Will Gadd <<email>> writes:

I really enjoy your post-task commentary. Although I'm unlikely to ever compete in an hang gliding comp, your thoughts are valid for paragliding comps also I think, thanks.

I'd like to give you a few questions to ponder. I'm not giving you grief at all, just hoping the questions inspire some thought, and that perhaps your readers might enjoy the answers, as I will if you choose to answer 'em...

1. Why aren't you winning?

- You're getting the necessary airtime and have the comp experience.

- You're thinking about it enough.

- You have a competitive glider (or at least there's nothing in your posts to make me think the glider is the problem).

- You have the flying skills.

I don't think you're in these comps to just fly them for a laugh; I believe you would like to win, but maybe I'm wrong. I've gone to comps without the goal of winning 'em and that's cool, I just don't get that attitude in your posts.

So, given all of the above, why aren't you winning the comps?

What are the pilots who are beating you doing differently than you are (other than getting to goal before you)?

What are your goals for this Oz season in terms of placement? For the rest of the year?

And with the above in mind, what are you going to do differently?

Maybe I'm way out of line by even asking these questions, but I ponder them often and suspect you do as well. I've competed a lot in various sports, and it seems to me that you have all the major components of success but something is obviously missing in your mental comp matrix. The only way to figure that out is to break the mental model down, get rid of what isn't working and let new "good" patterns emerge... You likely know that, but aren't practicing it. Why?

I appreciate very much Will thinking about these issues and asking these questions. It gives me the opportunity to consider how I feel about winning and competing (and not winning). I'll do my best to answer them with what I'm thinking currently.

First, why do I fly in these competitions?

I fly in competitions because doing so is very enjoyable. Having a goal (doing well in a competition, flying the task fast) greatly improves my flying experience. I also like flying for World Records for the same reason. A goal is a big part of making my flying enjoyable. Perhaps I just rely on competition to provide that motivation which I have a harder time generating for myself without this social structure.

Do I like to win?

Sure. Winning or even doing well is an emotional high. It avoids the bad feeling from doing poorly and is an added high from the feeling of doing well and getting some small recognition for doing well.

So, given all of the above, why aren't you winning the comps?

Well, I have won competitions and placed well, so let's ask why I'm not winning more competitions, or winning flex wing competitions lately?

First, do I have the singular focus of winning as everything? Nope. Perhaps one needs this focus to win and consistently win. Perhaps one needs to win very badly to win.

Tomas Suchanek was known as a pilot with this focus. He was the top hang gliding pilot for quite a run. Strangely enough Tomas, who now flies sailplanes, isn't number one any more. See here: http://www.fai.org/gliding/rankings/displaypilotdets.php?pilotid=41. I wonder what the difference is.

For some reason I don't have this singular focus. For example, I don't do everything possible to reduce drag on my harness and harness setup. I have a draggy head pulley, because I want my neck to be comfortable. I haven't got the slickest harness, although I'm working on it. I don't have a direct connect harness (as I change gliders and glider manufacturers between meets, as I wish to play fair with all the manufacturers, because of the Oz Report). I actually have lots of little problems with my harness (see below) and this drains mental energy. I keep working on solving these problems, but they never seem to go away.

I change gliders between three manufacturers, so I don't develop as much of a feel for one glider as other pilots who stick with one glider. I'm always doing a little bit of learning. I do this because I wish to remain impartial with respect to each manufacturer, both in reality and in perception.

My goal in a competition is to do well. I view a competition not as a contest AGAINST other pilots, but as a contest with myself and that the other pilots are there to serve as a yard stick to tell me how much good pilots can get out of a task or a day. If a pilot can beat me to goal by ten minutes, that means that I flew ten minutes slower than was possible on that day. Every increment less than the best that day is a measure of how much I was off the best that could be done.

Now you can look at it and say it is a measure of how much worse I am as a pilot than the other guy, but I normally see it as how I didn't perform as well as was possible on that day. When I don't do well on a task, I don't begrudge the pilots that do well, but rather I feel the pain of not doing as well as I should have. I see my mistakes and my failures. My fellow competitors help me see and feel my errors, because I have a goal and they are only errors with respect to my goal.

