pre-competition disorder

I told CleanPrecisePro that I was tapering, and he raised his eyebrows.

But, I also had told him I was tired and he suggested we drop one of the lessons.

He also said: "How often do you get to work this hard?"
Yesterday I fell asleep at 9:30 pm. There's something to be said for physical exhaustion.

Anyways, I gave up on rhythm because there was no way I could fix muscle memory of not closing side chasses in Swing, and undoing years of bad habits in the short time we have left. Then I got my tentative heat list and started laughing because he really did put me in Newcomer and baby bronze levels. Totally disregarding my Bronze 3 levels in WarmFuzzy Chain. And I'm competing in the Newcomer Rhythm Championship. So the odds are looking way better hahahaha.

I think the latin showcase at this point I just have to practice the last part and it's good enough. *shrug*

Smooth! I asked him how I was at it and he did the whole: "If you can keep it, it's good." Basically I'm inconsistent because my energy flags. By the time we get to Foxtrot, I am sooo tired. And I'm not moving enough for him and reeeeaching enough.

Then V Waltz comes on, and I'm like: "I love V Waltz" and it's like I get a second wind.

Thankfully, I've been blessed with rounds and multis that have other dances in between. So I will be able to rest in between.

The only way I can think of to keep stamina up is maybe caffeine before my smooth rounds. I am going to try hard not to drink to much alcohol. This comp has free alcohol constantly flowing the entire day. Definitely no alcohol on Smooth day before I'm done competing. My serious day.
 
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worddancer said:
The only way I can think of to keep stamina up is maybe caffeine before my smooth rounds.
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Be careful with this, unless you are totally aware of how your body reacts to caffeine in specific quantities, as well as how caffeine interacts with the adrenaline you will inevitably be producing.

Last week, due to various stresses at work, I was exhausted and kept falling asleep on the couch before 8 pm. So on Friday, for the studio event starting at 7 pm, I knew I’d have a problem with sleepiness. So I drank a tiny bottle of 5-hour energy drink around 4 pm. (I’ve only used this stuff maybe 5 times before in my life.)

OMG. Mistake. It certainly solved the sleepiness problem, but it made me jittery as hell. I’m sure it’s why Pro had to keep hissing at me to slow down during that awful foxtrot. I didn’t think I was rushing, but.... And I’m sure it helps explain why I was so effervescently cheerful (until the end of the night, of course). And I’m sure it’s why I was awake until 2 am.

Anyway, I won’t be doing that again. But on the plus side, here I am saying once again, “I’m glad this happened at an informal studio event rather than an actual comp!”

Of course, everyone’s metabolism is different. YMMV. (Speaking of mileage, I estimate that I was going about 110 mph on Friday night....)
 
worddancer said:
The only way I can think of to keep stamina up is maybe caffeine before my smooth rounds. I am going to try hard not to drink to much alcohol. This comp has free alcohol constantly flowing the entire day. Definitely no alcohol on Smooth day before I'm done competing. My serious day.
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I would suggest lots of water the days leading up to the competition, especially the night before. And instead of a lot of caffeine, make sure to have some real gatorade. Meaning the full sugar gatorade, not g2 or g zero. That will help with energy along with the caffeine.
 
ProgressNotPerfection said:
Last week, due to various stresses at work, I was exhausted and kept falling asleep on the couch before 8 pm. So on Friday, for the studio event starting at 7 pm, I knew I’d have a problem with sleepiness. So I drank a tiny bottle of 5-hour energy drink around 4 pm. (I’ve only used this stuff maybe 5 times before in my life.)
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OMG... this little bottle of evil... I had once when I was in college many many many years ago for an 8 am 500-level math class... For the whole day, I can hear my heart beating with stereo sound and echo. Really high in a very comfortable way... Three lessons learned. Never take another bottle of this energy shot in my life... Never take another 500 math class... Also never take an exam at 8 am and get a job with a late/flexible starting time...

Until I found out bronze competitions are at 8 am... When I got up at 5 am for hair and makeup, I felt 95% of jobs done for the day and already winning. The reason I got up on time was the enormous pressure of not sleeping over my comps... Woke up several times around 2 or 3 am in terror that I missed the comp... It also motivated me to moved up from bronze...
 
