From: reich@cod.nosc.mil (Ronald S. Reich) Subject: TEAM WARMUP Date: Mon, 3 May 1993 22:13:01 GMT TEAM WARM-UP by RON REICH 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. _________________________>_____>_____>_____> / | \ ___________<_____<_____<_____<_____________ \ | _____>_____>_____>_____>___________________ / 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 / \ / \ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | \ __ / -------------------------- 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