Competitive Eating Training

The other day I was asked a question about Gal Sone and I really didn’t know who this person was, so I actually looked it up and I thought it was a pretty interesting story. I know that when you think of competitive eating you have certain images that come to mind. Well, I found a much different story than what I was expecting.

Natsuko “Gal” Sone is a competitive eater and a singer from Japan. Definitely an odd combination of career choices. You can see her in the image to the right dressed in a skort, which I think is a tennis skort. But I don’t stay that up to date on female fashions. So I’m not really sure and it is beside the point.

Gal’s big break came in 2005 when she was on a show in Tokyo called “Gluttonous King”. She ended up beating out Miyuki Iwata, who just happened to be considered the best female competitive eater in Japan.

Her singing career also started in the same way since whe ended up on some Karaoke shows on television and eventually formed a group with two other ladies. They actually released their first single, which was called “Boom Boom Meccha Maccho!” Though a member of the group left, they still do singing.

I was pretty surprised when I saw this because there aren’t too many competitive eaters and musicial singers. I know in North America we don’t exactly hear this music, but it is something that you’ll find more popular over in Japan. And like any singer , they have to say up on their fashion and wear things like skorts, skirts and whatever.

Yeah, I’m just trying to break the stereo type people have with competitive eaters since most assume they’re just hillbillies that couldn’t accomplish anything and this is why they go to eating competitions.

I wanted to share with you the top 5 reasons competitive eating is a sport. I hear a lot of negative things from people about competitive eating. I hear people say that it is not a sport and that we should consider it nothing more than a freak show. I heard another person say that it was an abomination of the Western world’s wealth compared to the rest of the world. I want to tell you why I think it is a sport and you should view it that way too.

1. You have to train to be good

All the other sports out there require you to train and practice over and over again if you want to be successful at it. There is absolutely no difference when it comes to competitive eating because you have to train hard to eat.

2. There is Technique

Every sport has some sort of technique or specialty move that helps people surpass the competition. It’s just the life of the technique. Most players will follow the the same techniques, but there are signature players that have their own special techniques that help them win.

3. You Have Competition

You can’t be in a sport if you don’t have competition to mop the floor with.

4. There Are Winners and Losers

Someone has to win and someone has to lose. It is our desire to achieve and succeed that drives us to push ourselves to new heights. That is what makes this such a great sport.

5. Huge Fan Base

What sport wouldn’t be complete with the people that come out to watch the events both in person and on television. Someone has to be enjoying the competition for it to be a sport or it just wouldn’t exist.

I thought I could do a little investigating for you and show you what are the top 10 competitive eating contests out there. So here you go…

1. World Hot Dog-Eating Championship

This is actually the Nathan’s Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest and it has been going on for almost a century. That makes it the oldest one around. Takeru Kobayashi has dominated it for a long time, but Joey Chestnut one it recently.

2. Krystal Square Off

Krystal runs the World Hamburger Eating Championship in Chattanooga, TN. It’s an exciting event because amateurs seem to always take down the professionals. That’s what is great about this sport.

3. Buffalo Wing Festival

Buffalo, New York actually hosts the Buffalo Wing Festival, which has two competitive eating competitions; US Chicken Wing Eating Championship and Buffalo Buffet Bowl.

4. Best In the West Nugget World Rib Eating Championships

The Best in the West Nugget Championships happens in Sparks, Nevada for who can eat the most ribs. It’s interesting to note that Rich LeFevre broke his front tooth while in this competition and kept going (believed to have swallowed the tooth).

5. Myrtle Beach World BBQ Eating Championship

Welcome to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where they have their BBQ sandwich contest. A lot of records have been set as this particular contest.

6. World Kolache Eating Championship

In the Kolache Factory in Houston you’ll find the contest at the Minute Maid Park, which you’ll find all sorts of big names like Joey Chestnut.

7. La Costena “Feel the Heat” Jalapeno Eating Challenge

This is Chicago, Illnois own “Feel the Heat” Jalapeno contest which sees if competitors have the stomach to handle such an event. Last year too many were ate and they ran out.

8. Wienerschnitzel World Chili Cheese Fries Eating Championship

This is Long Beach’s big eating contest for Chili cheese fries. A lot of big names show up for this and the events are very memorable in nature.

9. World Pig’s Feet Eating Championship

Mmmm, delicious pork. This is hosted by New Jersey State Fair and this is one of the most challenging events that you’ll find sanctioned by the IFCE.

10. Three Brothers Pizza World Pizza Eating Championship

This is the World Pizza Eating Championship that is held in Greenbelt, Maryland.

So I thought I should do a post on food eating competitions for you to understand what is going on. I haven’t done anything like this in a while, so you can get involved.

Niko Niko’s Gyro-Eating World Championship – 05/16/2009

Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest – 05/16/2009

Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest – 05/17/2009

King’s Dominion Funnel Cake Eating Championship – 05/23/2009

Peter’s Clam Bar Clam Eating Contest – 05/25/2009

I thought it was about time that I shared with you the top 5 reasons that you will fail at a competitive eating competition. I like to orient informationlike this because it can really help you understand the fundamentals of successful eating.

1. You Think Liking To Eat = Good At Eating Competitions

I think this is the biggest mistake people make when it comes to competitive eating. I know this is about eating food, but liking to eat food doesn’t mean you’re going to be any good at it. It has been proven over and over again that skinny people tend to do far better in the competitions.

This is more about your ability to eat a huge sum of food in a very short period of time. That requires methods of fast consumption and maximum storing capacity.

