Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally. - David Frost
After a "perfect" start of the weekend, on the trip to Kristiansand, I was very excited to see how the start trickled down in to our 2014-start.
For explanation;
- After getting off work a bit early, I start the trip to KRS. I just have to buy some supplies first. And don't you think that I get a flat tire and have to spend three -(3)- hours, yes three hours, changing them.
My reaction when I saw it;
After arriving in KRS, we spent a good evening with friends and good food, but I would be lying if I say I had a good night sleep. Try sleeping in the same bed as two "wannabe-spiders" sleeping, is not recommended.
Even if a bit tired, I ended up at the location in time to view the course for jumping 1 and help some friends with a course walk. After some time, it was finally my turn. Took some time to warm up Leija and to get a feel for how we would interact with each other before the run.
First course of the day was jumping 2:
When we were at the starting line, I had a pretty good feel on how I wanted the run to be, how my movement was supposed to be and how that would "trickle" to Leija and her run.
However, after the first two obstacles, my first mistake came between #2 - #3. I was WAAAAAAY to late to do my supposed front cross, giving us a much better line for #3 -> #5. The positive of that mistake, was that Leija picks up speed again very fast and hardly loses a beat in her running.
BUT, and it is a big BUT; My movement for #6 is so crappy that I would prefer if she ran in to the wrong tunnell!! I have hardly any break in the turn and Leija does exactly what I show her, even though I manage to "save" that obstacle.
#6 -> #8 is easy, as it is almost a straight line, but the I fuck it up again on number #8, where I (and I don't know why I do this) turn the way facing AWAY from the way we are running!!!! OH MY GOD how I FUCK up my handling....
And I keep doing it!!!! I look like the hunchback of Notre Dame when I run with that arched back...
After that disaster, I manage to get us to move to the weaves, where she jumps out on the last gate, but we pick it up rather okey, even though I spend some time figuring out where to insert her again.
Jump #15 clearly shows that I've given up and it results in a very wide turn in to #16 and I hardly give Leija any directions. Even though we had several issues during the run, we manage to finish on 2nd place, with 10 faults and a time within the set standard time.
Considering that it was the first run of the season, I can not lie and say I was negative after the run, but it shows that we still have a lot of issues to deal with during the season.
After a few hours brake, we were ready for the agility 2 run:
I was actually happy with my solution for the beginning on this course, but I fell behind on the movement up to #3 and that makes the turn going in to #4 becomes to big and I lose some time there.
After #7 I again use the opposite hand (Which I am close to gaffa-taping to my side next run) to stop and show Leija where to run. I also use the wrong hand to "throw" Leija in to the tunnell (#9). From #9 -> #12 I am actually quite happy with what I do, but I would prefer it if I didn't bend so much. Maybe make the turn to #12 slightly tighter.
In the weaves I get put off by the fact that Leija finishes without mistakes and that gives me some issues before #13, but we manage to save it. #14 -> #17 is straight forward, but on #17: wrong hand, wrong hand, wrong hand!! It's definately getting taped next run!
Very happy with the fast finish and it gives us our first clean run in agility 2 and a speed of 4.25 mtr/sec, but based on what I see, we should easily be able to get faster runs in the future.
Hopefully people can see what I'm doing wrong and not do that themselves.
Our next competition is Stavanger on 5-6 April with norwegian judge Morten Holmen. And there Niili will also compete in Jumping 2.
Tommy, Niili & Leija
