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The good news is, it's safer than it's Extreme Sports image would have you think. Of all the so-called Extreme Sports, paragliding has perhaps the widest range of participants. In Japan, you will find old people serenely gliding across dormant volcano slopes. Through the Alps in France, you might spot daring young men pushing the limits of their skills and their paragliders while flying cross-country in challenging conditions. ™

Have you never flown in a paraglider, either alone or in a tandem wing? Are you hankering to just 'give it a try', but not yet sure whether you actually want to take it up as a sport? If the answer to both questions is 'yes', then this article is for you.

The advertisers of paragliding adventure holidays take advantage of the sport's currently good safety record. You might see lines such as this:

"Bali Adventure Paragliding is safe, secure and is a totally new experience not to be missed."

Well, the second bit is totally true, the first bit might be glossing over the occasional twisted ankle or bruise from beginners attempting their very first landings. But under ideal tourist-flying conditions, yes, it's pretty safe and secure! And of course, you can't go wrong if you are under a tandem wing with an instructor doing all the flying.

Now of course, every sport has its risks. Also, aviation in general has it's risks. So Paragliding, being both an adventure sport and a form of aviation, also has a degree of risk. When it comes to safety though, the aviation side of paragliding is all-important. All pilots are trained to operate their aircraft safely, by minimizing potential risks. In some cases it's a matter of pure judgement such as during an approach and landing. Or it might mean sticking rigidly to a check list while preparing to leave the ground. The joy of flying, year after year after year, is the reward for doing it right.

It has been said that paragliding is as safe or as dangerous as the pilot makes it. There's a lot of truth in this, from at least a couple of angles. Firstly, pilot's choose what conditions to fly in. Secondly, they choose how far to stretch their piloting skills. Let's make an analogy with driving a motor vehicle now.

A learner driver can choose to drive around the back blocks for a while, or head straight out onto the freeway at rush hour. That's choosing driving conditions.

Secondly, he or she can choose to observe the speed limits and traffic signs, or push the pedal to the metal while running red lights and overtaking everyone in the way. That's choosing how far driving skills are pushed!

Just for a moment, let's consider what the most dangerous thing about paragliding might be. Many years of experience have led some instructors to believe that this is in fact the ease with which people can learn paragliding! After picking up the basics quite quickly, some novices can start to think that they know a lot more about flying than they really do. This can lead to over-confidence and increased risk-taking. The only way to get really good and fly safely in more challenging conditions is to fly frequently, over a long period of time.

For some reason, people who have a passing interest in paragliding also have an interest in the statistics of the sport. Particularly the fatalities count. Fair enough, I guess we all instinctively try to assess our risk of dying when trying something new and exciting! So let's get the death-and-gloom out of the way first. The figures are actually quite reassuring, given the many, many thousands of people flying and the flight hours they are accumulating.

The stats for horse-riding and paragliding make for an interesting comparison. And... you guessed it, more people die from being thrown off a horse than crashing a paraglider!

In a similar vein, I came across an insurance report that listed paragliding fatalities per participant to be less than motorcycle riding. Now that doesn't surprise me, I've never trusted those things! ;-) Motorbikes that is.

Another outdoor activity which compares with paragliding in terms of injury rate per participant is snowmobiling. Of which I know nothing, coming from The Great Dry Flat Land, Australia. :-)

Despite there being quite a few thousand active paraglider pilots in the U.S. during 2005, only 3 people died in paraglider accidents. This continued a trend towards fewer paragliding fatalities each year in the U.S.

Now, to be accurate and truthful, the situation in Europe has been much worse in recent years, in terms of total fatalities. But in Europe, there are many times as many active pilots as there are in the U.S. And a big percentage of them are 'pushing the envelope' by flying in challenging weather over very challenging terrain. The Alps, no less! As a beginner, you will not fit that category, hence those particular stats need not worry you.

