I am having trouble putting together a routine for my competition. I have the perfect posing video, individual routine and the Russ Testo posing video, but I just can't seem to put it together. I am still working on the mandatory poses and feel ok with them. I know they say you can just stay basic, but I don't know if that will be enough. It's the transistion from one pose to another that's getting me. What to do with my arms and feet. Can you go directly from a front pose to a back pose or should I stay in sequence from front, side, back and side? My music I have chosen is a slow beat song by Enya so I want my poses to flow together to match the tempo. This is my first competition and I don't have much help don't know any women that have competed in my area. Any advice would be helpful.

What area are you in? Check with some promoters in your area or on the net. They may have previous shows on tape/DVD. Watch the evening show for ideas.

I am located in North Carolina. I know there have been shows around here because I have been to 4 or 5. There's one coming up next week that I'll be going to. It won't be a natural show, but I'm sure it will help me. Thanks Teeboz

Don't make it too difficult. Speaking from experience, that's what I did my first show and it drove me CRAZY trying to come up with a creative routine and something glitzy or artistic. For your first show - I'd stick to basics...and I'd flow from front - side- back - front.. Or start out with back to audience.. or down on the floor and raise up.. you can make each mandatory move look artistic with different transitions and position of hands. I, personally, think that a more simplistic routine.. taking your time, holding the moves, and not flitting all over the stage - looks more professional. KEEP IT SIMPLE..get the moves down first - that look 'best on you' - then work the transitions out from one move to the next. BEST OF LUCK!!

I agree with Brochas, keep it simple. I started competing this year, once in May and another earlier this month. I focused on the mandatories and just 1 other pose (for fun), that's it. I was super nervous for the first one, I thought it would help to start with my back to the crowd, it didn't.

If this is an NPC show, you can pretty much figure that the hard part is done and that the judges have made their placings, so focus on being relaxed and having fun.

For my second show I started facing the crowd and was much less nervous, I think that helped a lot. Start with a movement that you like and feel very confident executing and that looks good on you. For example, my legs came in good for my 10/4 show, so I did some leg shots to start out (most muscular with hands on hips) and basically flowed around in a circle and ended with most muscluar variations. This will be a little different for women, but you get the idea.

One other tip I might suggest is to make sure you hold the poses. I just got the video back from my show and too many people were trying to get in as many poses as possible in 90 seconds and weren't really holding it long enough to get a good look. For my routine I did a total of 8 poses. After I got my music set, I would practice the routine holding the poses long enough to make the 90 seconds. I think I ended up holding them a good solid 3 count once I was in the pose.

Finally, practice, pratice, practice. It shows once you get on stage. I'm sure you are already practicing and holding the mandatories, so if you stick to doing those for your routine, it's just a matter of putting the sequence together.

I received a lot of compliments on my routine and I know it's because I kept it simple and practiced.

I hope I was able to help by sharing my experiences.

Good Luck.

Dwayne

Oops, I forgot one other thing. I bought a DVD of the 2002 NPC USA Championships. Watching it really helped me with transitions. This company has videos/dvd's of pre-judging and evening shows.

http://www.repetrope.com/women/index.asp