As I write we are in the middle of this year’s Acro World Tour season and so far so good for me as I have won two out of three events. I should be pretty happy about it but, somehow, I am not.
Winning a World Tour event is supposed to give maximum joy to an acro pilot and is supposed to be the biggest achievement of their pilot’s life. But for the past two years I have not experienced that overwhelming feeling of joy when I have won. I do experience an overwhelming feeling of dread when I lose though, so this has pushed me to try to understand a bit more about what I am feeling and why. As a competition pilot it is important to understand what drives you in order to maximise your results. Here I have tried to describe my different mental states experienced throughout my career.
#1 Overconfidence
When I arrived on the tour I was a rookie with low expectations and I expected to do pretty badly. It mean even...
