Casting comp & mental preparation

[Michal Duzynski]

Hi All
I wanted to ask,as I know there are few competition casters on this board.
Before the compentition do you get mentaly ready in some way, or you just go out there and chuck the fly as far as you can because you know you good at it?
We all know we nedd to practice practice practice, we know about late rotation,late and fast haul and all that, but for example in my case, when Im out there I start to shake a bit and get nervous that Im going to disapoint myself in relation to my practice session. I step on the line and some shit like this.
Lasse said (I red about it) , that in the competition, you forget about 20% of what you know and recover this 20% with adrenalin.. On the end that 20% make your cast shity.
Please share with me how do you deal with minimaizing this 20% of bad exitment and stay cool on the platform.
cheers
mike

[John Waters]

Hi Michal,

Preparation for any sporting contest is the same, including casting sport. Confidence in your ability to reproduce your best under pressure requires perfecting that technique. Training can be divided into a number of categories but I will restrict them here to two, namely technique training and competition training. Technique training should be performed at 50% to 80 % of your competition speed. You can't learn/change technique whilst casting at full speed. In conjunction with technique training, strength and flexibility preparation should also be undertaken. Close to the event start training under competition pressure. If you are alone in this pursuit (and we are unfortunately), you must structure your training as if you are competing. Replicate the event's time limit to your training periods and plan each cast within that time limit. By that I mean you will usually get between 5 to 8 casts in 5 minutes. Train such that the first two casts are at 80% to 90% of your speed/power capacity and use them for a threefold purpose ie. relax your body, structure your breathing and judge your optimum trajectory in the conditions. The 3rd and 4th casts are at max. speed and power, maintaining your relaxation regime. The 5th and later casts are at max capacity but realise that you need to increase our focus on relaxation because at this stage you may have the propensity to try too hard and technique suffers. Understand this and train to maintain your technique when the clock is ticking down to zero. There are many ways you can do this but a simple one is to train for this by setting an alarm clock to specify a time limit on a minimum number of false casts and a delivery. If you want to perform at your best, you must maintain your technique under the pressure of competition so identify your specific coping mechanisms and structure your training accordingly. Competition-associated nerves cannot be avoided but can be channelled. Remember practice does not make perfect, but perfect practice does. In a casting competition you are only competing against yourself, because you have no control over what the other competitors achieve, so develop a competition persona and technique that focuses your complete attention exclusively upon what you are doing. The only other thing I could suggest is to compete in tournaments as often as you can.

Also, I suggest you talk to as many people as possible about competition casting. I know you are concentrating on the fly events but correspond with casters in other events e.g. plug casting events because their competition techniques are far more restrictive than fly casting. You don't have the option of another false cast to get it right there, it is all or nothing in one cast. Now that really focuses the mind on mental preparation and casting technique.

John

[Michal Duzynski]

Awsome
Thank you John .
I soaked your advice like a sponge, makes me feel good and can not wait to make those adjustments in my next PERFECT practice session .
My problem "was" that in my practice I try to hit as long as I could and that was it ,ofcourse with all the necessary adjustments in my casting.
You see ,yesterday I won competition in Italy ( distance), but I wasnt really happy with my self,and Im sure if I had things under control, I could achived more - longer cast and more joy.
ok ,thanks again Joh
if anybody else has more to say Im looking forward to reading it, its very imteresting.
cheers
mike

[Paul Arden]

Positive visualisation. To be honest I don't worry about casting comps - maybe I should! But for triathlon I spend a lot of time mentally preparing, as I used to for rugby. I don't get nervous at all in competition, I've spent almost twenty years casting in public. I still get a buzz out of demos but that makes them fun. When you step up on that platform you own the field.

Cheers Paul

[Paul Arden]

Incidentally for Ironman I spend a week focusing. It's not doing me a hell of a lot of good, but that's another story

[Sasse]

I practice for the same situation and weathers and all other things i can think of. Also practice hard with the same stuff i use on competitions. I do it so i know how far i can cast in every different weather condition. I also practise so i know that i will perform 9/10 cast.

I also practise mentally. I do the competition in my head several days before the competition.
This have worked pretty okay for me

[Sasse]

Its also about 60% mental all competition. Practise and competition is two different things but i always aim to perform the same. You must be 120% prepared when the clock starts.

[Michal Duzynski]

Hi guys
Im reading your answers, and get points out of them, that I will implenent in my next practice and competition in the future.
Now, thinking about my performance yesterday, I came to some conclusions.
First of all , I will try to compite in as many casting competitions as I can.
Next thing I realized is that you should never underestimate your oponetnt/s. In my case yesterday it was myself ( distance casting in Italy is not very popular). Out of 20competitors (I saw them warming up), I casted as nr 17, so winning it was not a big deal,and then my goal was to cast better then during my practice,which did not happend as I took it to easy with some additional stress of being in eyes of others.
Example I can give you is at my work (restaurant). If normaly we do 70-90 covers a night, during nights with 30-40 covers, we all think that is going to be easy night and we can all go home early. Thinking that is going to be eaay we dont focus, and misteakes happen, small and stupid ,sometimes ammbarasing ,that you would not expect from profesional team in high standart restaurant. When we are bussy 70-90 covers ,everybody is focusing, you can feel tension and concetration, we work hard,and we all stay on the ball reducing the possibility of making misteake.
Puting it in a frame of fly casting comp. I think it is important to cast against better
casters then yourself(we know most of the time who they are). Bitting one of them,and winning the competition will give you more satisfaction, than winning against the guys who dont know how to cast (distance in this case), while percorming lazy casting.

p.s
That was my first comp wit HT Competition + Barrio GT 125
Love that rod, and many other italians after I let them try it.
cheers
mike

[Paul Arden]

Here's something I'd recommend in practise, Mike, I practise 2 minutes because many of the competitions are now three minutes and that extra minute feels like an age. Sometimes I try to have an imaginary competition without warming up, which is similar to throwing in competition. If it's possible I'll find somewhere to cast pre-competition on my own and for an extended period to make sure I'm in the flow. All Sexyloops shootouts are two minutes. I try to get as many shots away as possible, always casting to a target way off in the distance and above the horizontal. I expect to hook up with 1-2 good casts in two minutes, out of 7-8. That would be good. Sometimes it's only one. Occasionally it's three. If I get three minutes, I hope to put a few more down the line, but I just need to get something down there that hooks up, carries and lands reasonably straight. And hopefully follow it up with another.

The best thing I've done for competitions is to have them regularly. For a couple of years I had Essex Shootouts every second week, with Jon Allen and a few others, and I try to create 6-8/year. I think that is really important. I don't look to win, I look to throw huge casts. Everyone fucks up, and I've certainly had my share of it too, but my longest casts actually come in competition. You need to form your own casting club.

What did you throw by the way?

Cheers, Paul

[Paul Arden]

with some additional stress of being in eyes of others.

This is the thing you have to change by the way. Demos are good for that, because then you have the additional stress of trying to communicate with an audience. Casting ponds at trade shows are often empty, because as soon as you step up everyone watches you. You have to put yourself in the situation of casting in public as much as possible. As I said, you own the field when you cast. You own the audience.

Cheers, Paul