Shots from the 2013 Mid-Florida Muscle Classic, held June 15 in Orlando, are up on the site.
This was another big show and though it had a couple of minor hiccups with the lighting early on it ran very smoothly overall.
The early start unfortunately for me meant an even earlier day, and I was having some issues cutting through the fog. 
I had to do a lot more straightening and tweaking on the early shots than I normally do, which is one reason it took so long to put them up.
The competitors also seemed to have some issue hearing the judges’ instructions.
The more often this happened the more I began thinking about all the myriad of little things that can slow a prejudging down.
Sure, they are things that only cost two seconds here, four seconds there. There are also times where a delay is absolutely required, for example to give crossover or fitness competitors time to change their suits.
But in general, “dead spots”, times when no judging can occur, really could be minimized– add them all up and they can add significant time to the morning show.
Obviously a big one is the competitors’ ability to hear instructions. Four quarter-turns, seven mandatory poses, swapping competitor order, split-ups, call-outs all add up to a lot of instructions.
Losing 2-5 or more seconds per instruction because the competitors can’t hear them can easily add 5-10 minutes per class.
Easy fix: bring a bullhorn. Not kidding. If the venue PA doesn’t work well enough, use what does.
(In that same vein, could we lose the music during the prejudging?)
Having an experienced stage facilitator is critical. (This is not a knock on any individual.)
He should be in constant standby for judges’ instructions and not afraid to appear on stage to help herd competitors.
A great deal of time is lost in mandatories when competitors insist on performing un-judgeable contortions in preparation to taking the shot.
Well before the show the facilitator should work with the judges to find and mark the best-lit part of the stage and the center of that area.
For shows with large classes, the facilitator should also pre-define the overflow areas so the competitors do not interfere with the judges’ line of sight.
Correcting these issues during the show costs more valuable time.
For classes where individual competitors appear on the stage (e.g. figure), ideally each competitor should be almost on stage when the previous one begins to exit.
This can be accomplished with an assistant, in radio contact with the facilitator, in the audience with a visual signal such as a flashlight to cue the competitor to exit.
A great deal of time is lost in mandatories when competitors insist on performing un-judgeable contortions in preparation to taking the shot.
To resolve this, judges would need to communicate clearly the expectation that when a shot is called, the shot– and not the preliminaries to the shot– should be taken at once.
The absence of that communication over the years has allowed rumors to flourish, including the bizarre concept that “you should always be the last one in your class to take each pose”.
Again, with seven or more poses called in repeated sets per class, losing three, four, five or more seconds per pose can add up quickly.
In summary, I should not be given too much time to think about things like this before I’m fully awake. Enjoy the shots.
