NPC vs. NATURAL SHOWS

[DwithBeneFITPT]

Hey guys!
Curious to see what your opinions are. Do you think someone starting out with competitive training should start out in natural shows? I did my first NPC show May 16th 2009 at the Illinois state and was SHOCKED at the muscularity of the figures girls in my class. I obviously understand that muscular def. is recognized BUT the girl that won my class was clearly a bodybuilder and did not belong. (i guess she did cuz she won). Basically when i decided to get into figure, i was under the impression that figure was muscle, but not striated, low body fat, but not excessively lean.....

I deff. want to keep competing but im not willing to continue to compete in the NPC against bodybuilders in the figure short class lol.

u think natural shows are any better?

[Most Muscular]

Whether it is in the NPC or a natural show (btw... the NPC does promote some natural shows too and I promoted one in 2008) the figure competitors are not supposed to have a hard look. With that being said some judges still don't know what to look for and I think are too used to wanting to see some muscle and hardness to women bodybuilders that they have a hard time crossing over to judging figure. Figure is supposed to be just that... "Figure".

When I was a NPC judge I judged the figure women on them being in an athletic type look, some muscles (but not overly muscular), some minor muscle definition (so you could see that yes, it was indeed muscle), but I did penalize them in their standings if they had to much hardness for Figure.

With that being said sometimes there just wasn't anyone else on stage that really should have been there in the first place and I may have gravitated back towards a harder look but only because that person also reflected on a perfect figure and had all the right bodyparts in all the right proportions. Not too big, not to small... just right.

After any show you do it would be wise to talk to the judging panel afterwards to find out what they were looking for and why they judged things the way they did. Unfortuanately the next time it might be competely different!

nuff said...

[DwithBeneFITPT]

Thanks so much, that helped a lot! Appreciate ur response

Originally Posted by Most Muscular

Whether it is in the NPC or a natural show (btw... the NPC does promote some natural shows too and I promoted one in 2008) the figure competitors are not supposed to have a hard look. With that being said some judges still don't know what to look for and I think are too used to wanting to see some muscle and hardness to women bodybuilders that they have a hard time crossing over to judging figure. Figure is supposed to be just that... "Figure".

When I was a NPC judge I judged the figure women on them being in an athletic type look, some muscles (but not overly muscular), some minor muscle definition (so you could see that yes, it was indeed muscle), but I did penalize them in their standings if they had to much hardness for Figure.

With that being said sometimes there just wasn't anyone else on stage that really should have been there in the first place and I may have gravitated back towards a harder look but only because that person also reflected on a perfect figure and had all the right bodyparts in all the right proportions. Not too big, not to small... just right.

After any show you do it would be wise to talk to the judging panel afterwards to find out what they were looking for and why they judged things the way they did. Unfortuanately the next time it might be competely different!

nuff said...