Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Managing a Competitive Hobby.


    For as long as I can remember, the radio control hobby for me has always centered around racing.
Playing with RC cars with friends was fun, and I've done my fair share of backyard ripping, but the majority of my time with RC cars has been spent competing, not "bashing" as some call it.

    Not that bashing itself isn't fun; it clearly is. I've always just preferred the technology & performance-oriented side of the hobby, which encapsulates the racing genre of Radio Control. Above all the technology and performance and speed though, it's the love of competing with others and working towards a goal of a dialed setup and good results that really attracted me as a kid, and still does today. I'd bet to guess that competition is at the very least a small factor that attracts all of us racers to "racing" in general, whether it be full size or the scale variety. 

    I never considered myself to be a great "stick & ball" player. I never quite had the skill or guts to race BMX or motocross. I've always enjoyed these activities on a personal level, but I never found myself having fun participating on the "competition" side of these sports. Each of these sports were purely for enjoyment with friends and family. That's where RC comes in. Radio Control car racing provided me a hobby in which I could gain technical and mechanical knowledge, as well as compete with others in an activity that nearly anyone could and does excel at, including myself. 

    In my early years racing RC cars, I struggled to balance the intensity and adrenaline rush of competition with the fact that the activity I was participating in was merely a hobby and not a life or death situation. Anything less than a stellar drive to me would be met with personal frustration that would often times boil over and show as aggressive actions on track or a bad attitude in the pits. Try telling a 10-year old that what he/she works and prepares for all week doesn't mean anything, and you'll most likely be met with a blank stare and deaf ears. Now, try telling this to a full-grown adult with a massive priority issue, and you'll probably get a much more salty answer and the same deaf ears. "How dare you piss in my Cheerios, this is competition, man!"

Let's explore that....

    

Definition of competition in English:

competition


NOUN

mass noun
  • 1The activity or condition of striving to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others.
    ‘there is fierce competition between banks’
    ‘the competition for university places is greater than ever this year’



     This definition comes strait from the Oxford dictionary. The very meaning of competition is to win something by defeating others. By reading this, we can be assured that the feelings of excitement, accomplishment, frustration or anger are an inherent byproduct of competition itself. At the end of the day, no matter what activity you're participating in, no matter the significance to others, if it involves competition in some way, you can bet there will be a winner and a loser. You can also bet that there will be someone very happy, and someone not so enthusiastic about the outcome of said-activity. This is the beauty of competition. The frustration of losing is eclipsed only by the jubilation of winning. It's an addictive feeling that is as strong as some drugs in the highs it can provide, and lows it also brings. Much like a drug though, once one gets a taste of it, it's nearly impossible to resist.







hobby1


NOUN

  • 1An activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure.
    ‘her hobbies are reading and gardening’

    This definition also comes from the Oxford dictionary. From this meaning, the idea of having a competition be a hobby at the same time feels contradictory on paper. How can someone participate in an activity that is quite simply a "win or lose" situation, yet be done at one's leisure for simple pleasure? Quite easily, really. We do it every time we attend a Wednesday night club race, or a Sunday club day, or a Saturday series race. Each of these is a competition, yet is done for fun because we love it. We love to compete, and we love to escape into our interests for a few hours a week. When all is right with the world, both meanings become equal parts, and the thrill of competing compliments the idea of all this just being a hobby. Something that allows us to turn off the world in the name of personal accomplishment. 

    Inevitably though, these two definitions collide from time to time, creating the obvious conflict of competition vs. hobby. Personal performance, an incident with another driver, or just a simple unmet expectation can lead to a moment of frustration on the driver's stand or in the pits. Sometimes its just a harmless moment at your work table after a run, and other times it's more severe, in the form of choice words to a fellow racer or overly aggressive maneuvers on-track. It's at this point that the passion felt from competition begins to overtake the original purpose of the activity, which is just to have fun.
   
    These moments happen to all of us at some point or another, and I've caught myself taking this hobby way too seriously more than once in my career. From the most elite of racers to the novice weekend warriors, moments of frustration or irritation bubble up and consume our race nights or race days. It's not a matter of if, but when. When it does happen however, it's how we deal with it that separates us.


Here's a couple ways I've come up with to help keep things in perspective:


Take a Step Back.


    Sometimes it's best to just take some time away from things and regroup. I've done this more times than I can remember, and it's worked every time. Back in February 2013, I took some time away from full-time racing to become a daddy for the first time. While I raced a couple times here and there, This April marked my first time back to full-fledged racing since the birth of my son, and loss of another. I can honestly say without a shadow of a doubt that I'm having more fun now than I ever have at any point in my racing career. My perspective on life has changed over the years, and what was once a seriously competitive activity to me, has become a fun escape that I look forward to every two weeks. Call it maturity or whatever you'd like, but there's no question that taking time away saved the hobby for me. I was flat burned out and didn't even know it.


Try Something New.


    Sometimes,  just a change of scenery can do wonders for a racer's attitude. Moving down or up in a class or speed of car can give a racer a newfound motivation or challenge that maybe didn't exist with his/her current class. Or, maybe even switching a style of racing altogether will do the trick. Many racers often switch from On-Road to Off-Road, Road Course to Oval, etc. for a new challenge and develop a new skillset. Getting stuck in a rut is easy to do in the hobby, and there's no better way to break out of a funk than to move out of your comfort zone every now and again.
(World Champion Jered Tebo keeping things fun by trying something different.)
  
Get Social.

    While the racing takes center stage most of the time, the social aspect of RC racing is just as important and just as enjoyable. Some of the best memories in this hobby have been spent bullshitting around pit tables and not on the drivers stand. Much like garage time (read my last post), the pit area was a place of questionable language and good company. It still is the highlight of any club race for me. So next time you're at the track, strike up a conversation with a fellow racer, get to know those that you compete with. Who knows, maybe you'll find a fresh perspective through a common interest. At the very least, you'll probably hear a off-color joke or ridiculous story (You know who you are).

    For the 1% of racers that find RC racing as their occupation, these guidelines probably wouldn't help much, but for the 99% of the rest of us that take this hobby too seriously, it's just that... A hobby. Let's treat it as such. Be mindful of the actions you take in the name of competition, and above all... Have fun.









    






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