Post Competition Regrouping & Strategy Going Forward

[dancingirldancing]

What do you do after a competition to get going again ?

Whether the result is good or bad how do you structure your practice/coaching going forward ?

Do you make adjustments based on how you perform at the competitions ?

If the result or performance is bad do you put extra measure to prevent or minimize the chance of it happening again in the future ?

Do you assess your videos alone, with DP or with coaches ?

Do you tend to over or under analyze your comp result/performances ?

What we do is that we tend to analyze our videos with our coaches and then we go over what is our biggest strenghts and weaknesses.

We would then put a concrete plan in place on how to overcome the weaknesses and and how to play with our strengths.

What we haven't been able to do is to motivate ourself fast enough after a bad comp from the inside. We found that coaches trying to motivate us from the outside only works when we have good result. When we have bad result it take us a few weeks to bounce back from it and be positive again. In the meantime our practice is not as effective as it normally is.

If anyone can help with this it will be greatly appreciated !

[fascination]

A) i always take a week off after a comp whether the results be good or bad...I find that my inner reserves are low and I need to re-group and enjoy the other aspects of my life...

B) I get a video quarterly...when I do, I watch it during my week off and take it to my first lesson back...sadly, we do not ever address what I did well...but we do look at what was wrong and set about a deliberate path to fixing it...

sometimes I am still a bit raw even after a week if it has been a rough comp...I simply am mindful of that, don't take myself to seriously and try to warn innocent parties

[Mengu]

Good result, bad result, no result, doesn't seem to matter for me. After a comp, I'm always super hyped about the next lesson, and ready to jump into the action.

However, I must say it's more watching other couples that fuels me, than any results I may have gotten. I see awesome dancers, I wanna be like them (whether that's possible or not), and off I go. No additional motivation necessary.

As for results affecting morale, if I do poorly, I'm a little upset, but I want to work that much harder (I'm stubborn this way). If I do well, I see improvement, feel like the hard work is paying off, and I want to reach that next step.

[samina]

i never made much of a big deal after... just continued onwards on the path already in place. if i needed a few days of stop-the-presses rest, i took it but... more than once i went straight from the comp to the studio for a lesson. i always needed extra calories for a few days (have horse, will eat), but mentally, emotionally...just kept moving along the arc of progress.

i did not over-analyze. post-comp analysis generally occurred with pro before leaving the comp room, or over dinner. but my view: assess the gains, assess the weaknesses, then relax and move on. it's in the past. and i leave it there.

any frustration with my personal limitations,which have been much and many, i channeled productively into finding solutions any which way possible, not by stressing or kvetching. it's supposed to be fun and liberating in the end, not a noose & a dirge. ;)

[fascination]

so interesting how it varies...I think for me it is more fatigue than anything...I almost never do less than 70 dances at a comp not counting multis and call backs...and used to do many more...so for me I just know that I am to tired to deal with immediately beginning to dissect what went poorly...I would rather just rest and do the many things that normally get neglected leading up to a comp...unless it went really poorly, then I simply know that I need to isolate, lick my wounds and then slap myself out of it before I can get back on the horse...I am hard on myself and it takes me some time to integrate and absorb the experience and I don't feel like doing even that for a few days...I really like to simply sleep and laze around for a while

[samina]

so interesting how it varies...I think for me it is more fatigue than anything...I almost never do less than 70 dances at a comp not counting multis and call backs...and used to do many more...
i can *totally* understand... you are in a narrow category of those few who dance until there are but fumes in the tank each time!

...I really like to simply sleep and laze around for a while
i don't know what sets comping apart from everything else i've ever done, but the sleep after a comp is just so restful and deep... that feeling of having truly earned it. the harder the comp, the better the sleep. :D

at times, i have needed a couple days just to "reset", and i never danced the heats you danced. that's probly why i craved so many comps... i could do 2-3/month, for sure. :)

[fascination]

ah ...see ...that would be the death of me...once a month would be my ideal with two months off...10 a year...I like to be able to see real improvement between comps and they really do kick my butt..but that also has to do with the degree to which I travel to lessons and am already away from home one night a week every week...not so good as a married lady either or for my employment scenarios...plus, local comps in the midwest aren't as plentiful and you know my sentiments for planes...so interesting how different we all are

[Leonid Turetsky]

After a comp I usually feel burned out mentally and physically.... It almost feels like I had TOO MUCH DANCING at that point...and I am a dance teacher! So yeah its a good idea to take a week or 2 break to just do other stuff.

Then, watching the videos always helps. The main thing you gotta ask yourself is did you see improvement in your dancing from the last comp? I think that is the best measure...you want to feel as though you are improving...What place you get will depend on many things, but how did you feel about your own dancing? Now that's a real measure in my opinion.

