How To Fly Faster?

Just remember, if you don’t fight and train hard for that gold medal, someone else will take it away from you.

Hi Roy

We just did a tunnel competition and achieved our highest ever average (19), which before the meet I would have been very happy with. But the team we’re going to be up against at Nationals was there and they trounced us! They averaged 20.2 and they beat us on 8 or the 10 rounds.

Too Laidback

We learned a lot of things at this competition, and had a good debrief. We agreed it didn’t really feel like a competition, that we had too laidback an attitude. Too safe. It felt like we just wanted to see what we scored, rather than fighting to win. Watching the footage back our team looks very in control, neat and efficient. The other team looks as though they are going as hard as they possibly can, often on the edge of control. It’s not pretty but it scores higher.

Going Faster

I feel in my own flying that I could get back in the tunnel right now and go for it more. I know I can fly faster than I was, I know all my teammates can be more aggressive. How can we add the extra element of speed without losing efficiency? And how can we plan to add 2-3 points on our average? It sounds a silly statement as they beat us but I actually feel that we are the better skydivers.

Hope you can help us prove it!
Felix

Hi Felix,

First of all, congratulation with the team’s personal best average, well done!

EXPECTATIONS

Before a competition we often have certain expectations, whether it’s about being on the podium, posting high scores, or about an average that we want to achieve on a draw. In your case, you hoped to reach the 19+ benchmark, which you did, but looking back we understand that the team didn’t fly at their best, and we know we could have scored more if everyone had fought harder. If you would have won that meet, it wouldn’t be such a problem, probably you would say ‘we flew in total control without pushing it and still we won’! But by getting your ass kicked you understood that the team didn’t gave their 100% and that you need to change things to avoid it from happening again. Losing a competition is nothing to be ashamed of, when everyone gives their best. But losing because you didn’t fight hard enough, that is a big mistake!

Losing a competition is nothing to be ashamed of, when everyone gives their best. But losing because you didn’t fight hard enough, that is a big mistake!

Trust me when I say that we all have been there at some point in our career. This is a very valuable lesson to learn, and you’d better learn it fast!

TRAIN AS YOU FIGHT

It’s normal that we compare ourselves with the performance of other teams, that is the whole concept of competition. But we need to control the variables, and they are only from ourselves. What other teams are doing, we cannot change and we should not even bother. If you see that your opponents are flying right on the limits of their capacities, but also very close to be busting formations, you never really know if they are in a certain training phase where the target is to go flat out and see where they end, or that they are not realizing that they are on the edge and having a big ‘bust potential’.

When we see something like this we can ask ourselves, ‘they are flying like hell and very aggressive while we fly conservatively, should we change anything to get closer to them?’

If we want to be successful, or the best, we need to keep pushing ourselves all the time. We cannot sit back and relax. Every training, every single jump, every hour in the tunnel, every fitness training we need to try to raise our standards! If you want to be a Champion, you have to start training like one of them. You need to train as you fight! It’s in training where you win the competition, it’s here where Champions are born, and the sooner you realize this, the better!

To be successful in a team sport, everyone needs to have that same fighting spirit. True competitors hate to lose, and they can compete about almost anything. Just remember, if you don’t fight and train hard for that gold medal, someone else will take it away from you.

It’s in training where you win the competition, it’s here where Champions are born, and the sooner you realize this, the better!

MOTIVATION

Getting your ass kicked is never fun, but you can use your opponents as an extra motivation to work even harder. Rather than being a bit frustrated about their performance, you can compliment them for their flying, but at the same time you want to be better then them and you want to prove it! Whatever your motivation is, use it in a positive way.

You wrote “but I actually feel that we are the better skydivers”, well, it is up to you to prove if you are better skydivers or better competitors 😉

SPEEDING UP

It is a never-ending process, speeding things up without losing the efficiency, control and communication. If you fly at a certain speed, where you have good communication and where you make almost no mistakes, it is time to kick it up a notch! Usually, in the beginning, when you start pushing the speed you will be making more mistakes and it’s okay to go over the limit. Only in this way you know where the true limit is. It’s a thin line, what’s over the limit, and what is just on the limit. The essence is that by flying at a faster speed, we need to get used to it and be able to control it. This takes some time, but your coach should be the right person to make a plan of how to achieve this goal in the best and fastest way possible.

GO FOR IT!

I guess you guys already understand that you need to change some things to be able to get that gold! The key is to train hard and find inspiration and motivation to make it happen. Whatever happens, if you give your very best, you can always be proud of yourselves and your teammates!

Go kick ass!!
Roy ☺

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