guidance and encouragement from someone with more knowledge or expertise. Thus, the term “proximal” refers to those skills that the person is “close” to mastering.  

The concept of the ZPD was introduced by psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), he suggested that when an individual learning a skill, gets involved in a conversation with a ‘’more knowledgeable other’’, they develop the ability to solve problems independently and do certain tasks without help. 

The concept is useful to coaches as it confirms that there are many skills which the sailors they coach already know how to do, and there are also other skills they are not yet competent at. It focusses on the range between these skills and encourages coaches to deliver sessions which stretch a sailor to assist them to learn, without putting them so far out of their comfort zone that the tasks become impossible and impede progression. 

The concept also recognises that sailors in a group, learn different skills at different rates, and that peer learning and group sharing is a valuable tool that coaches should actively facilitate during session delivery. 

When a sailor is in their zone of proximal development for a particular task, a ‘’more knowledgeable other’’, which could be the coach, or another sailor in the group, who provides the appropriate assistance will give the sailor enough of a "boost" to achieve that task and subsequently result in the sailor growing their comfort zone as they acquire more skills and knowledge. 

Recognising where your sailors fit in the ZPD for individual skills and tasks is crucial for accelerating learning, maintaining safety, and increasing enjoyment.  

The key zones that a sailor will fit into for any task, and a brief explanation of each is as follows: 

Comfort Zone  

Feeling comfortable with a skill or situation is a good sign of progress or strengths, but should be avoided for the bulk of sessions, as this will limit progress and establish fixed mindset traits. 

Stretch Zone (zone of proximal development) 

Ideally, sailors will operate in their ‘stretch’ zone for the bulk of training activities. This can be characterised with a feeling of elevated risk, challenge, focus and failure (all to be celebrated). 

Impossible Zone

It is rare the sailor will learn and retain anything in this state. They are likely to not enjoy the activity and revert to a flight or fight response. Too many exposures to this state can increase risk of injury, bad habits or retirement from the sport. 

As the sailor progresses - their comfort zone will naturally grow, eventually covering all, or nearly all areas of the sport as they head towards proficiency.  

To assist coaches to provide suitable challenges to progress sailors skills, Australian Sailing has developed progress sheets that support each of the Club Participation Program levels.  

The progress sheets help coaches to assess whether a sailor is beginning, progressing or competent at a skill and in turn ensuring that what is being delivered by the coach is at a suitable level. The progress sheets can be found in the coach hub under each level of the Club Participation program.  

If you are interested in learning more about the ZPD, we have provided a link to a great coaching article here written by Jonathan McMurtry, the article covers in greater detail using the ZPD concept in sports coaching.