Creating a Training Program

Part 1 – Goal Setting

You’re preparing for a competition, it doesn’t really matter if it’s your first, a regional, the nationals or a world gliding championships. The plan may cover just one season or many seasons over many sites and continents. Regardless, it’s done in 3 stages, Planning, Practice and Implementation – lets

    You’ve gone and done it.  You’ve landed out.  That eight hour day you had planned to dedicate to soaring just turned to 12 hours plus.  You’re gonna get home at midnight tired, hungry, dirty, hot, and still disappointed in yourself.  You ask yourself why you keep doing this, and what could possibly drive you to go out and do another day of it.  Why is this

Water off a duck's back

There are so many things that degrade performance, many things that can interfere with concentration, mental toughness is what’s required to put all the other personal preparations spoken about previously into place, to get the ultimate performance – the one that will see you with the most amount of points on the last day, ultimately, that’s all that really matters.

The year is 2012 and I am flying my very first contest in the mighty Schweizer 1-26. Various club members have brought me along on cross country flights and given me hours of briefing on contest operations. Finally, it’s time to compete! I’ve settled into the cockpit, belts are on, the checklist is complete. I watch my towplane pull-up and someone quickly connects the rope. As the wing runner disappears