Personally, I'm just getting into competition flying, and in addition to really enjoying the comps themselves I'm learning loads that will help my XC flying. XC pilots think "how far can I fly?". Competition pilots think "how do I get from A to B as fast as possible?". Combine the two and your perspective changes: instead of thermal triggers and downwind glides you see lines through the sky along which you can travel. Ridges are lines where it's easy to get from one end to the other. Circling in a thermal and then gliding connects you from being here to being there. And what is paragliding if not tracing a line through the sky, which, when you follow it, takes you from its start to its end?