adding interest and complexity to Sportsman ... again and again and

[Keith Black]

Georgie,

Your comments reminds me of something a friend, and hardcore pattern flier
from the 70's and 80's, told me. The thing that drove him out of pattern was
the fact that the top pilots were SO CLOSE to each other in skill level that
it was virtually impossible to distinguish between the top six or so guys
(this was at NATS). This is why the added difficulty is so important.
Imagine in gymnastics if the most difficult trick they could do was a back
handspring. How could you pick a winner?

The thing about sports like diving, gymnastics and ice skating is the
competitors get to create their own tricks. This means that there's no
artificial wall stopping them from doing more and more difficult routines.
Imagine if the Olympic Committee said that no Ice Skater do more than a
double axle :-0

I go back to what Rick Wallace said on RCU:

"C'mon, guys -- this is supposed to be a sequence for MASTERS pilots and
associated equipment...

If we can't build -- and fly -- such that we can survive a snap, ... maybe
the class should be renamed to something a little less presumptuous... maybe
'More Advanced' -- or 'Highly Proficient' -- or 'Striving for Very Good' -- 
certainly something less assertive than 'MASTERS'..."

Keith Black

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "George Kennie" <geobet at gis.net>
To: <discussion at nsrca.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2005 1:28 PM
Subject: Re: adding interest and complexity to Sportsman ... again and again
and


> <<I'm not flying masters, I'm flying advanced, the reason is
> Masters is
> more difficult than I think I can reasonably fly at this time, so
> I'll work my way up. >>
>
> I respectfully disagree with your assessment of schedule difficulty.
> I get the feeling that you haven't taken the time to sit down and
> really study the current Master's sequence. I commend your attitude
> of working your way up!!!IMHO, I find the current Master's much less
> threatening than the Advanced sequence.
>
> Somebody mentioned "going to contests without practicing", and
> indeed I can remember, back in the 60's going to a contest myself
> having never performed the required routine and doing quite well at
> the time.However those were significantly different times and I
> myself would not desire to return to the mindset of that period.It
> was called a "Pattern Contest" and the attendance was probably a
> couple of hundred guys, but the mindset was more like a current day
> "Fun- Fly". Nobody really took it all that seriously. Somewhere
> along the line, the few individuals that did have a more serious
> approach organized and brought a more serious aspect to the sport
> realizing that the basis for guys going out and flying a routine
> that was in fact JUDGED meant that the concept must
> be"COMPETITION".  I think that this is probably the reason you still
> find the most heavily attended events to be "Fun-Fly's". When it
> gets too serious there are a lot of guys that start to feel
> threatened regarding their status within the group structure and
> when the pressure becomes, in their estimation, greater than feels
> comfortable to them, they gravitate to a different venue that
> restores the level of comfort they deem appropriate.
> The same thing seems to happen, in my judgement, with  schedule
> complexity.Some of us realize that if the schedules become more and
> more complex, at some point the difficulty factor will become
> significant enough to threaten our currently hard won achievement
> status, and indeed this is true.The decision that probably needs to
> be reasoned through is,in light of this truth, should the pursuit of
> excellence be sacrificed to satisfy the inadequacies of those of us
> who are clammoring to maintain their elevation?
> I consider myself a part of this equation and recognize my own
> inadequacies, however I  also realize that this same pursuit of
> excellence will not be enhanced by any concession to tilt the
> playing field in my favor. Noone will be served by that tack. Least
> of all ME! My flying prowess ranks somewhere between Sportsman and
> Intermediate(my assessment), and though I find a couple of the FAI
> maneuvers really tough to execute in a graceful manner, I still feel
> that there is no maneuver that I could not learn to do and given
> another 50 years of practice I might even be in a position to
> challenge Jason.
> It's about STRIVING guys. That's what COMPETITION is! And it's
> purpose is to determine the most skilled individual, with the rest
> of us rated in descending order beneath the rating of the BEST! So,
> as you can see, I'm not in favor of wussing out to make things
> easier for anybody who finds their position at the pinnacle
> precarious(and that includes ME).
> Now, all that being said, I do feel that we may have a void at the
> bottom and should probably go back again and reconsider a pre-novice
> class for the guy who has only been involved in the sport for 2
> weeks and has never practiced flying a straight line.This shouldn't
> take much additional time as the number of guys showing up to
> participate in this class will indeed be very few (which begs the
> question, how far do we have to concede in order to grow the
> ranks?).
> The Sportsman sequence I proposed a couple of days ago DOES appear
> to be too difficult for some of the respondants(but not all) and
> maybe the old Novice schedule should be made available for anybody
> showing up to try (as a pre-novice event).I also think that the
> Intermediate should introduce it's participant to the 45 downline
> snap or at least a center snap on a horizontal baseline as
> preparation for Advanced.
> Only a bunch of opinions, guys! Don't mean I'm right!
> G.
>
>
>
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