mat said:
- unless you really really know the park well, DONT PLAN YOUR LINES/RUNS
- practice as much as you can beforehand, but dont tire yourself out.
That's what practice is for, to figure out what lines you can take and what order to hit certain obstacles. I never go into a comp and plan every run to a tee, but I will look at different sections of the course, think of the most logical order of hitting the different parts, and then i think up a few different tricks to hit on each obstacle. I never narrow it down to "this trick here, then this trick here....etc."
second bullet is good advice, I did that at both tic comps and the first xw comp I went to, DEFINITELY opt to go a day early to have a chill sesh at teh park so you can figure out a few lines and what things you can hit if you don't go there often. day of the comp DON'T ride crazy, just practice some lines and do enough to feel comfortable and be warmed-up but still nowhere near worn out.
My only other advice is basically what a few people have said already, definitely lay down a conservative first run, make sure you land everything. 2nd and third, up the difficulty a bit, definitely still keep screw-ups to a minimum.
Now I know I'm never up on the news section as a winner of any contests. It isn't that I don't know how to do well, but when it comes time to do my runs I usually trip out, I get screwed up or I don't plan out a long enough run so I do what I had i mind then I'm left with like 20 more seconds to wing it. So chill out, plan out a good run, be original, and don't tire yourself out before the contest even starts