Structuring my work & training
Structuring my work & training. It’s very easy to start procrastinating and lose track of your training when you have a lot of time ahead of you but as an independent, you can’t rely on an entire team to do some of that work for you which means that your planning and organisation have to be on point. One of the very first things I did for this competition (besides reading the rules 10 times) was to break down the preparation process into different categories to make sure I would cover every single aspect of the competition but also better organise my time and plan the next few months accordingly. I broke down the preparation into the 7 following categories:
- Building a team: finding the right people to train with and coaches to help (other April Athletes, Patrik Rolf, David Train, Devin Loong, Alex Murfet and many other)
- Gearing up: listing the equipment I need, finding sponsors for some products and buying the rest
- Picking a coffee: sourcing one or several competition worthy coffees
- Profiling the roast: trying as many roast profiles as possible
- Brewing technique: pick up a style of brewing that would highlight the coffee’s
- Public speaking: practicing the art and mastery of doing a public presentation
- Dialling-in: being more comfortable brewing any coffee to practice for the compulsory round
These don’t need to be check in this specific order but there is definitely some merit in doing so. I’ve ticked the first 3 ones so far and I’m currently working on the Public Speaking (I’ll be taking some improv and acting classes) and the Dialling parts of my preparation. I’ll be off to Europe next week to see the family and brew some coffee for compulsory!
See more of my journey on https://www.aprilcoffeeroasters.com/blogs/april-articles/training-log-by-simon-gautherin-structuring-my-work-training