To compete I've **** myself....

[elisedance]

I don't think we have a topic on this (hard to imagine eh?).

What ways have you altered/adapted/harmed yourself in order to compete?

Probably most of us have lost weight or sacrificed great food opportunities.  Certainly for me thats one of the biggest - and most positive - outcomes of trying to compete.  Here you can share dance eating disorders ( ) and any other adaptations necessary for this particular human vagary....

So I'll start off with that - I've lost over 20lbs to get to my present OK (but still not ideal) competition size...

[QPO]

I lost weight and now doing arm weights to tone up my arms....my triceps muscles are heading to the ground and I don't like it...and then limits the style of dress I choose to wear.

Not sure how long it will take but will make it part of my regular routine.

[etp777]

35 pounds or so here.  The weight loss is positive, the having to sacrifice food I lvoe isn't.  $10 buffet and $5 margaritas at my favorite mexican restaurant were passed up Saturday.  


Also a big part of the reason I spent 7 months in Kuwait away from friends/family (and dance!) was to pay off some debts to free up more money for dancing.  Has let me not only dance a bit more, but also get in more coachings, and attend more competitions even when I'm not dancing, such as OSB next week.

[MusicChica]

The weight loss is positive, the having to sacrifice food I lvoe isn't.

Same here.

Lost about 30 lbs here so far, but still nowhere near "ideal" competition size, or even "OK" competition size.  Also, started using weights on my arms because I have no upper body strength whatsoever and pro says I need it for tricks.

Also, have spent WAY too much money.

[elisedance]

Also, have spent WAY too much money.

LA LA LALALALAL LA LA LA
(while dancing round wiht my fingers in my ears)
{([serious denial here])}

[Bordertangoman]

Is this the confessional thread?

uhm I've bought clothes that only get worn for tango balls, otherwise they gather dust and moths,
but some are second hand.

My knee joints are wearing out.probably due to too many pivots.

travelling to milongas has increased my carbon footprint ( but I havnt flown abroad for years due to hodo-phobia)

[Rugby]

Everything above and add to that no social life, loss of friends and family.  Umm, wearing my car out and learning to live in a car which may come in handy in the future.  Destroying my body by eating fast food and pop since on the road so much.  Well, you get the point.

[elisedance]

Everything above and add to that no social life, loss of friends and family.  Umm, wearing my car out and learning to live in a car which may come in handy in the future.  Destroying my body by eating fast food and pop since on the road so much.  Well, you get the point.

Its the route to fame and fortune isn't it?

well, its a route anyway - but goodness knows where other than penury ...

[ZPomeroy]

Mainly just money for me, a VERY expensive sport

Zac

[elisedance]

Think so?  Try pro/am here...

[QPO]

Mainly just money for me, a VERY expensive sport

Zac

I wonder if it is just as expensive as other sports, I hear having a horse and fessage is very expensive, anything that requires coaching including golf is expensive. green fees alone at a public course a $30 per game let alone a private course...

but yes it can be expensive when you dont have money

[elisedance]

cup of tea is expensive when you don't have any cash!!

Dancing itself is not expensive of course, its dancing well that is.  One can even do sport cheaply by entering social competitions.  Its not the same but its not like car racing or deep sea fishing, for example, where you really do need a car or a boat!

[Rugby]

I wonder if it is just as expensive as other sports, I hear having a horse and fessage is very expensive, anything that requires coaching including golf is expensive. green fees alone at a public course a $30 per game let alone a private course...

but yes it can be expensive when you dont have money

Riding is very expensive, expecially as you get into the higher levels.  Dancing is cheap in comparrison but it doesn't make it any easier to stomach the huge costs.

[mummsie]

you have put the cost into perspective.  Our lessons are $60 per hour.  If we were smokers we would pay $25/pack so thats only equivalent to 2.5 packs.  At least dancing is a healthy way to spend money.  mummsie

[Ginger]

*coughDressagecough*

Yes, even on the most minute levels, owning and riding a horse is very expensive, though not as expensive, oddly, as regular (nightly) dancing with instruction and cover for venues, shoes, etc.

The initial purchase of horse and necessary tack/accoutrements is easy enough, but PROPER routine physical/psychoemotional care of the horse is what gets people in the middle of winter (hay/feed availability dries up, they have to work, it's too cold and muddy outside to enjoy their Special Fuzzy Friend who's now knee-deep in mud and having to have ice broken out of his bucket each morning.)

In some ways, horse enjoyment is much more cumbersome.  We sit and snicker at new parents who pull into a huge parking spot with their huge mini-van, pile out, unload the baby. Then the stroller, which is never one of those small sunflower-dotted canvas things with candycane handles WE had growing up- no, it has 4wd, dual airbags, and a Lexus emblem on the canopy, the Diaper and Accessory Bag, which is as big as the BSUV, then The Mom Purse...

Horse-travel is a lot like that. You have to have a safe and large enough towing vehicle and trailer, the horse, it's tack, feed, etc. and first-aid materials, not to mention spare this and that in case you forget something, you break down, etc... you can't just tuck a horse into a stroller and wheel it around, although the local hicks do try to smush miniature horses into their *cars* (what, they aren't using the free space on teeth...).

If you choose to compete in anything equestrian, you have to get "the good stuff", not the cheap Argentinean urine-tanned-leather saddles, or the knock-off "riding" boots from JCPenney (nice try, but HAHAHAHA!), and so forth. The travel expenses and efforts are harder than just putting your suitcases in, hopping in, and going.

But to get back on topic, to get closer to the "ideal ballroom competitor" goal, I've picked up and put down some eating disorders along the way (nothing current, since I've danced all of twenty minutes in the past three months or so), made concessions  and compensations to make my partner happy (surprise- I "fix" one thing, another crops up", I've gone without a lot of things that I really needed (eyeglasses, InvisAlign, Starbuck's), to cover lessons, and I've become indebted to a friend for picking up the tab on my new shoes, which makes me feel guilty.

It started out fun, but I wouldn't compete with my current partner anymore, I don't think. We barely dance together socially, and the positive side is that we still work well together when he teaches. My dancing has really, really, really gone downhill though. My enjoyment once again comes from following something an unfamiliar lead requests, and it works out well.

Still, if I wasn't dancing, I wouldn't be doing *anything*, and having been there, that's a dangerous place to be, too. Wouldn't go back, except to occasionally visit.