Glad to see someone else is awake, just take the class winners of the last ten years of both contests and look at the success of those guys as pros, and dont come back with this politics in the pros crap, Wolfe won three years ago and hes now an established pro. Fux won it, Munzer to years ago, but theres no guys of their quality coming through, theres big guys with good conditioning, such as this guy who won this year but on the npc stage you could pull his structural flaws apart. The npc is judged like a pro show, where your judged harshly for being incomplete and your only as good as your weakest bodypart. The ifbb worlds seems to be judged on muscle size and condition alone, probably as there is a lot of guys competing with many weaknesses, but to the competitions credit, the conditioning of the guys at the ifbb worlds is insane and i would say that the amateurs are much more dryer than ripped than the majority of guys in the npc and the pros, but as far as the competitors having good shape structure and overall no weaknesses, they are well behind.
I am emphasizing on winners of each category in the world compared to the Nationals
Ill leave it to the audience
A lot of the amateurs dont convert to pro league
cause either they dont know how to do shows like the pros and dont have the proper connection to place well
we all know judging is not based only of the physique in the pro ranks
contracts and influence play a big role in the final result
Local federations only support amateur shows
as Bahrain is the country that pays its athletes the most for contest prep
and all of them are original nationals
they will never support someone who goes to the pro rank
he might get some support from the ministry of sport but not from the federation
contest prep is costly
and when it is not drug tested the bodybuilder has to use a lot to show at his ultimate best and if not he will have keep the door open for others
cause in the amateur league the main concern is to pass the test and in the pros u have to be at ur best
no one really cares what ur are using or how much
so by coming weak in and saying I didnt use GH or only took little bit of clen and anavar wont be a legit excuse
and then you have the traveling and accommodation expenses which are anywhere between US$ 3000 - 5000 for each person per show
depending on the country of origin and destination
so doing that on their own for a pro show is not feasible for them compared to doing multiple shows, with weight classes and coming back home with a medal and a title
while everything is paid for by the local federation
The politics part is not coming from amateurs or NPC
it is how well you are connected
and sometimes which gym do you train in
contracts play a big role in placing in shows as well
I dont want to give examples
What happened to wolf was
he is a very big guy
and the lineup was a bit off in 2006
jay who wo the show was tie with wolf as far as I am concerned and victor should have won
so either thy should have placed 2nd and 3rd
or dexter 2nd
and they would be 3rd and 4th
and I wouldnt have mineded if top3 3 were vic, dex and Ronnie
jay and wolf could have placed 4th and 5th irrespectively
This year wolf went in with big hype and all the talk about him by chad and MD didnt help either
next year
if vic, kai, phil, dex, tony, come in at their best or even a bit less
wolf will place behind them
jay is a wild card in the mix
As for symmetry
at the world championship you have the best symmetries in the world
just comparing with big guys doesnt cut it
and just by hearing the cowed cheering or someone says he has a very good symmetry wont work either
you have to compare upper to lower body in terms and length and proportion then u have the right and left comparison
in the pro league that is unheard of
even though that should be dont in the 1st round at the relax poses
muscularity comes in 2nd
again the amount of muscle on these guys frame is insane
it is weight controlled and tested show ... that is they all still have room for improvement
compare all the winners until the light heavy weight with the 202 line up
u will be in for a real surprise
yet they all are clean
meaning taking very little stuff and stopping them very early
and even if you compare all the winners in an Olympia show
Ali Tabrizi, Robert Piotrkowicz and Baitolla Abbaspoor all at their best would do a serious damage at the pro circuit
but can they play it like pros do it
while none of them speaks a good level of English
The late 80s and 90s were definitely better than now days as far as the Nationals is concerned
and I still think Shawn Ray was the best winner
but it hasnt been getting any better since
where the world is
DX