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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Great question, Ed! </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>First, a note about coaching and ‘study
aids’ - screen shots at <a
href="http://www.angelfire.com/nj3/rixplanes/scoring_analysis__coaching_aids.htm">http://www.angelfire.com/nj3/rixplanes/scoring_analysis__coaching_aids.htm</a>
-- if anyone wants the real sheets/ powerpoints shown I can send / post. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>*<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Coaches
/ coaching</span></b>* -- Besides being a great T-shirt shopper and contest morale
booster, Kathy is willing to come to most of my practice sessions during the
week – I made her a set of sequence diagrams in Power point – showing
the geometry for each maneuver – and diagram sets for both flight
directions. She watches the flight and marks problem areas in each maneuver,
then after each flight we go over her notes. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>*<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Study
aids</span></b>* – Though people say that contest scores don’t
matter, a couple years ago I started tracking my raw scores by contest /by
round/ by judge (no names- just the data) in an Excel spreadsheet, and color coding
by those scores – </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>0=magenta / 5= red/ 6=orange/ 7=yellow /
8=blue / 9=green / 10 (rrrriiight!) = dark green</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>and with high-K maneuvers
highlighted in bold, italics, underline or some combination. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>At the beginning of a season there’s
been lots of red/ orange / yellow… and that gives a place to start –
the target being to make the sheet turn blue or green. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Easy to pick up trends for a problem
maneuver (vertical column of yellow) or a bad round (rows of yellow/ red) …
and the ZEROS stick out like a sore thumb… </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>So now to the base question… </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I’ve been lucky enough to be able to
get out during the week, as well as on weekends – </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>First flight is as for contest from
centered takeoff to exiting the box. Then for the rest of that tank, either
practice the stinkers, w/ preceding and succeeding maneuvers, or re-fly the
whole thing if nothing stuck out (and if the coach didn’t laugh too hard
at something in particular) </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Then after EACH flight, go over maneuver
by maneuver w/ the coach and what she saw.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>**She is also the one who spots long term
trends I hadn’t caught, like “You’re always coming out of left-side
turnarounds in a slight climb” </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>After the first flight, usually fly an
entire pattern w/ either focus on the previous flight’s problems, or on
the high-payoff maneuvers from the score analysis sheet – the ones w/
high K and bad colors. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>3-4 flights / reviews – when there’s
time, esp early in the season - is about a max session for us most afternoons. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>** Laughter or the “What the h3ll
was that?! ” comments from Kathy usually indicate it’s time for a
break… </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>When I’m out alone, there’s
often considerable time w/ the stick plane between flights figuring out why
that maneuver was funny, and why I ended up in so tight after this other one…
(usually the answer’s ‘wings level’, btw) </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Long post – hope it helps – </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Rick </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>AMA89045</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>NSRCA 2972</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<div style='border:none;border-left:solid blue 1.5pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 4.0pt'>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma'>-----Original Message-----<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>From:</span></b> discussion-request@nsrca.org
[mailto:discussion-request@nsrca.org] <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>On
Behalf Of </span></b>Ed Miller<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, April 28, 2004
8:12 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> discussion@nsrca.org<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Practice Regiment</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Ok, the list is far too quiet so it's time to stir the
pot....actually I'm looking for advice. Although practice makes perfect, he who
burns the most fuel wins...etc, realistically what you all of you do to get the
most from your practice sessions ??? Especially those that have a 24/7 lives
and are at times lucky to get to the field once a week ?? My personal situation
the last few years is unfortunately fly very little, get to the contest a day
early, get a few flights in ( complete sequence in both directions ) and then
do my best during competition. Got lucky and did well up through Advanced
but that sure isn't going to cut it in Masters, especially in District 1. I was
toying with breaking the sequence up in half or thirds to practice or ??
I'm listening...Ed M.</span></font></p>
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