On Saturday, January 30, 2016 at 7:59:45 AM UTC-8, Bob Pasker wrote:
as a glider pilot with some XC experience, and no contest experience, I can you what keeps me from contests: there is no 'on ramp'.

the only way that I know to participate in contests is to participate in contests.

What we really need is a way for people to learn about contests before actually entering one:

1. ground school -- 1 day covering eligibility, rules, launch & land procedures, strategy & tactics, traffic, equipment, etc

2. flight school -- non-competitive contests in 2-seaters

3. newbie buddies -- when you show up at a contest, team up with an experienced pilot who will be your mentor for the duration of the contest

Reno Air races has pylon school: http://airrace.org/event/racing/rookie-school/

--bob

Good points.

Perhaps the tasks with times to finish are most intimidating to me... What's this finishing early crap? Isn't it a race?

There are likely a couple of places that do contest training in the USA. Hopefully someone will point them out.
I know that training camps are run at Lake Keepit for "Nationals" type competition and "Grand Prix" competition. Quite a few entries that you'd call "newbies" are now regular contest participants. One "newbie" recently won a day.
But I've never been within 5000 miles of participating in one.

There must be hundreds of XC pilots who have no idea what terms like MAT, start time interval, etc. are.
Jim