Competitions

Competitions can come in many different varieties. The most important thing, I think when you go into any kind of competition (especially one for sports), is to learn during the competition not just in practice or training.

I've been to five speedskating competitions, three in America, one in Amsterdam the Netherlands and one in France (where I live).
My first competition was in New York state U.S.A. I was ten and had been skating for nearly two years. I was a little nervous because I had never been to a competition before (at least not one that I had competed in) and was at the beginner level (Novice). In the end I came in third out of four skaters, but it taught me how a competition works. You have to work as hard as you can and you have to set specific goals and you have to want to achieve them. As long as you know what you want to get from the competition and work hard to get it you will be able to.

My second competition was held in the rink I started skating in. It was only a couple months after my first competition and was a big reminder of how easy it is to mess up. One kid broke his ankle and got taken away on a stretcher, another teenager (around eighteen), fell in the exact same place almost every race he was in and one of my teammates fell while I was racing against him. One of my best strengths in speedskating specifically is that I don't fall very often (or at least not anymore), but I did fall a couple of times in this competition. One of the key things to winning a speedskating race in a competition is to know that people are going to fall and its your job to make sure that when they fall, you don't fall, too. It's not about who falls, but about who doesn't, because those are the people who, if they have enough focus, determination, practice and skill will win.

Some competitions are just very badly organized (like my third speed skating competition) and not very eventful and really just worth forgetting about. So I'm going to go straight to France

In this competition, I was a little more nervous because it was the first competition with my new team, it was in France, all the announcements were in French and my coach, who spoke English wasn't there (only the assistant coach who didn't speak English was there), but the whole thing went pretty well. All the kids in my team were really supportive and helpful (as was the assistant coach). That competition was a reminder of how hard you have to work to be good. I came in last in almost every race. Right after that competition I decided that I was not going to come in last anymore. When you make a decision about yourself that you want to live up to and are willing to put the effort in to make it happen you can MAKE IT HAPPEN. So after that I stopped being the slowest in my group and started getting better and better. The good thing about me being the slowest at the time was that I had all these teammates (in practice) that drove me to get better. Even though I was this new kid who didn't even speak their language, all of my French speedskating teammates made it so easy and so enjoyable to be there, which made it easier to compete in these foreign countries.

Now, the most recent competition I went to was in Amsterdam NL and that was a reminder of how quickly anyone can grow in a sport. It was the first two-day competition I'd ever been to and I think I learned more in those two days then I had learned in the rest of the year. Also, in case you are wondering, I didn't come in last in a single race. I still wasn't the best, but considering how much progress I made I know that soon I'm going to be winning a lot more. Also, in that competition I decreased the amount of time I took to complete all my distances from what they were in prior races. It was definitely one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. My speedskating coach made being and competing there very easy and fun so a specific thank you to him. Also, my relay team and I won the semi-final and came in third out of four in the final, but that was also an amazing experience so thanks to all my teammates.

Some people don't like competitions (and I can understand that), but my advice is not to be afraid of competitions, but to learn from them instead.

Comments welcome.