Most people won’t win. Most people won’t win hardware. You’re already a winner just for getting up there and taking the opportunity to to share your talent and vision!! But walking away with the winning trophy, medal or title is like winning the lottery, many will play but not everyone can win. Just know it’s not because of your worth or ability as a person or performer, rather it’s about how the creativity and uniqueness of your performance aligns with the rules and scoresheets.
Winning starts with knowing the rules. Too many points are unnecessarily lost or left on the table (or should I say stage) because competitors and coaches don’t fully know, understand, or follow the rules. And just as importantly, they miss out on ways to maximize scoring potential.
You will probably never compete in an environment that’s optimal for YOU. It’s impossible to make it perfect and to the liking of every individual competitor. Organizers have to do what’s within their power, support safety, meet the basic needs of the sport and the overlapping needs of competitors. You and your coach(es) need to focus on what you can control and that’s designing an adjustable day-of plan to support your body’s needs regardless of the local environment.
You can’t fake what you don’t have. Yes, the judges will notice! Yes, the judges will notice! Respect your level and body by sticking to what you can confidently do without fail. It’s better to build a solid, stable performance that exudes confidence and creativity, rather than pushing the edge of your physical abilities with moves that result in visible hesitancy, unnecessary adjustments, disrupted lines, mistakes or lack of confidence.
Not every teacher, choreographeror professional performer isa Competition Coach. Yes, that includes your favorite instructors whose classes you never miss and artists that get paid to perform – although they may be amazing to learn from, inspiring to watch and wonderful contributors to your performance! Competition coaching is a specialty, and it requires someone that understands competitive strategy, performance optimization and how to push the creative bounds while playing within the rules.
Feedback on “how to improve”should come from your coach. A judge’s job is to judge. It’s a coaches job to analyze, strategize, give feedback and help you figure out how to improve based off of your placement, scores and rules. If a coach doesn’t know how to do that just yet, then they may have some growing to do as a competition coach. But shoutout to the competitions that do give judge’s feedback because it’s a HUGE value add for competitors and coaches that are still learning.
