Overview
For many groups, moving between local-level competitions often held at area high schools to larger regional or national-level meets can be pretty daunting.
What’s more, in most cases are are some “unwritten” expectations that usually take competitors some time to acclimate to. What’s normal at meet down the road might be totally different when you travel out of state to compete at a higher level!
So to help get you started, we’ve assembled THREE things that are nearly always going to be different when it comes to moving up towards a national-level event. With this knowledge, we hope you’re better able to mentally and physically prepare for making that jump!
Three Differences
1) No matter how well you perform at a local meet, don’t EXPECT to perform at the same level your first time at a larger national-level meet.
If your team is moving up the ladder, it’s probably because you’re doing well back home! And that’s awesome! But one of the first things we tell groups is that no matter how good they’re used to performing, the first time attending a national event, don’t expect to be at the same level. There are SO many small differences – from bus rides, to hotels, to time changes – that can play into your performance on the floor. And some of those can’t be prepared for beyond understanding that they exist.
This doesn’t mean you won’t perform well or beyond your expectations. You never know how things will go! But it does mean that it’s OK to give yourself a little grace and understand that the transition is going to be a learning process.
To help address this, make sure everyone is taking notes. What do you notice about the venue? The city? The schedule? You’ll only experience the first time going ONCE and that first group can be crucial in identifying the small issues you won’t be expecting so they’ll stop being surprises next year!
2) The “order of battle” will likely be vastly more pivotal in determining overall results.
When many teams are exceptional, other factors start to become difference-makers. When a handful of groups or a single team is dominant at a local meet, judges are generally more easily able to rank the teams in an order that makes sense.
But when you transition to larger, more competitive meets, the schedule plays a HUGE role in the success of a team and you SHOULD take it into account when strategically practicing.
Most large meets release “the draw” – the order of competing teams in each event – at least a week in advance. Once this is released, here are a few tips to help you use it to your advantage:
- Prioritize your “early” events. If you are performing early in a line-up, you need to be prepared to be excellent and set a standard. Emphasize the importance of error-free drill for any event that happens early in the line up. You can come back from mistakes in the afternoon once the judges’ eyes have been calibrated to the teams they’re seeing. A morning mistake is FAR more costly.
- Practice your events in the order you will perform them. It feels far different to START the day with exhibition than it does to END the day with it. You need to be ready for these adjustments, especially if you’ve been sticking to a fairly regular schedule. Your practices in the final weeks leading up to the competition should occur in event order, even if that order is kind of wonky.
- If you need to shed some time from one event to focus on another, your safest bets are to take time from your LATER events to give that time to your EARLIER ones. Another safe bet to take some time from is any event that occurs either directly or within 2-3 teams of a scheduled judging lunch break. Well-fed judges are happy judges. Scores tend to inflate after lunch.
3) Your logistics matter more than they used to.
We cannot emphasize this enough: while you can certainly do well at a local meet with your drill alone, national events are won or lost in logistics. How prepared and organized a team is becomes exponentially more important than it used to be. How all the small details – from the schedule, to the equipment, to the dress standards – come together can make or break your performance because it’s NOT just your drill being judged at these high level competitions: it’s everything about your team. A well-organized, well-prepared team is a calm team. Calm teams are thinking teams. Thinking teams make smart adjustments on and off the floor. Put as much emphasis on your logistics game as you do on your drill. It matters so much more!
Not only does your logistics game matter OFF the floor, it also matters in how you move to and from your drill areas, interact with the judges, and set the tone for each event. Want an actionable example? Check out information on these procedures.