Thinking Differently: ‘You do you’

The third in a five-part series exploring the philosophy and approach of Julien Garcia, the French team paragliding coach. By Hugh Miller

In the last two issues, we explored how teamwork, acknowledging determinism and the importance of making small tweaks are central to Julien’s thinking. We’re now going to dive into how Julien coaches each of his pilots individually, using ‘think-like-a-kid’ questioning to unravel blocks to performance. 

“I’m not so interested in the way pilots fly well” says Julien. “But I do know how important it is to respect how they fly, because if you start messing with it too much, coaching is going to be extremely counter-productive. You have to respect how they have come to fly well, and protect it.”

He adds: “If you switch things too much, the pilot won’t handle it. Say you push them to lead out, they are likely to collapse, they won’t handle the pressure of being out front, they’ll seize up. If it doesn’t come naturally, don’t do it”.

One reason Julien gives for not forcing big changes is the fact we just don’t fly very much. A good competition pilot might manage 300 hours a year. You or I – maybe 50 or 100 a year, if we’re lucky? “Compare that volume to any other sport,...