Junior finals:story of mental preparation and teamwork

It may seem like Robbie Gruber being such a good pilot had an easy victory at the World Championship. This cannot be further from the truth. Rob had to work for his victory! I watched Petr from Chech republic fly and he was just as good as Robbie. The first round of the final, Petr flew just as good a flight as Rob.

Oftentimes, it is how other team members behave that decides the outcome. After the first round, everyone congradulated Rob on how well he flew. After the first round Rob's facial expression was that of confidence. That's not what happened to Petr. After his first round, I saw Petr walk out of the circle with and an expression of satisfaction. He flew well and he felt it. As soon as he put down the handle, entire Chech and some of the Slovak team members ganged up on him. There were no less than FIVE people telling him all the mistakes he made plus what looked like 5 different opinions of fixing them. Expression of confidence and satisfaction turned into self doubt and stress. His second flight was worse thant the first one. After the second flight, Petr completely resigned in defeat and the last flight was flown purely to get some airtime.

This was just an example of how a team can affect individual's performance. If you take a look at what teams made it, it is easy to see how important teamwork is. Most of the teams that made into the finals atcually looked and acted like a team. Some of the teams that didn't make it, behaved a little "strange". I saw one guy walking around the contest site, looking for his team mates to help him move the plane to the pits for the official flight. Finally he asked another competitor to help him.

Well, that's my story from the Worlds. I hope others will share their stories and experiences from the WC.

I heard a group talking about how they offerred to help repair a contestant's damaged plane for the next round, but were rebuffed (I think it was the Chinese junior). The kid did not fly again. The comment I remember was, "They need to be friendlier."

After his first round, I saw Petr walk out of the
>circle with and an expression of satisfaction. He flew well
>and he felt it. As soon as he put down the handle, entire
>Chech and some of the Slovak team members ganged up on him.
>There were no less than FIVE people telling him all the
>mistakes he made plus what looked like 5 different opinions
>of fixing them. Expression of confidence and satisfaction
>turned into self doubt and stress.

He should have busted the closest one in the mouth...

I hate people who do that.

PS: Just kidding.