ProgressNotPerfection said:
So I drank a tiny bottle of 5-hour energy drink around 4 pm. (I’ve only used this stuff maybe 5 times before in my life.)
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Ok you missed that tiny detail in your first recap ;)
scullystwin42 said:
I would suggest lots of water the days leading up to the competition, especially the night before. And instead of a lot of caffeine, make sure to have some real gatorade. Meaning the full sugar gatorade, not g2 or g zero. That will help with energy along with the caffeine.
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This is the sort of useful advice I come to this forum for!
 
Ok so I guess I'm fully on board the competition train. There's a virtual comp at the end of the month. Which I was like.. virtual.. whatever... but it's a team match so there's fun things like competing in Waltz with every other studio. And this time there is a participant dinner. And costumes. And I'm like... waaahh that sounds fun. Also since it's virtual, it's cheaper. I'll prob do Smooth and just do single dances in Standard.

Then there's a real life/virtual Comp in December which I wasn't planning for but apparently I'm now doing a showcase for it. So of course I should compete in Smooth while I'm there. And now that we're learning Standard maybe we can do a 3 dance championship? That is up in the air since I'm not sure I can learn enough Standard by then.

So yeah. Lots of $$$. I can rationalize it because it's not like I can fly to London and have fancy vacations. But I'm going to guess next year even if travel becomes more normal, I'll probably go through other mental gymnatics to justify the $$$.
 
I'm watching this couple that I beat last virtual comp, doing the Paragon Comp. She posted a set from her Smooth yesterday and she looks clean.

My Pro is treating next weekend's virtual comp as a practice for the live comp later. But I just realized the virtual comp probably has stronger competition for me, since it has more people from out of state.
 
fascination said:
:shock: :shock: :shock: hyperventilating...brown paper bags anyone?...

let's see

sleepless
pro getting more anal
hungry
irrationally convinced that i have forgotten everything;)
have no life outside of my lessons, the gym, the tanning salon, the nail salon, and my closet (figuring out what stays and what goes)
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Sounds like someone is not competing enough. When you make competition part of your dance routine, you won't get that anxious. It will be like going to another practice or a lesson. After all, it is another lesson, just much more fun as you get to dress up. Each competition is worth 10 lessons. Floor craft, performance art, amazing run thru techniques and, with no doubts, feed back from judges (please pay attention, not 1 teacher, but a whole panel of judges). How to keep yourself calm? Take it 1 minute at a time. Just like for regular lesson, have a light meal, concentrate on what you are packing with you, then transport, then warm up, then hair, make up, dress up. Literally, one task at a time. Concentrate on your dancing, enjoy every second of it. Then enjoy your progress. Analyse what you have to work on and do it again.
 
thank you...however, this post was from years ago...that said, I competed more than most (all 4 styles, rarely less than 60 to 100 heats, and not less than 8 comps a year)and was always anxious. It was a combination of my personality and the expectations placed upon me...usually took me til the third set to take the adrenaline down
 
dress4dance said:
Sounds like someone is not competing enough. When you make competition part of your dance routine, you won't get that anxious. It will be like going to another practice or a lesson. After all, it is another lesson, just much more fun as you get to dress up. Each competition is worth 10 lessons. Floor craft, performance art, amazing run thru techniques and, with no doubts, feed back from judges (please pay attention, not 1 teacher, but a whole panel of judges). How to keep yourself calm? Take it 1 minute at a time. Just like for regular lesson, have a light meal, concentrate on what you are packing with you, then transport, then warm up, then hair, make up, dress up. Literally, one task at a time. Concentrate on your dancing, enjoy every second of it. Then enjoy your progress. Analyse what you have to work on and do it again.
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fascination is a veteran of the dance world and one of the OG's around here... I would suggest reading through her posts in other threads, though she was very gracious above.
 
I don't know if I we need a whole new thread for this. But if I want to do a competition with like a nice big field of competitors in Smooth, in normal times, what would be the competition for this? USDC? Ohio Star Ball? Thanks!
 
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