[Chris Stratton]

I think the videos or feedback from people who watched you should be given more consideration than the resulting placements. If something looks funny on the video, that's much more practically, simply, and directly addressed.

Though I would caution against watching a video alone and turning up at practice with a resulting to-do list to dump on a partner...

[fascination]

I think it would be prudent if each person simply stated what THEY do rather than invalidating what anyone else does...very fair to say what doesn't work well for each of us...

and while some of how each person re-groups might not seem ideal to anyone else, people cope differently...they need to...they should

[latingal]

What do you do after a competition to get going again ?

Normally a review of the dvd of the comp with a coach is enough to get me back in the studio working.

Whether the result is good or bad how do you structure your practice/coaching going forward ?

The time and timing of my practice and coachings now is pretty well set after gaining experience in what works best for me leading up to a comp. But I'm always open to hearing things that might improve how i prepare as I decompress after a comp.

Do you make adjustments based on how you perform at the competitions ?

Not really. I go through what needs to be worked on with teacher/coach and then plan how to accomplish it for the next comp.

If the result or performance is bad do you put extra measure to prevent or minimize the chance of it happening again in the future ?

After a certain point I realized that "failure" is the best teacher. And that it's part of the process. If you want to be successful, the best thing is to learn as much as you can from it and let it spur you on to greater heights.

Do you assess your videos alone, with DP or with coaches ?

Both alone and with coaches.

Do you tend to over or under analyze your comp result/performances ?

I hate watching my videos, so it's probably just right. I only watch it enough to know the major things I need to correct.

What we do is that we tend to analyze our videos with our coaches and then we go over what is our biggest strenghts and weaknesses.

That's good, I've never had a coach mention my strengths, it would be nice....

What we haven't been able to do is to motivate ourself fast enough after a bad comp from the inside.

1) Don't let your self worth get tied up in results. Your dancing might not have been good enough at that time, but you have value as a person no matter win or lose.

Excuse the wording but this seems to say it best for me: my dancing may have sucked, but it was the dancing that sucked NOT me - I as a person am not a failure because I couldn't bring it to the floor -- yet. And besides, with good coaching and hard work - it's just a matter of time (see point #2).

2) "Losing" is a better teacher than winning. I know when I lose that it will spur me on to a huge period of growth in my dancing. I know I will put in the work because I want it, so it's a matter of when not if.

3) Realize that you will be disappointed with a bad result if you've worked hard. But that is normal and human; so give yourself permission for a day or two to be disappointed and then immediately after start looking to see how the bad result is going to improve your dancing!!

[Gorme]

I treat a competition as a progress report on the current state of my dancing (in the worst possible form). I always feel I do the worst in a competition compared to any other moment of a practice or lesson. Regardless of placement, I give a copy of the video to my coaches and to my DP and have the coaches provide feedback on what they see. In the first 10 minutes of the lesson, the coaches watch the video with us and point out all the mistakes we made. Then they plan out the most critical things that need to be worked on. Usually, there's nothing new that happened that we were not in the progress of working on. Regardless of how I placed, there's always something to work on.

I don't need to take any days off post-comp. The weekend that the comp is on is my time off. I don't do any dancing for the rest of that weekend, just eat and spectate. (I love eating a big steak after my dancing is completed. :D)

[fascination]

amen to LG's point 1, 2, and 3.....in my world it is insane not to expect someone who is passionate about their dancing not to struggle with a disappointing comp...but it is a matter of keeping it in perspective and using it for progress

[Leonid Turetsky]

What Latingal said about not letting your self worth be diminished because of a dance result is probably the best advice....you must separate the dancer from you...

AND You must separate your dancing result from your dance training....they also have nothing to do with each other....Once you really understand it, you won't get demotivated/discouraged/confused about the future....Your training and improvement should always be the main goal....my 2 cents

[3wishes]

hmmmmm our pro also takes about 3-4 days off after a competition. I take a week.
DVD? maybe twice or three times in a year and only of the last set of dances or I ask the videographer "only finals." I don't watch the DVD by myself but DH will watch it if he didn't come to the comp. Pro will watch with me - with a coach. I do have bad days at some comps and other times hit the mark. The devil is in the details and the details make me work harder. Pro notes, frequently, that when I return from vacation or a week off from dancing - I'm much more relaxed and I "just dance" without thinking which equals, for me, dancing much better than normal.

[madmaximus]

My dance philosophy is a little different (surprise!).

I've always seen competition as the denouement of training--not its apex.

What/how I will perform in comp is already predetermined before my partner and I step on that floor.

Perhaps this is better understood in light of how we conduct our own training--we make it more stressful than competition (physically and mentally).

