"I'll second Lou's point."
You've gotta learn to walk before you attempt learning to run definitely
applies to XC soaring in my experience - personal and observational since
~'73. In hindsight, I was blessed to experience sensible pre-XC training "way
back when" I'd no clue what it was all about. Back then "it all began with the
Silver C badge," i.e. no formalized pre-Silver formal training syllabus. It
was presented to me - and I lapped it up in eager ignorance - as, "Here's the
basics of what you'll need to know to safely - and certainly unsuccessfully,
at times (i.e. landout required) - fly XC.
Since then, I've seen more than one XC wannabe attempt to run before they
learned to walk, which is to say attempt to buy L/D as their means of avoiding
landouts. (More than told me in all seriousness, "I don't intend to land out;
my L/D will get me to an airport.") Some were ultimately successful; some
seemed to scare themselves out of the sport from (it seemed to me) vague
feelings of unease; some broke their gliders. Those that were successful
ultimately learned of the need to walk despite their original intentions.
For the skeptical, I'm not suggesting that even if a person *does* learn to
walk first, that their XC adventures are guaranteed to be without negative
landout trauma. Just that learning to walk first is the wiser approach by far.
As to personal bona fides, SSA members can verify I never officially bagged
more than 2/3 of my Silver Badge (guess which leg is missing!), while lotsa
folks on both sides of retrieves can testify to my walking and running experience.
Have fun out there!!! (I'd say "Be safe, too," but fun and safety are merely
opposite sides of the same coin...no need to be overly redundant by repeating
myself more than once!)
Bob W.