While there may be some issues with respect to the basic performance of my glider/harness/body position/flying skills/thermaling skills, the major reason why I don't do as well as I would like, or win as much as I would like, boiling down to judgment (or lack there of), mental and emotional concerns.  As I have written previously I am aware of the fact that my mental capacities are reduced while flying.

One thing that I have found out during the last three competitions is that I am not getting scared, which has not always been true in the past. I'm having a great time in the air and really enjoying the flying. The rough air just doesn't seem to bother me that much. So this is a help with my mental attitude.

Still, thinking clearly and unemotionally is a difficult prospect for me. It's a lot easier to see what should have been done after the fact. In the midst of the flight and the struggle, the emotions get strong and I have to actively work against them. I don't always succeed. Those emotions get much stronger when things aren't going well. That's why I try to put myself in the best position, so that I can reduce the emotional baggage that can flare up.

I would love to be in a position to have these emotions reduced in their power. I do work on it and sometimes successfully. I just don't do what they say to do, as they are almost always wrong.

What are the pilots who are beating you doing differently than you are (other than getting to goal before you)?

Attila is often going out front and leading. Perhaps his weight and larger glider give him a slight performance advantage that he exploits to get out front right away. Perhaps he climbs better than I do, gets higher faster and gets in the lead. Attila and Balasz and perhaps Jonny seem to have the ability to find lift faster and more consistently than I do, so that they can go out in front and stay out there. If they have this skill then that would explain the difference.

Finding thermals is often a bit of a mystery to me. The other day I wrote about a flight to Naromine from Gulgong, where somehow I knew where every thermal was and flew right to them. I don't often have this feeling. It would seem that Attila , Balasz and Jonny have more confidence that they will find the next thermal.

Also, I don't feel that I fly fast enough, pull in hard enough, when I'm high. Other pilots appear to often fly faster than I do when we are moving fast to the next thermal source. I'm getting better at it, but the pitch pressures on a flex wing are greater than on a rigid wing and I'm getting myself retrained for them. Perhaps my competitors have lowered their sprogs a bit (I haven't) so that perhaps their pitch pressures are lighter.

Some of the other highly regarded pilots are more aware of the tuning changes that can be made to their flex wing gliders. I require support from the manufacturer to make tuning changes. I rely of them to get the glider tuned right.

What are your goals for this Oz season in terms of placement? For the rest of the year?

My goal when I came here was to do well in the Forbes Flatlands so as to get a bunch of NTSS points so as to qualify for the US team to go to the Worlds in 2009 in Chabre, France. Going to France is a treat for Belinda and from the looks of it a lot of my flying friends will be there at the pre-Worlds this year (as will I) and I hope to be able to make it in 2009. I have accomplished this task.

I hope to do at least as well as I did last year at the NSW State Titles (I was third). I hope to win the Dalby Big Air meet. These meets won't count much for my NTSS points, as the foreign pilots have left Australia.

I hope to do well, perhaps win the East Coast Championship, the Santa Cruz Flats Race, and the Big Spring Championships. I hope to do well at the pre-Worlds and really learn the site. Finishing in the top ten at the pre-Worlds would be fantastic.

And with the above in mind, what are you going to do differently?

I'm going to be working on my harness next week. I had extra straps on it because I couldn't get it closed for the first three days at Forbes. The straps add additional drag. I needed them to close the harness. I'll be at the Moyes factory for a fix, I hope.

I have a month to prepare for the NSW State Titles and I'll take the opportunity to go over my notes about previous competitions and write down a series of errors that I have made. Perhaps a review will strengthen any mental capabilities that I have to over come my emotions. I, of course, go over my errors in order to stop making them. I wish that that was all it took.

I'm working on better nutrition. My stamina is great, due to lots of bike riding. I'm much less tired than many of the pilots after a flight. I am eating better getting good carbs just before a flight (bananas), and drinking often. I working on doing this consistently.

Thanks again for your thoughts and I'll keep thinking about this.