In North America, most competitors get their start in the college ranks. It’s how I started myself and it’s a great introduction to the sport. Where else can you try out this expensive sport without having to buy your own equipment? Having said that, there are some problems that most college athletes have to overcome in order to improve their skills. Here is a list that I have compiled from my experience both as a college competitor and a coach.
1) Ego
With the exception of a couple of regions, the level of competition is fairly low at college contests. For this reason, it is relatively easy to win events with poor technique. Winning, can be a double-edged sword, as it can instill false confidence in a person’s ability. Getting a big ego and failing to see that improvement is necessary is the worst thing that can happen to a developing competitor.
To avoid this, it is a good idea to compete at some professional shows. It’s the best way to get a healthy serving of humble pie. Accepting that you “suck” is usually the first step towards improvement. The quicker that happens, the better.
2)Equipment
It’s important to learn how to properly use and maintain your gear. The biggest offender here is always the crooked axe hang. Chopping wood is about precision, how is it possible to chop accurately when the handle isn‘t on straight? In my experience, at least half of the axes at any given college competition are hung crooked. Personally, I won’t use an axe that is off more than a couple of degrees in any direction. This is especially true for practice axes.
Bowsaw frames are also a common problem for schools that compete in that event. Either the frame has no rigidity or the blade is hung without tension in the frame. Either way, put even a little bit of pressure on the blade and you’re in trouble.
3) What’s my pattern?
Maybe this is just a pet peeve, but who cares?!? If you don’t know how to properly swing the axe yet, don’t spend your time worrying about patterns. Focus on hitting accurately with power. You have to crawl before you can fly. Once you can consistently sink the full face of the axe in a good block, then focus on your pattern. Until then, chop it until it’s done.
4) Too many cooks in the kitchen.
Too many teams don’t have coaches. Some schools have coaches without much experience in the sport; they exist to organize trips and deal with other issues that are not training specific. That is fine, because let’s face it, this isn’t exactly a mainstream sport. There isn’t enough money to hire experts to coach every team. But it becomes problematic when you end up having 4 or 5 students trying to train newcomers at the same time.
Have you ever been chopping while trying to listen to 5 people yelling different things at the same time? Not very effective, right? Most of these “student coaches”, while well intentioned, aren’t helping to improve their teams. It’s best to delegate a single person to coach at a time. That’s not to say that newcomers can’t get help from multiple coaches, just not at the same time. It simply doesn’t work and usually leads to confusion.
5) Footwear
Logger boots are meant for working in the woods and dancing on stumps. That’s it! Okay, for some classy folks, maybe weddings too. They certainly have no place in competition. Buy yourself some flat soled shoes for underhand chopping (Dunlop Volleys, skateboard or wrestling shoes work best), and some spikes for the other events (depending on the terrain). Trust me, you’ll be glad that you made the switch.
6) Slow Down and do it properly
Everyone wants to go fast. It is, after all, a timed event. Don’t do it. To quote the movie Shooter, “Fast is Slow. Slow is Smooth. Smooth is Fast.” The key to getting fast is learning how to do each event properly and then adding the speed later. You simply can’t build a skyscraper on a shaky foundation.
When I first started in the sport, I would watch axemen like Dale Ryan and Kerry Head on the Stihl Timbersports Series. They would swing with incredible speed. Speed had to be the key! What I didn’t realize at the time was that they had spent years perfecting their technique to get to that point where they could go so fast. Fast forward three years later, when I learned how to properly chop, and I fought with changing all those bad habits I developed from rushing. To this day I still struggle with it. Do it right from the start, and breaking bad habits won‘t be a concern.
7) Stay Controlled
Many competitors have a background in other athletic endeavors where it is often an advantage to get amped up and crazy during a game. This is especially true in American Football. That mentality doesn’t pair up well with lumberjack sports.
A lot of chopping and sawing is about body control. For example, when swinging an axe you need to be accurate. Every time that your head starts moving around, the body normally follows. The result? Usually inconsistent hits. It’s important to be in control when competing. Does this mean that you can’t be pumped up during an event? Certainly not, but it needs to be controlled. Focused fury is my term of choice.
8) Unfocused Training
Every time that you approach a log, you should have a purpose. That purpose shouldn’t be to just cut it in half either! It doesn’t matter what you need to work on, focus on improving one thing every time that you train. Focused training is the key to improvement. Without it, you are just wasting wood.
9) “I know”
Remove the phrase “I know” from your vocabulary. In order to improve, you need to be coachable. Usually that means keeping your mouth shut and listening. One more time – Listening. It’s not a contest for you to prove how much you know or think that you know. It’s about listening and learning.
Bottom Line
What is the take home message from this article if you are a college competitor? Two things – be cognizant of these common problems and make an effort to train with someone more skilled than yourself. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good idea to listen to advice from everyone. Take that advice and then figure out if it makes sense for you. If it does – great, if not, thank them for it anyway. That being said, if you really want to reach a high level in the sport, you need to find a high caliber competitor to coach you. At the end of the day, the better your coach, the better you will become.