As we all know, the NPC’s yearly national event schedule offers the highest ranking and most competitive events of all the NPC’s annual competitions. It is extremely important that each and every competitor and their support staff are properly prepared for their trip to and performance at a national-level event. One of the considerations that, on behalf of the NPC I personally strongly endorse and recommend, is that all competitors and attendees stay at the event headquarters hotel, which usually is the site of the competition itself and always is the site of registration, weigh- and check-ins, judging clinics and all competition-related information dissemination and credential issuance. Give the rigorous schedule of every national event – especially with the new expansion, the addition of the Bikini Division in 2009 – the need of all competitors to be on premises at all times becomes more and more critical. It sometimes becomes necessary to change event schedules at the last minute and this information is only disseminated at the headquarters hotel. In addition, I have found that competitors seem more properly prepared to compete when they have settled into and stay at the location of the event as opposed to driving in to the event location from other local areas. It is my feeling that being able to rest until the very time of competition and not having to travel in any way to a competition site can be helpful in having a good mental competitive attitude.
In recent years, there have been many occasions where competitors were disqualified because of event time changes or other last minute procedural alterations that occurred between the weigh-in and the actual time of competition. Competitors staying at outside hotels other than the event headquarters are put at a disadvantage in situations like that. It is their responsibility to be available to accommodate any schedule changes or other circumstances that the NPC must administer during a national event.
