You come to class everyday. You check the whiteboard and hope that your somewhere near the top of the list of people who worked out that day. You are driven by the “RX” button and when 3,2,1, GO happens your off to the races to finish first. But, your scared to do a “real” competition!!! If this sounds a lot like you, which in most cases doing a real competition with judges, other athletes not from your box and spectators are around the thought already makes you nervous. You might want to start thinking of competitions as extended class sessions because that is all they really are.
If you take a second to really think about it, every time you come to class you are competing. Whether your thinking in a competitive mindset or not, your looking at your score staked up to the others in class. This is competition ! Learning to just view a sanctioned event as anther workout can help calm the fears that you might have about just signing up for your first competition. There are so many benefits about competing against other athletes and with the people in your box.
Doing a competition might spark your inner competitive athlete again or maybe for the first time. You might not view yourself as a competitive person but maybe experiencing the atmosphere of the adrenaline you get when your in a competition might bring you back to your high school days of playing sports.
You meet and make a TON of friends. Believe it or not, when your at competitions the people you are directly in competition with are the nicest people around. Just think of our community and 100’s of others just like that. Everyone comes together to cheer everyone on throughout the workout. Nothing feels better than having 1000’s of people who love what you love too!
If doing a competition scares you, try to find one that the proceeds go to a great cause. You will now have a REASON to compete more than just winning. You have a great cause to work for and your doing it for a bigger reason that is far more important than the fear of the unknown!
Competitions are great for goal setting as well as seeing where you stack up against other competition. You might be the top athlete at your box but sometimes it’s nice to compete against other people and get your butt handed to you in the process. Its a great learning experience how you handle the event and what your motivation is when competing. It is character building at it’s finest and you will learn a lot about yourself when you compete!
I recommend that EVERYONE signs up for a competition at some point. Even if you don’t feel like your ready. There are so many options from scaled, RX, teams and eventually Elite divisions that you can always find room for growth and improvement !!!