|
Coping with Competition
| Are you doing the Nationals this year? Hoping to go to a World Meet
in the future?
Competition can provide the stimulus to produce the best
performance of your life - or it can make you so nervous you blow it completely.
There are few, if any Brits, who have entered as many meets as Pete
Allum of Sebastian XL 4-way team.
Here, he gives some tips on keeping cool under competition
pressure. |
Photo by Keith Larrett
|
The best way to deal with stress at a competition is to prepare well
beforehand. Thorough preparation would include:
- setting goals at the start of your programme
- putting the training jumps in to help achieve those goals
- maintaining a level of physical and mental fitness
- attending as many other meets as possible
- simulating competition environment throughout your training.
During training, prepare for each skydive in the same way that you would
at a competition. Agree a number of repetitions in the plane on the way
to altitude and a routine that the whole team can stick to. This will
ensure you retain a sense of familiarity when you get to the competition
environment.
Different things work best for different people but here is my routine
for the climb to altitude:
- On take-off, I run through the dive for about 35 seconds, relax,
take my hat and safety belt off, then settle down and enjoy the view!
- Between 3,500' and 5,000' I go through the dive one more time, then
focus on my mental state and do whatever it takes to get myself in the
state that I know I perform best at.
- 3,000' before jump altitude we do a team shake and I run through
the dive at full speed, then I work on remaining in my focused state
until it's time to go.
This 'focused state' or 'arousal level' is something to work at throughout
training, finding how psyched up or relaxed you need to be to do your
best. For me to describe it exactly is impossible but it feels like a
calm, focused and ready state (for more information see Mental
Preparation and Visualisation, SP June '96).
|
Before you go to an important competition
like the Nationals, try and scope the site out as well as possible,
sorting out a team base and figuring out the accommodation and food.
I speak from experience as we have had some interesting adventures
when leaving those necessities to chance and found ourselves suffering
in the meet as a result.
If you have not made a gazillion jumps
before the competition and you feel under-prepared, just stick to
the most comfortable engineering of the dives. If you like, ask
one of us or another coach to help you out with puzzling the dive,
exits or some basic block techniques. There is a benefit in not
having done lots of training jumps, which is that you are not tied
to any one continuity plan (a continuity plan is how you decide
who goes where on each dive and this can vary from team to team).
|
|
Expect to have lengthy waits where you are
not jumping; try to stay alert and ready. If the weather is rogue
and you have been carrying the same dive in your head for a while,
go ahead and run through some of the later dives, maybe that next
'slot switcher' or 'mirror image'.
|
Remember; you make mistakes all the time so you can expect it to happen
at some time in the meet. Even world champions make mistakes, they are
just smaller ones! During your training periods (even your creeping) practise
your reaction to mistakes, ie, relax and carry on as normal, don't let
the mistake drag you into panic. You will make a mistake in a meet, it
may be only a micro-space, possibly a brain-lock, it could even be a bust.
Let it go! Dwelling on the error will not help the rest of the dive or
the next round. Think how you feel if you see a team mate angry or in
deep depression, how does that make you feel? I'm sure it doesn't cheer
you up! Treat yourself as you would treat another team mate, be supportive
and get on with the meet.
Hot Tips for Meets
- Keep your mind active with non-skydiving pastimes
- Work with the meet management to know the calls for your load, stand
downs, briefing times, etc
- Know the rules and understand what the judges want to see on the
screen
- Keep it fun
- Stick to the routines
- Play to win!
The XL Approach
Here is a brief description of how we approach competitions as a team
and how I personally deal with them. Some of these ideas may work for
you, others may not. Ask a range of competitors you know for tips, put
together the ones you like and you will then have a personal plan of attack.
Our team routine for competitions
About 80% of our training is meet simulation. We draw the dives from the
dive pool and then follow our dive planning routine (see Briefing
and Debriefing, SP April '96).
After the jump we drop that dive and immediately focus on the next one.
If there are any hold-ups (ie, weather), we go through the dive at pre-arranged
times. We also have a base for the team so that we always know where to
meet. At the end of the 'competition' we debrief it and work out how we
can improve and what we liked.
My routine for competition
I find a comfortable spot which is away from everyone else but near our
team hang-out and stay away from the crowds as much as possible. There
is always a tendency to want to see all the people that I haven't seen
since the last competition - but I have found that continual socialising
throughout a meet wears me out. I know that when the meet ends there will
be ample time to party! So I surround myself with books, games, magazines
and music. I get a cross section of music to help me with whatever mood
I want, from hard-core rock to rave and classical.
I try not to sleep as I find it hard to wake up and get myself together
quickly for a 10 minute call. I also do light exercise and stretch throughout
the day. If I get the time I run through some relaxation and visualisation
exercises.
I try not to look at the scoreboard too much as I find myself dwelling
upon previous scores and how we are doing rather than 'the next dive'.
A coach once said to me that we should think about the next dive as if
it were round 1, as any previous round or anyone else's scores could not
affect what we did on the next dive. I have found this really useful for
helping me stay on track and thinking about what I can do to make the
next dive go well, as opposed to "If only I hadn't bust the last dive!!"
However much I avoid the scoreboard someone always tells me how we did
but I do try to ignore the scores.
Pete Allum
pete_allum@compuserve.com
Back to Jun 97 Contents
Back to previous Sebastian article
Forward to next Sebastian XL
article |
