Background
I have participated in ICPC contests for 4 years, always classifying to the Mexico finals, and classifying once to the world finals of Bangladesh ;). In my first two years of competing I felt like I did some good progress, training every day, reaching new targets in codeforces etc. Most of my early training was following the Informatics Olympiad course of my country, and when I finished it I switched to the CPBook. At some point, I started training only in codeforces, which got me good results in codeforces, but bad results in ICPC.
I was really demotivated because of my bad performance in ICPC, however I miracously (and with the help of excepcional teammates) classifed to the World Finals. The event was incredible and I decided to try again in ICPC and try to reach World Finals again. I participated in a training camp, and I learn something pretty obvious but that I didn't know. Training and Upsolving ICPC contests is way better than training and upsolving codeforces (for ICPC) In that training camp, I got pass a mental block that I had, and I can finally tackle more interesting ICPC problems.
Why a coach?
I was really demotivated because of my bad performance in ICPC, however I miracously (and with the help of excepcional teammates) classifed to the World Finals. The event was incredible and I decided to try again in ICPC and try to reach World Finals again. I participated in a training camp, and I learn something pretty obvious but that I didn't know. Training and Upsolving ICPC contests is way better than training and upsolving codeforces (for ICPC) In that training camp, I got pass a mental block that I had, and I can finally tackle more interesting ICPC problems.
Well, I was blocked for a lot of time, due to the type of practice I was doing and the solution was pretty obvious for people that are better than me lol. I think, there may be more factors in my training and in my way of solving problems, that are suboptimal approaches, and the solution could be very obvious for other people.
Whad do I expect from the coach? I think most of the practice is indivudal. Coding, Upsolving, Editorials can be found for most problem.The idea of getting a coach, is to show him/her the training I did that week, the process I followed, my mistakes. and he/she can help me figure out which mistakes I am doing that I am not aware of, how to practice in order to fix those mistakes, and then iterate again next week. I think the job of the coach is more than just proposing problems, but to find mistakes and fix mental representations to improve performance.
My personal goal
My goal is to classify to world finals, being a top LATAM team. Next regional is in about 8-12 months. I think dedicating around 10 hours a week ir this period of time is enough (am I understimating/overestimating my region?). I think coaching can be done in 1 hour a week (maybe less/more?).
FAQ
Is it paid? Yeah, but don't expect much. I'm a student haha, and this comes out of my pocket. My university won't support paying someone. I will pay for your coffee and snacks.
What about professors/students in my university? My current university coach doesn't know much about ICPC. He is very helpful in other stuff. Other students in my university are also good, but not really at coaching at this level. (They are around my same level).
Why don't you just follow advice from other blogs? I think people that have reached high levels in ICPC must have very good ideas on how to train. Some of this ideas can be found in blogs, but some of them my be very specific, or only have a meaning in certain situations. I think a coach works with the latter type of advice.
How do I contact you for more information? email me at [email protected]. Maybe you prefer discord or telegram, but we can talk about it through email first.
TLDR
Please be my coach.
