Five things I learned the hard way about competitions

[RonDon]

(From Paragliding Forum) This isn't your usual collection of competition tips. Here are five things I had to learn by repeatedly getting them wrong. You'll get them wrong as well, and then you'll finally learn, and then I'll be able to say "I told you so".

1. Somebody always gets to goal. It's remarkable. When you throw 100+ pilots at a task and, even when it seems impossible, somebody always makes it further than you ever believed possible. They push 10km into a strong headwind, get the turnpoint, and cruise into goal. They fly 50km in complete shade. They top out at 2500m when nobody else can get above 1500m. It's so easy to believe that it's not going to happen, so easy to justify giving up and landing. But it's wrong. Know that somebody will get to goal, and make that person you.

2. Competition will change your perspective on XC flying. The skills required to do well in competition - to maintain a high average speed around a route that you defined before you took off, whatever obstacles Mother Nature throws into your path - are very different to those required for flying XC. It's so much easier to say "I'll go a different way now" than to push on and do what you said you were going to do. Yet competition pilots never take the easy option. To a fault they will bang their heads against a headwind trying to make a turnpoint, while the XC pilots have long since turned back. You'll fly XC and get impatient when your friends stick with a weak climb when you know you don't need the altitude. They'll glide on trim or a bit of bar, and you, you'll fly on full bar. They will turn around while you push on. This will test your patience and your friendship.

3. The best way to get good at competitions is to do lots of competitions. On a typical flight you and your group of friends will try a few different things. Some will land early, others will fly far. You'll never be sure whether it was skill or luck. In a competition you'll watch 100 different pilots try to achieve the same flight. Instead of learning from the experiences of five pilots, you'll learn from the experience of a hundred. When one out of ten gets away you'll know it was luck. When nine out of ten climb out you'll know that they made the right decision. You'll learn quickly - twenty times faster than your XC friends. You'll make mistakes too. You'll get mixed up about the task, or you'll have a problem with your equipment, or you will fly into airspace, or you'll wait when you should have pushed on, or you'll push on when you should have waited. Making mistakes - and learning from them, and learning not to repeat them - is just part of the process. Beginners to competitions might get lucky, but they are rarely consistent. There is no substitute for flying lots of tasks.

4. You'll win when you're good enough. The best pilots are really, really amazingly good. There is no simple trick that you know and they don't. Being the biggest fish in a small pond might earn you a local fan club but when you step up to the big league you'll have to deal with being merely an average fish in the big pond. Many, many talented pilots fall at this stage. They're the kings of their local hills and then, when they step up a level they find themselves to be merely average. Ego comes into play, and those with more ego than skill stop competing (of course, they appease their local fan club with stories that start "I was there but..."). Such a shame, but they were probably not cut out for the big stuff anyway. Be patient, learn as much as you can from each task, and let the results come when it's time.

Of course, different pilots have play different games, but rest assured that the top pilots can play them all. Neil "Slapper" Roberts doesn't just strategically play the field, he can also push when needed. Not only can Mark "Wagga" Watts push the bar hard on stupidly optimistic final glides, he can also scratch out in zeros when that's what it takes. You don't win by doing something different, you win by having the required skill when it's the right time to do something different.

5. It's your responsibility to manage your own progression. You might grumble about how "they had an advantage..." or "nobody ever told me that...". Grow up and take some responsibility. Every year there are ten new wannabes. Every year nine fall by the wayside. The top pilots might seem aloof, but it's only because they see a lot of pilots passing through and they're trying hard to work out how to spend their limited time. Make people care about you. Don't try to invent a private world in which you could be king, but instead look to challenge the best on their own terms. Set realistic goals: this year you'll finish top two in Sports Class, next year you'll be top three in Serial Class, and the year after that you'll be in the top ten of the Championships. Ask for help when you need it and play the long game.

Competition will fundamentally change the way you fly. When everybody else says "maybe we'll go that way" you will program exact turnpoint coordinates into your GPS. Competitions will test your comfort zone: you'll experience the sublime satisfaction of getting to goal on a hard day and you will also experience the frustration of landing short and knowing that more was possible. Ultimately -if you can stick with it - it will make you a better pilot. ( From Paragliding Forum)