The National Physique Committee (NPC) has recently announced its newest edition to the 2009 contest schedule – the Bikini Division. Talk about the decision is rampant, from first year Nationals eligibility to event viability but the one question that remains to be answered is how will NPC Bikini affect the already ambiguous and sometimes maddening Figure Division judging?
The 2008 NPC Figure contest season proved a very successful yet often times dizzying and frankly frustrating venture. The judging criteria for a winning physique seemingly bounced from contest to contest offering no concrete understanding for how to prepare my athletes for the stage or how to present themselves once in the spotlight. As a fitness trainer with a handful of Figure competitors under my belt, taking part in the contest night celebration of clients personal victory is an incredible and often emotional experience, while explaining an undesirable placing with an uplifting and positive demeanor is never fun and unfortunately equally emotional.
Most times my ‘poor-placing pep talk’ is backed with substantial information to quantify and qualify the judges decision and/or critique and to further reiterate to my client that continued hard work will prove a different outcome next time she steps on stage. However, as the 2008 season progressed I found that my abilities to continually muster a professional, experienced and informative explanation to figure contestant placing drew more erratic and faulty. I used to pride myself in predicting to the top five in each round of nearly any contest but by the last contest of the season I was lucky to anticipate a first round call-out.
What was happening here? How could a winning physique one week barely make the top five the next week with nearly the same competitors making the top five in each show? More specifically, how do you justify to your client that the same competitor that she beat in the Masters round pushed her out of the top five in the open class and it was the same contest? How is it that quadriceps separation without striations was a viable winner one week but the following week proved a fatal coaching tip from the audience two weeks later?
The evolving judging trend last season was one that appeared increasingly absent of any form of tangible judging criteria with little direction to the specificities that would offer a favorable and winning look. Furthermore, as I reflect back on the last few contests of the season, I also detect a faint but ever present disliking for the harder, leaner and even moderately muscular figure physique, a tendency I can only assume acts to promote a even greater delineation between Figure and Women’s Bodybuilding. I’ll say that one more time, “an even greater delineation between Figure and Women’s Bodybuilding.”
Stop the presses; I think I’m on to something here, could The NPC Bikini Division be the answer to the Figure competitors concerns for judging ambiguity and lack of specified judging criteria? Could Figure regain a strong sense of direction with clear lines defining the ideal winning physique? With the addition of a third women’s physique division it stands to reason that the same delineation efforts for bodybuilding and figure would hold true for figure and bikini. All things considered the bikini physique would be the least to demonstrate muscularity and instead offer a softer more supple representation of femininity. That being said, one might conclude that the Figure Division, by default, should allow for body that presents itself somewhere in the middle of shredded and supple or dry and smooth. Sounds like hard and muscular might be the answer once again for our figure athletes.
Time will tell the tale. Will the Bikini Division be the unforeseen ally for figure and regenerate a greater sense of interest and unity in the sport or will bikini eventually be defeated by an unspoken disliking for the lack of true physicality it employs? As one NPC judge offers, “As a promoter, if it makes more folks aware of a fit lifestyle and the benefits of it, I’m all for it. As an athlete, I hope there will eventually be a form of athleticism added to each division that doesn’t have a posing round.”
Supporters, like myself, view the Bikini Division as yet another avenue to gather societies interest toward a fit/competitive lifestyle in the absence of intensive muscular manipulation. Opponents of bikini view it as a T & A contest, a tribute to the human advancement of cosmetic surgery and finally, but not limited to, the absence of a formidable plan or course of action to promote a quality package or presentation on stage simply based on a genetic gift and therefore believing that exercise is inconsequential.
I’d like to think that a bikini competitor would think highly of her exercise and physicality to promote the best possible package on stage. Similarly, playing the genetics card doesn’t concede to the idea that bikini contests are merely mindless shows of innate beauty. That unfortunate rationale would indemnify that genetics always win and that hard work and an elitist mentality will always be trumped by native gifts. Top athletes aren’t great because they’ve rested on their genetic laurels; they’ve likely worked harder than anyone to attain their status. Furthermore,
I’m sure the NPC will create a protocol for bikini that will eventually weed out those competitors that think otherwise.
Fitness professionals have an instinctive desire to promote healthfulness at nearly any cost and take every advantage to coax those who are willing to join our cause for a wonderfully fit and sexy lifestyle. I see the Bikini Division as one more step toward achieving our goal and say bring it on and let’s celebrate it arrival!
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