Mental Preparedness

Even if you do not race many of these topics apply to you. Gary Ittner gave a lecture (Yup the real P7) and he said racing is just really efficient cross county flying and while flying cross country you are still racing. You are racing the sun to get home before it stops producing thermals. A lot of this also applies to flying around the local area, which is where I spend most of my day.  Let's keep going on the 'losing the contest without even flying badly' topic.

Sport psychology is an important subject. There have been countless studies and books on the subject of sports psychology. It is an easy subject to access and worth a little time investing into. How do we handle stress? How do we recover from a rough patch? How do we handle winning? How to cope with losing? After we have a low save do we give up racing or keep going? Being mentally prepared is very important.

Learned optimism is another important idea, I mailed one pilot a book on it after the US Nationals, I then later flew with him at a WGC... He would always (still does sometimes) tell me how these other pilots would never make a mistake or were impossible to beat. I quietly listened and drank his beer. I took it as a challenge and flew my best and ended up on the podium in Open class three times. Not bad as I was just the 'hired gun' to get enough pilots for a valid contest the first year.  I am not saying you need to be arrogant about your awesomeness, but you can't go in thinking you don't have a chance. How many people walk into a bar with that attitude and walk out with someone? None, you have to believe you have a chance.

It is hard to be mentally prepared when you are at a contest and you are scrambling trying to find your TE tube because you dropped it in a field the night before. Turns out gold colored tubes blend in with cut hay. To stay mentally prepared you have to be physically prepared too. I have covered that preparation before with checklists and spares.

 Garret Willat holds a flight instructor rating with over 8000 hours in sailplanes. His parents have owned Sky Sailing Inc. since 1979. He started instructing the day after his 18th birthday. Since then, Garret has represented the US Junior team in 2003 and 2005. He graduated from Embry-Riddle with a bachelor's degree in Professional Aeronautics. Garret represented the US Open Class team in 2008 and 2010 and the Club Class team in 2014. Garret has won 3 US National Championships.