Experiences of First Time Competitors
What do people say about their first time?
Competitive bodybuilding is a great sport I love helping clients prepare for their competitions. I’m a competitor myself so I know how important it is for athletes to have a good competitive experience while producing a physique they can be proud of. Now everybody knows the training and diet can be extremely physically taxing and any that every would be competitor should be up to the challenge. Where most first time athletes fall down is that they very often underestimate the mental side of the sport. People know it’s going to be tough, they just don’t realise how tough. If you ask any current or previous competitor they’ll tell you it’s about more than just pumping iron and eating steam broccoli and chicken breast. From a personal point of view I actually find myself spending more and more time focused on athlete well being and sports psychology than the nuts and bolts of nutrition and training.
With all that in mind. For the past couple of years I’ve been asking all my competitive clients to complete a survey on how they found their first season in competitive bodybuilding.
Why I ask competitors to complete surveys:
1) To get competitors to reflect on their best practices, and tools that might be helpful in the future
2) To get competitors to reflect on where they may be able to do better for future preps
3) To identify common experiences so we might be able to feedback and help future competitors
Below I’ve compiled the responses of 9 female first time competitors and 4 male competitors following a competitive season. I find it’s much harder to get men to complete surveys and I’m sure you’ll agree the women seem to do a lot better when it came to reflective practice. The data is useful and hopefully it can be of use to future first time competitors and returning competitors.
There are three tables in total:
1) Female reflections on competition prep
2) Male reflections on competition prep
3) A summary of responses which I felt reflected the female and male athletes as a whole
If you’re considering competing in the future and you’re new to the sport then take the time to read through the table and familiarise yourself with common experiences. I guarantee you’ll have a better understanding of what you may be about to get yourself into and you’ll be better placed to understand the competitive process. Moreover if you’ve competed before, then the responses can be a useful way of helping you realise you weren’t the only one feeling a certain way and that you might have more in common with your peers than you think. What struck me is seeing how humble these competitors were. That may reflect the way I coached them or their personalities, but there was some seriously good competitors amongst the 13 athletes surveyed. We’re talking multiple British champions, a couple of pro card holders, a world champion and at least three other athletes who competed at that level. Unfortunately though for the sake of anonymity I can’t name any of them.
The final caveat you’ll notice from reading through the athlete experiences is that although there are some common threads, everyone has their own unique experience. I’m not certain theres a clear difference between male and female experiences and prep can effect people in very different ways. Finally if you find this article useful then be sure to share it with your fellow bodybuilders so others might benefit.
