Question of the Week #3: The Definition of Winning - February 23, 2007

by Mike Gill

Define Winning:
Even though you compete in competitions against other strongmen, how much of it is still a battle against yourself? Can you leave a competition and not win, but still feel like you accomplished your goals? Having only played sports my whole life where the only thing to judge a win or a loss was a scoreboard I think it would be interesting to see if you can get a winning feeling without finishing first.

--- -- --- -- --- -- --- --

A strongman contest is scored on points. The maximum available points for any event correspond directly to the number of competitors in that event. The winner is given the maximum points and each place after him is given correspondingly less by one. For example:

A tire flip has 4 competitors. I finish in 30 seconds, Ben finishes in 31 seconds and Dave finishes in 32 and Phil only does one flip. The points after the round would be

Mike 4 points
Ben 3 Points
Dave 2 points
Phil 1 point
(If Phil hadn't flipped the tire at least once he would have received zero points.)

The winner at the end of the day is the competitor with the most points. You may not have won an event the entire day but if you accumulate the most points when it's all over, it doesn't matter. Being a Strongman is about being well rounded.

Additionally, the sport of Strongman gives the advantage to the athlete who does the best on the final event. He goes last so he can see how well he has to do versus the other competitors.

Not everyone goes to a contest to win, however. For instance, you can place as low as third (depending on the level of contest) and still qualify for the Amateur Nationals. That is the goal for many athletes who don't have the time, money, or genetics to compete at a higher level.

For first timers, a good goal is to never zero an event. I blew an event at my first competition that I will talk about in an upcoming story. You have to remember that no matter how easy we make some of these things look, most people can't even budge the things we lift off the ground; let alone carry or press them. In this context, sometimes not completely failing is actually winning.

Winning a contest, on the other hand, is a whole different story. You never know who is going to be there and what kind of a day they are going to have. Your main focus should be on doing your best and not making mistakes. If you have trained the events before, you should have a general idea how you will fare and you should aim for personal bests on time and poundage. I personally believe that if it's clear you have an advantage in an event and you are going last, you should pace yourself. This sport is very, very dangerous and extremely taxing. I have seen a number of top-notch athletes go balls to the wall for the first few events, kick ass, only to be spent at the end of the day and lose the contest. And even though it pleases the crowd, doing an extra lap carrying a 300lb stone--when you've already won-won't get you additional points, but could rupture a disk or blow a knee.

Some guys will disagree with me on that last point. They say go balls-to-the-wall until the very end. That may work for them, but not for me. As I get older, I have learned the value of having a little in reserve. If it bites me in the ass so be it, but that dog bites both ways.

If you show up on contest day and compete at all, you have done more than 99% of people in this world will ever attempt. If you set personal records and improve your resume, then even better. If you can string it all together and come out on top, well then by all means you should enjoy the moment, but be proud of yourself in each of the situations.

Discuss the definition of winner further in the ChasingKaz Forum

Posted by Mike Gill at 3:03 PM

Print Friendly · Digg it · del.icio.us · StumbleUpon · Netscape

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.festeringass.com/mt/mt-tb.fcgi/678

Comment Policy:

Anonymous comments are allowed. All anonymous comments and comments from those not registered with TypeKey are moderated. They WILL NOT appear until they are read and approved by a moderator.

It is strongly encouraged that you sign up and login with a TypeKey account. Once you do that, your comments will be immediately posted.