When compared to how we train, competition simply becomes a fun and dressy evening of easy practice, with more people on the floor, and better shoes :)

So in the end, there is no let down, no worry, no pre-comp anxiety--we don't compete against other couples, but rather a standard of performance we've agreed to set and achieve when we started (for the segment or the time period we will be training for).







m

[fascination]

this explains alot about how I am currently trained :)...thanks for this

[fascination]

now, If I can just let the concept slowly sink intot the grey matter...

[j_alexandra]

<snip>

When compared to how we train, competition simply becomes a fun and dressy evening of easy practice, with more people on the floor, and better shoes :)


I had a conversation with Teach about just this subject, recently. We agreed: the preparation is where you do the work. The performance, in this case the competition, is where you forget about the work and just have fun. At least, that's the goal. (Easy for me to talk; I compete, what, once a year?)

And you're absolutely right about the shoes!

[Josh]

Perhaps this is better understood in light of how we conduct our own training--we make it more stressful than competition (physically and mentally).


Totally agree with your post max, and I try to follow the same ideas. Except for the above -- you "make it more stressful" ... why is this? Why not remove stress from the picture entirely, both on comp day and practice?

[Chris Stratton]

So come the competition, you feel like you can fly.

[latingal]

I also take the attitude that the work is done by the time you get to the comp (though a component of the mental work for competitions I feel can only be gained with experience at competitions)...however, evaluation of the performance and planning improvements going forward (the subject of the OP) is valuable. It tells you actually what is in your body memory, how being on the floor affects your state, etc. It gives you feedback as to how to prepare better in the next go around!

[madmaximus]

Totally agree with your post max, and I try to follow the same ideas. Except for the above -- you "make it more stressful" ... why is this? Why not remove stress from the picture entirely, both on comp day and practice?

Simple. Because the reality of competition is that it is an artificial environment that is stressful.


If your body and mind is used to coping with (read: defeating) greater stress, then competition factors do not come into play and do not affect performance.

We create artificial stressors through many avenues. For example:
-- Physical stress (for example, we practice 5 and 10 dance full out with ankle, wrist, and elbow weights) with twice the length of a normal heat (3mins instead of 1 min 30 or 45 secs.

-- Mental stress: Play two different dance music (say tango and viennese) at the same time while trying to do a complete foxtrot routine to a metronome. We dance the routine with opposite roles (I dance as lady, partner dances as gent).

and so on.




m

[Chris Stratton]

Intriguing, except for trying to dance foxtrot with reference to a metronome... to me that's really unwise, not because it can't be done but because in doing so you would be off time with respect to the normal ratios of foxtrot timing based on the measure rather than the beat.

[Josh]

Simple. Because the reality of competition is that it is an artificial environment that is stressful.
m

I get this part for sure max.

I'm glad that creating artificial stressors in practice works for you--for me, some of these methods would ultimately be counterproductive for us, particularly the switching roles part, also maybe the 3 minute heats with weights too.

But I suppose my definition of creating stressors is different. What I see your practice doing is (1) increasing strength and stamina (through use of weights and longer dance times) and (2) enhancing your focus (by forcing you to hone in on the metronome and thus being able to block out external noises and distractions). Those things do have potential to create stress though, so I see why you say it that way.

[madmaximus]

Intriguing, except for trying to dance foxtrot with reference to a metronome... to me that's really unwise, not because it can't be done but because in doing so you would be off time with respect to the normal ratios of foxtrot timing based on the measure rather than the beat.

For those of us who don't have a clue about timing, beats, and measures, can please you elaborate further?

And why the use of a metronome--in your opinion, at least for Foxtrot--is unwise?





m

[madmaximus]

I get this part for sure max.

I'm glad that creating artificial stressors in practice works for you--for me, some of these methods would ultimately be counterproductive for us, particularly the switching roles part, also maybe the 3 minute heats with weights too.

But I suppose my definition of creating stressors is different. What I see your practice doing is (1) increasing strength and stamina (through use of weights and longer dance times) and (2) enhancing your focus (by forcing you to hone in on the metronome and thus being able to block out external noises and distractions). Those things do have potential to create stress though, so I see why you say it that way.

The few I quoted here are a few of what we do in practice--other things that go into our practice routine: stressors to test our ability to focus, manage floorcraft well, and different exit and entry points in our various routines.

In my mind, duplicating the worst-case scenario possible (and compounding that) prepares us for anything that may come up (like practicing how we dance when my partner loses her shoe--e.g. breaking a heel--during a heat).

Not for everyone, to be sure, but come comp day we're actually relieved that it's a comp and not training/practice.





m

[Chris Stratton]

For those of us who don't have a clue about timing, beats, and measures, can please you elaborate further?

And why the use of a metronome--in your opinion, at least for Foxtrot--is unwise?

m

The characteristic element of a terminal QQ leading into the following S is not executed metronomically. The first quick is probably on a beat, but neither the last quick nor the slow are.

Essentially, foxtrot timing makes sense not in relation to beats but in relation to one measure of music driving into the next.