home again... naturally

as i had originally planned i spent november 9-13th in miami checking out the NPC nationals. it is the last pro-qualifier of the bodybuilding season. as i am on a few bb boards it was no great suprise to realize that a lot of the competitors were people i knew from the boards.

i had hoped that elena seiple would finally be awarded her pro card but once again it just wasn't to be. mandy polk who had the misfortune of getting tangled in the ryan-titus mess was able to win her pro card after going through a pretty horrific year of bad luck and negative fall out. so i was pretty happy for her.

i also have to admit i become more and more of a fitness fan the more of these shows i attend. those women are out of their ever lovin mind. they will leap 800 feet into the air and then land in full splits. i wonder if they dont suffer from bruising and if any of that mess would affect their ability to have children at a later date?

i was a bit disappointed with bb to be honest with you. i just didn't feel like there were any entertainers on the stage. for the most part routines were mandatories with a musical backdrop. i longed for a melvin anthony, a vince taylor or even a king kamali type to bring the house down. i can't express how important i feel the night routine is to our sport. sure, everybody knows that all scoring is done in prejudging. nothing that happens during the night show has any impact on final placings.

you know what? as competitive athletes we have foisted our moody azzes on our friends and families as we prep for the big day. these same people, most often mere a fan of the person on stage and not of the sport, sit through endless shows just to get a chance to glimpse at us. we OWE those people a show. more than just being big, symmetrical and ripped on stage... we have to be entertaining as well.

oddly enough i ran into fbb pro's colette nelson, mimi jabalee and amanda dunbar outside of the south beach gold's on the friday. colette and i got into a conversation about the importance of the final routine. she basically had this to say, 'i used to worry about winning and finishing first... don't get me wrong, i still want to win but now i focus more on the performance... on owning that stage. i find i'm a lot more relaxed that way.' she then went on to speak of some of the more entertaining female posers she looks up to women like lenda murray and patterns her night routine after that kind of professionalism.

i ended up getting into a discussion about routines with one of the friends i was travelling with. we both come at the night routine from different angles... although we are both performers in our own right. she prefers to plant the audience full of family and friends who will scream for her. they more they scream the more she will perform. i on the other hand prefer to be in front of a room full of strangers. if i can get those strangers screaming for me... then i know i have done it. i was like that back when i was rollerblading as well.

i remember my week performing at a fair in ladsen, south carolina. every day i would drop in on the ramp taking a few set up airs, just to feel how the ramp felt. i would barely go over the coping. you see during warm ups we would often have a crowd gathered who would then stick around for the show. once the show started and they introduced me i would drop in and i would launch myself up out of the ramp as high as i could. you know what i always heard on that first air?? the entire crowd would gasp, by the time i aired off of my second wall they were mine. maybe that sounds bad... but it gave the audience a better show and i know doing it that way i gave a better show... so as near as i can tell, everybody won.

two more weeks until my friend does her first show. from all the pics of her i've seen, she is looking amazing. she is using the same guy to dial her in that i did... i have to remember to tell him that he better dial me in that tight next time cuz i know i wanna go on stage looking THAT good.