Enough of death and dying, I'll just touch on a couple of U.S. stats now. In 2005, only 50 accident reports relating to paragliding were received, which was a 5 year low. Also in 2005 in the U.S., 32 pilots or passengers suffered paragliding injuries. 15 of these people required an overnight stay in hospital.

Browsing through some material the other day I came across a tandem pilot who has flown many passengers over the years. In all his 350+ hours of tandem flying, he has never had a passenger injured. This should give you a good feeling, since a great way to 'just try' paragliding is to go for a flight in a tandem paraglider! The pilot is behind, the passenger hangs in front. Air in your hair, and views to die for.. ooops.. I mean really really great views! :-O

Parents: we are shifting into indoor soccer mode this week for the winter. I wanted to take a few minutes to let you know how pleased I am with the progress your girls made this fall season. I think you should be very proud of how hard your daughters have been working this year.

Here is an important lesson that sports can teach us if we are willing to learn, and I am happy to say it's a lesson I think your daughters are learning. Its one that I think should be reinforced.

There are games we win, and games we lose.

There are games we play well and games we don't play well.

There is an important difference...

If we are in the right division, then our competition should be equally matched on a skill level so that the outcomes of the games are uncertain going in; These are the games and opponents who will push us to stretch just a little bit more beyond what we thought were our limits.

When we are playing well, we are trying our best to use our skills as individuals and as a team, and playing with good sportsmanship. w\We have to be playing hard, we have to be trying for the whole game, we have to face uncertainty and hardship and keep going.

That's when we are playing well: when we ganjanetic can see the right play and try our best to make the right play, regardless of outcome.

As we improve in our technical skills we will be able to make those plays more and more often, which will cause us to win more, which will move us up into stiffer competition, where the cycle will continue.

The last game of the season for me captured the essence of playing well. Every single girl on the field that day was doing her best to play to the top of her ability. You saw them compete for the full game against a very good team. You saw them weather the attacking storm in the first half, and they not only didn't break, but they counterattacked and scored the first goal. They came out in the second half and pressed the attack, using their teammates to combine with passes and created a good number of scoring opportunities.

They were not playing kickball; they were trying to play with patience and skill, even when under pressure. They never stopped running, even when they were out of breath. They kept trying to push on.

When I see that, when i see them trying to play the beautiful game with skill, as hard as they can, it really fills me with joy, because they doing what they are supposed to do. They are demonstrating a complete commitment to the team and themselves. They aren't holding back. To be able to do that when the game is on the line, not knowing how it will turn out, but going for nevertheless, is the highest form of courage.

In my view, playing well (ie playing hard, playing with skill, playing with good sportsmanship, trying to make the right play as an individual and as a team) is more important than the specific result, even though I like to win as much as the next person, having been competitive in my life and in my profession since I was a pup.

There are games we win, and games we lose.

There are games we play well and games we don't play well.

There are games we win, when we don't play well, and those are dangerous games because we can learn the wrong lessons.

There are games we lose when we don't play well, and these challenge our character: can we get back up and work on our shortcomings and take responsibility for ourselves and our results?

There are games we win, when we played well: that is the greatest joy and we have done that multiple times this year.

There are games we lose, when we played well: that's what happened yesterday. There is no quit in our girls and they played some of their best soccer of the whole year right until the final whistle blew. Sometimes these are the hardest lessons to learn: that you can play your best and still not win that day. My task as coach is to help the girls see that difference, and use it fuel their fire to keep going, to keep improving, to respect the effort they made and to keep that effort alive in their practices and into their next games.

That's what we will be doing in futsal: sharpening our individual skills, working on small sided games to improve our tactical play, and keep the momentum going from a good outdoor season.

Each and every one of your daughters has had a terrific season, and I know you are as proud of them as I am. We are going to have a great indoor season.

Thank you very much for the trust you have placed in me to coach your daughters. I promise to keep trying hard to live up to their example.

- Coach