I appreciate the input. There are some very good points here.

I see I should have qualified my comments a bit. I have competed in
three contests so far. Two Sports and one Nationals. I attended an XC
camp at Air Sailing immediately prior to my first contest. I have been
out there doing it and a lot of the details of preparation and basic
competition flying are now fairly routine. (Although the first time I
was in a gaggle with 10 standard class sailplanes was fantastically
beautiful and intimidating at the same time! What a beautiful ballet.)

I am just looking at my progression and wondering how I can improve my
learning curve. Yes, I am being impatient. But when I see the people in
the top ten of a contest have been flying 20-30 years and I consider
having started when I was 49, I realize I probably don't have that much
time.

Don't get me wrong, I am not looking for an easy way to do this without
putting in the flying time and the effort. I am just looking for
reasources which will help me compete in a safe and competitive manner.


Word of mouth sharing of knowledge can be as bad as it is good.
Especially when you are talking about safety in competition. Consider
that at my next contest I sit down and talk to a pilot who I have just
seen make a few really nice high speed and fairly low finishes and he
tells me how he does it. What if this guy is an accident waiting to
happen, someone who has incorrect assumptions about how this should be
done?

If there is a concern amoungst comp. pilots regarding proper and safe
finish methods perhaps something should be written and posted on the
SRA web page? I have certainly learned something from this thread. Give
people the correct information up front. How about for other topics as
well?