Rather than concentrating on the outcome, the focus should be on the process. How should I do this gate? Where should my boat be at this point of the course? Even if you pick up a penalty or make a mistake, keep thinking of the course, not on your score.
It's like trying to play basketball when you are looking at the scoreboard- you are taking your eyes off the ball. It's not a good strategy for racing. Just keep on going and don't worry about the result. Don't think about the gate you just hit or whether or not the gate judge saw it. Stay in the moment.
Anyway, I can tell you how you will do in the race. You will do about the same as you do in practice. You won't magically become someone different on race day. Your race run will be about the same as your practice runs are.
So, the way to make your race runs better is to make your practice runs better. Every run in training should be well-planned and thought-out with a lot of focus and attention. Training is not about working muscles or a specific energy system- aerobic, anaerobic or whatever. Training is about getting highly focused, quality runs. Train fast and clean and then you will do the same in the race.
On the other hand, if you train without studying the course ahead of time, or if you are too tired or sloppy or in a bad mood, you are training to do poorly. You would be better off not training that day if you won't have a high quality session. Doing low quality sessions leads to low quality in your race runs.
Also, on your race runs, your competitor is the river, not the other boaters. Concentrate on the things you have control over. You have absolutely no control over the other boaters. You also have no control over the race organizers or the gate judges. The only thing you can control is yourself. That is what you need to concentrate on- your run on the course. Take the run just as a run in training- no special effort is necessary if you have been training correctly.
Doing lots of race simulations will help you race well. Rather than never doing full-lengths in practice, seek out opportunities to do full-lenths in practice. On weekends, go to a place where there is a full length gate course to practice full lengths. Try to take the full lengths like a race as much as possible.
There are a lot of skills you need for full-lengths that you don't need if you are just doing short courses. Memorizing a full-length course is an important skill. Course study from the bank is also an important skill. Being able to look at a course and planning out every move is an important skill that takes a lot of practice to develop. Doing quality full-lengths in practice will help you with these skills.
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