2. You Don’t Treat This As A Serious Sport

I know that it can be very easy to view this as just some event that you would do at a carnival for fun, but the competitors you face are training. Just because you aren’t lifting weights are doing laps around the track doesn’t mean this isn’t a sport that requires training.

3. You Don’t Train Properly

The only way you can properly train for any event, you have to identify exactly what you’re eating. If you’re going into a hotdog competition, than you just can’t grab any hotdog from the store and start practicing with it. You need the exact size and the exact weight of hotdogs to train.

Typically events will be sponsored by the very food you’ll be eating, so it shouldn’t be hard to track down exactly what you’re expected to eat.

4. You Lack Mental Toughness

You’re going to feel things that you know you have to ignore. You just have to tell yourself that you’re going to keep going and that is all there is to it.

5. You’re Not Systematic

If you look at all the successful competitors out there for any competition, they’re all systematic. That means that they eat in a very continuous fashion. They’re putting food into their mouth, just as they finish swallowing some. Basically their comsumption of food is consistent. You can’t rush at the start and slow down. You have to consistently do the entire competition, just as a marathon runner goes consistently.

A lot of people don’t know what to eat before an eating competition, so I thought it was important for me to address this with you. So what do you do when you get up in the morning and you know you’re going to be having a competition later in the day.

Well, in the morning your stomach is empty. You might feel the need to not eat because an empty stomach is a good thing – WRONG. You need glycogen reserves in your body for digesting and you don’t want to lose all your energy while you’re trying to chew down all that food.

You should start off with a meal high in carbs and low in everything else – especially fat. This way it is fast digesting, but you also get your glycogen reserves beefed up before you go to the competition.

Also right before the competition it might seem bad to eat something. Well having a little fast digesting carbs can really help. Something like a sports drink can be really beneficial to this process.

I hope this information helps you know how much you should be eating before a competition.

Patrick Bertoletti defeated former champ Joey Chestnut in a chicken wing contest. He was able to eat over 4lbs of chicken wings in 8 minutes flat. Think about that – Chicken wings don’t have a lot of meat on them, so that’s one pile of wings to eat.

This is what I like so much about competitive eating, anyone can win. The champions today are going to be beat by newbies next year. It just shows you that ANYONE can get into this sport and be dominant. It’s not like you have to build yourself up, you just get into it and beat the reigning champ.

I wish I could write a longer post, but I’m craving some chicken wings now, so I’m going to go get some.

I often get this question because if you look at the competitors you’ll notice a very strong contrast between people. You’ll look at one person and think they could eat anyone under the table and you’ll see another person that looks like they haven’t been getting enough to eat.

What has really surprised the competitive eating world is that skinny Asian contestants are very competitive and are winning. It’s surprising because you’d expect a big massive guy that eats all the time to do well.

The reality is that it comes down to physics…

You’re going to assume a big guy is a good competitive eater because they had to eat a lot to get to their state, but this isn’t a long term eating contest – it’s a short 10 minutes. This is where being skinny can play a huge role. When you have a lot of fat around your stomach area, it makes it hard for your stomach lining to expand. There’s just too much fat in the way and it’s not going to happen.

When you have this skinnier frame there isn’t anything block the expansion of the stomach and it just makes the whole process that much easier. It’s a simple thing, but the average person wouldn’t assume a skinny person could rule the competitive eating world.

For all those first timers out there, you’re probably trying to learn how to do this, so you can enter a competition with a decent prize. The problem is that you don’t have any experience. You train, and than you get up on the stage with everyone – it’s almost like a culture shock. It’s extremely different than training and you might not be sure what you’re getting into.

As much as you train and try things out, you’re not going to know what it is like. You can watch every competition on SpikeTV and you’re still not going to know what to expect when you’re on the stage with a pile of food in front of you, looking out at a crowd. It’s totally different when you’re doing it.

Things like pace and having a sound mind go out the window. You’ll people on both sides of you chowing down and you’re not going to be consistent.

I think it’s important to enter into any competition you can. No matter how small it is. The reason is that it gives you that experience of what it is like. It’s really the only way you can train to be in a competition and actually understand what it takes psychologically. There might not be any big prizes and you may feel a little embarrassed, but you have to deal with that now. When the big competitions come along, you want to be at peak performance and no what to do.

The last thing you want to have happen is the competition start and you’re still dealing with the fact that there’s a crowd and television cameras staring at you.

Competitive eating is a sport that I really enjoy to watch because it’s one of those sports that is just blossoming. Do I have a shot at being an NFL player or an NHL hockey player? Probably not, but when it comes to eating competitions, I can move full steam ahead and push the limits because this is all new to people.

I was a bit surprised to learn that the record for hamburger eating is 103 in just eight minutes. That is absolutely amazing. I’m not sure if they’re like real hamburgers or the little ones you get at White Castle, but I don’t think I could eat 103 hamburgers in eight minutes, let alone eight hours.

This didn’t seem to be much trouble for Joey Chestnut, a 23 year old from San Jose, California. The previous record was only 97, but he was able to beat it by six and take home a $10,000 cash price. Nice one Joey. The former record holder didn’t compete this year because of jaw problems after they had their wisdom tooth removed.

What I wanted to illustrate with this post is that these people are truly competitors and athletes. A lot of people don’t view them that way, but they train extremely hard at this and to say otherwise is a slap in the face to them. 103 Hamburgers in just eight minutes is no minor thing. It took a lot of dedication and practice just for a person to do half of that, let alone 103.

I want to give a salute out to all the competitors out there and urge them to continue working hard.