This weekend, for shits and giggles, I traveled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to attend the NABBA American Bodybuilding Championships and Ms. Figure® competition. I'm afraid I came away disappointed.
My initial reaction was actually very positive: the woman working the admissions table was super-cute and muscular, and for a moment I took her delightful presence as evidence of a sophisticated promotional effort. However, it turns out she's simply the promoter's wife and more or less got stuck with the job through the accident of marriage.
Like all right-thinking people I despise the IFBB and the NPC, and as much as I would like to swear fealty to an upstart group like NABBA, I'm afraid I can't, because it's just too inept to win my loyalty. I want to help NABBA out, though, so I'll share my vast and storied wisdom. (Normally I'd charge money for this advice, but I'm so impressed with the promoter's ability to land that foxy little firecracker that I'll give it gratis.)
In marketing, there is a concept called "value proposition". It's defined pretty well at Wikipedia and what it means is that the provider of any product or service has to make clear why they're better than the rest. NABBA utterly fails to do this. The production was amateurish, the social and commercial components of the event were totally neglected, and the judging standards seem to have been confused and contradictory. No self-respecting competitor who witnessed this year's event, especially on the women's side, would return for 2007. NABBA needs to make it clear why their federation is better than the NPC. That should be task #1 for the organization, but it doesn't seem as if the notion has ever even occurred to them.
The women's Physique competition was the worst-managed of the events, what with FUBAR judging standards, so I'll focus on that. There were six competitors for what was, ostensibly, a bodybuilding contest. In the final placing, the first place finisher was preposterously over-muscled, second place went to a very lovely and feminine woman who was less muscular than some of the figure competitors, and third place went to a genuinely muscular but natural-seeming woman who was the crowd favorite. (She had the best floor performance, too.) I was intially mystified by the fractured results, but on the drive home I think I figured it out. My guess is that half the judges simply gave the highest ranking to the most muscular woman, and maybe the other half used the same criteria as they'd used for the figure competitors. And the result is that the competitor who should have won - who'd probably worked the hardest to prepare and brought the best total package to the event - came away with a third place finish. In her shoes I'd change federations, and that will be NABBA's loss. They need her (and women like her) a lot more than she needs them, after all.
How could such a thing happen? Did NABBA provide any guidance or standards to judges? It seems hard to believe that such a disjointed result could be obtained if all the judges were working off similar standards. The tragicomic part is that today, with the IFBB and NPC having all but abandoned what was once a phenomenally popular sport, female bodybuilding could become a substantially lucrative area, if done right. Yet NABBA can't get out of its own way to do it the way it ought to be done.
Actionable advice:
Drug test the competitors. The bane of female bodybuilding is steroids - get rid of them (especially the androgens) and you'll have an event many people might like to watch.
Dress up. Some of the judges looked like slobs. I'm sure it can be terribly difficult to buy suits off the rack when you have a 24" neck, but let's see a little more effort.
The announcer was not prepared. If that was his fault, get a new one. If he was simply provided inadequate notes, then do better next time.
Dustin Vincent, the promoter, should not have been the awards presenter. People began to clap for him out of irony, because it seemed like he was dragging his ass across the stage each time he had to hand out a trophy. Probably he was just tired, but his sluggish trek across the stage at the end of each class was painful to watch.
Sell some snacks! People were leaving at the intermission because they were hungry!
Put out some coffee urns! It costs next to nothing and it would get people to talk to one another during the intermission! Hypothetical future thought of random attendee: "Hey, I met some neat people at that event last year, I'd like to go again!" It seems far-fetched given the utter social sterility of the 2006 event, but it could happen.
Most importantly, come up with a value proposition. Why should competitors choose NABBA? "Convenient to Harrisburg" isn't remotely good enough.
Sounds like a dissapointing show, man. Don't you love judges?
Masschine
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2006-09-10 19:55:00
The thing with NABBA is they are not going to drug test. If you've seen any of the European women in NABBA they are all massive.
I think NABBA in the US is still trying to pick the lock that the NPC/IFBB has on bodybuilding.
Tigersan
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NPC, isnt better
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Registered
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2006-09-11 08:58:05
Lol that sounds like an a@#!.
Though after attending NPC's Jt Nationals in Chicago, every year is somehow dissapointment, judging-wise, not event-wise. Event is fabulous every year. I believe my eye, as far as proportions, and judging criteria is good enough, to question judges decisions. In figure i picked a winning girl several times. In BB it hapened also but with 2nd place (yea i predicted that Britt Miller will take 2nd place in lightweights in Jr Nats).
This year's dissapointment was Julia Stamper who didnt even get to finals, yet she was in best shape, only lil lack was her abs, but she had muscle, definition, and cute smile. Last year's disapointment was Kim Buck - heavy weight, who should won the overalls imho. Heavenly proportions, mass, and ripped to the bone. I dont remember 3 yrs ago dissapointment, but i recall that there was one. Organisation is always on the top with NPC, but judging is really strange, every year they looking for something else. I heard from Julia Stamper, that the judge told her "Yes you were the best prepared out there, but simply not what we were looking for this year" what a Bull!#$%.
NPC needs to standarize their judging criteria also...
