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Team warm-up
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Subject: Team warm-up
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From: Ron Reich
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Date: N/A
INTRODUCTION:
My approach may be a little bit more rigid than most but I
have found it to be successful to achieve the teams objectives.
Namely to be recognized as the "BEST IN THE WORLD". There is a
time for social flying and a time for serious practice. This
article is directed at the time for serious practice for wanna be
world class teams.
I think we all agree that there is a certain amount of
physical exertion required in flying controllable kites. The
amount of physical preparation is a personal thing. Each
individual has a responsibility to the other members of the team
to mentally and physically prepare for practice and competition.
This article is intended to present concepts for the kite flying
warm-up that takes place after the individual warm-up.
The leader either alone or through a consensus of the team
members should have specific objectives in mind for the practice
session.
FALL IN:
If the team intends to make quality time of the the practice
session then when the leader calls "FALL IN" all flyers should
assume their respective positions in the flight pattern. All
flyers should be silent and follow the commands of the leader.
The first consideration of the flyers should be spacing.
WARM-UP PATTERN #1
During the initial flying of the practice session the leader
should fly a series of long horizontal lines which progressively
get higher and then back down.
_________________________>_____>_____>_____>
/
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\ ___________<_____<_____<_____<_____________
\
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_____>_____>_____>_____>___________________ /
Each flyer should give specific attention to making sure
that their kite stays equal spaced from the one in front of them
and that the lines in and out of the corners are tangent to the
curvature of the corner. ( i.e. no dips or lumps ) It is not
necessary for the leader to make any calls during this part of
the warm-up. The change in elevation between horizontal lines
should be about 20 feet. This pattern should be maintained for
at least 4 cycles.
WARM-UP PATTERN #2
When the leader is satisfied with the teams performance of
pattern #1, pattern #2 can be initiated by the simple command
follow which lets the team members know that the pattern is going
to change. Pattern #2 is similar to #1 except that the parallel
lines are on the vertical. The path should be carried as high as
possible and as near to the ground as possible. The only
commands from the leader should be made when changing the
direction of progression across the sky. ( i.e. on the last down
stroke of a sequence that has been progressing from left to right
across the sky the leader will say pulling right to the first
follower so that the change in pattern will not be a surprise.
The other flyers will see the change soon enough to mentally
prepare for their subsequent turns ). Particular attention
should be given to absolute straight vertical lines with all
kites perfectly aligned. The stroke of the path should be
sufficient to allow all kites to be on the line at the same time.
All flyers should be walking backward during the up stroke and
forward during the down stroke with the intent of maintaining a
constant speed. ( I believe that a teams ability to maintain a
constant speed throughout a maneuver is paramount in the
performance of compulsory figures ).
__ __ top of wind window
/ \ / \
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| | | |
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\ __ /
-------------------------- ground level
WARM-UP TURN PATTERNS:
No warm-up period should be complete without unison turns in
both directions. During the execution of these turns all members
should make every effort to give the appearance the the kites are
attach like the wheels of a train.
I'm going to digress here for a moment and talk about the
technique required to carve perfectly round circles. The concept
is simple the execution is challenging. The flyer should think
of the circle to be carved as a series of arcs between for
precisely positioned points representing 3,6,9 and 12 o'clock.
At the points 3 and 9 o'clock the center spine of the kite should
be pointed exactly vertical, Up or Down whichever is
appropriate. Similarly the center spine should be pointing
exactly horizontal at 6 and 12 o'clock, to the left or right
whichever is appropriate. The points 3 and 9 should be exactly
opposite each other and exactly half way between 6 and 12. This
sounds simple and straight forward but I would venture to say
that there are not more than 4 or 5 people out there that can fly
a perfect circle. If you think you are one of the few then
please put lights on your kite and fly the perfect circle at
night in a time exposed photograph to prove it. O.K. back to
the lesson at hand.
The wind window can be defined in terms of 4 specific
elevations. FULL SKY, 3/4 SKY, HALF SKY, and 1/4 SKY.
------------------------------------------------ FULL SKY
------------------------------------------------ 3/4 SKY
------------------------------------------------ HALF SKY
------------------------------------------------ 1/4 SKY
- - - - - - - NORMAL HEIGHT OF UNI TURN - - - - -
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ GROUND PASS ELEVATION _ _ _ _ _ _
------------------------------------------------ GROUND LEVEL
During the previous warm-up patterns the leader should be
determining where these elevation identities will be. He should
then indicate to the other flyers what he has determined to be
"full sky", "3/4 sky", "1/2 sky", and "1/4 sky".
The leader can describe the size of the unison turn by using
one of these terms in the preparatory command. All flyers will
carve their own circle of the prescribed size while continuing to
maintain horizontal spacing and constant speed. As the team is
being lead into a ground pass from left to right the leader could
say "FULL SKY LEFT" followed by the execution command "TURN".
All kites will carve a large left perfect circle spaced and timed
to the leader. The circles will go to the full height of the wind
window. Similarly turns of half sky and quarter sky should be
practiced. The turns should be initiated from all of the
different elevations resulting in both up and down turns.
The practice of half sky circles will improve the teams
performance of the team eights compulsory. Here is a challenge
for your team. Establish a half sky horizontal pass from left to
right. When all kites are on the line execute and odd/even half
sky left vertical figure eight. (i.e. 1 & 3 break left, 2 & 4
break right. Carve the first half sky circles and meet on the
half sky line where each will then immediately carve into the
opposite half sky circle. Finishing all exactly at the same time
back on the half sky line headed from left to right).
WARM-UP CLOSE ORDER DRILL:
Now that you're getting pretty warmed up the next exercise
is to reduce the spacing at least in half. Fly as tight a
spacing as you can possibly get away with. Refueling doesn't
count. No touching. Now start over with WARM-UP PATTERN #1 and
work your way through all of the patterns again.
This entire warm-up period should take only about 30 to 45
minutes depending on how much fun you're having. If the
objective of the practice for the day is to work on compulsory
figures I suggest you spend additional time on this type of warm-
up.
STILL LEARNING AND SHARING
RON REICH
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