WUHAN, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Parachutist Elischa Weber of Germany, who is in Wuhan for the 7th CISM Military World Games, believes dart-throwing and mental training can help make him a winner in the accuracy competition.
The 30-year-old, who won gold in the individual style and combined competition at the 2017 CISM World Military Championship in Warendorf and Bad Sassendorf, Germany, has picked up darts to train his focus in accuracy parachuting's critical landing phase.
"When you are getting closer to a target you have to focus to get the zero (centimeter margin) and that's a mental thing, the landing," Weber said.
"It's just a small point, two centimeters, and it's a yellow point so it's hard to hit it all the time. Therefore I play sports such as darts so that I get the accuracy in the right moment and keep the focus in the right time."
Weber now plays darts every day during the winter after being inspired by teammate Stefan Wiesner, a serial world champion in accuracy.
"I saw how he often was playing darts so I asked him, 'Why do you do this?' And he said it helped him to focus and that it was a good training for him. I like to play darts so I thought, let's try. I would like to play more and let's do some games to help get better," Weber said.
"Sometimes we have weather breaks when we're sitting on the ground waiting for hours when the clouds are too deep. What can we do then? We play darts, it's easy so it's perfect for that time."
Targeting the style and combined gold medal at the Wuhan Military World Games, Weber has also been training with a mental coach to ensure his head is in the right place for competitions.
"I was a very good jumper in the beginning and often won medals at the world series," he said. "Then coming into the big competitions I couldn't show my best score and I asked myself, 'Why has that happened?' So I started working with a mental coach and together we were discovering why it had happened and how I could prepare for situations like that.
"I have had three or four years working with him and the last CISM World Military Championships were a lot better. Now I do my best scores in the best competitions and that's a good thing," he added.
