Competition..is it in you?

[British BBQ Society]

*Are cooking trends something you fallow?Doc

when you copy and paste something...... almost creepy can you check the spelling first

[Chris__M]

Being an avid boardgame player, I am pretty competitive in that area - I have been, since a kid. I am also a musician, and funnily enough, I don't feel I am competitive in music at all - my outlets for music tend to be much more collaborative and sharing.

I am currently somewhat obese (although being over 6' tall, I carry it better than some), but even when I was thin and reasonably fit, in my 20's and 30's, I was not competitive athletically. Although I still fondly remember a time when some college friends nagged me into going on a run with them, promising to take it easy for their slacker friend. I started off lagging behind, but then got into my pace, and ended up passing them all, to their shock. But while I found it immensely amusing, I didn't find running or any kind of sport interesting enough to pursue at all - it bored me.

With regard to cooking - be it BBQ or otherwise - I do it because I absolutely love it. Anyone who meets me will assume I do it because I like eating, but it isn't that - I love learning new ways to make things that taste nice, and I love surprising guests (I guess that is competitive, no?). I also love tinkering with tech, which is why I have more cooking and BBQ kit than a single guy should need.

I can seem me competing in BBQ some time in the distant future, but I have a need - a compulsion, really - to know exactly what I am doing before doing it front of others, particularly those more expert than me. I know this is usually not necessary, and I will learn more by making mistakes in front ot others, but I can't help how I am made. This is probably a strong sign of a competitive spirit, in that I will only want to compete when I have a decent chance of competing on even terms!

I haven't answered you questions directly, but I think my answers touch on the same subjects. Hope it is of interest.

[Swindon_Ed]

I do have an insanely competitive side to me.

Growing up as a kid it was with sports. Rugby (that's American football without the pad's Al , Football (soccer), Basketball, athletics (throwing events, you know I’m not a runner Al) and this would be competing locally and at a national level in these sports.

Then moving into my working life where it's all about competing whether it is competing with other companies for a customer’s business or other people in the office.

Strangely i find BBQ calming. It's something that I do to relax. The same with any of the other cooking that I do. It’s about making a great meal for me, my family & friends.

I’m also looking forward to entering my first competition in May and looking for more of the social side of the event rather than the winning and also an interest to see what other peoples BBQ is like in the UK.

Although that being said there could be the possibility that as soon as the comp’ starts the red mist of competition will take over

[LM600]

OK, I play for the game and not for winning...where is the fun in battering another team into the dirt without a good showing!?

In my teens I swam at county level and boxed at local level (I didn't like hitting people...and certainly didn't like getting hit!), in my late teens / early twenties I played rugby also at county level....since then it all went a bit downhill....women, career etc,etc,etc!

Although in my early thirties I hit the gym again and went for strength as opposed to fitness and size - I did this for five years and whilst doing it, I looked damn good - single digit body fat and all that, lifting everything in the gym...that was why I stopped...that and my ligaments were getting sore, there was no more challenge.

Now, I am comfortable in my late thirties, some would say slightly heavy - I carry the weight in my face...and my (rather proud of) belly! and I say "So what!...I have been there, I have done that, I have swam faster than you, I have lifted more weight than you, I have pushed in a scrum stronger than you, I have out boxed you!"

So, saying all that I still come back to my first paragraph..I would much rather lose to a better person / team and learn from it than going out there and obliterating that person / team...that way we both have a good game and we both learn!

[mcdodge]

I'm an only child, and have never competed at anything. I was never any good at sports at school as I had a real lack of co-ordination.

It's left me very uncompetitive, I just don't see the point in competing for things. Life is too short to get stressed about things you enjoy doing IMO.

I also have a very low blood pressure. Related?

[Chris__M]

It seems to me that some folk equate competitiveness with being all-out to win and nothing else. I don't see it that way. I do consider myself competitive, but not single-minded.

Again, the best way to describe this is from my board-gaming. I meet up with friends on a regular basis to play games. We are all pretty competitive - we all want to win. But we are not going there to win, we are going there to have fun. We want to win, and we will play hard to win, but if we don't, the day isn't wasted and we have still enjoyed ourselves - the winners will gloat, and the losers will deride and cry "fluke!", but we all have had fun.

As such, stress has got very little to do with it.

Not sure how that relates to your experience with competition in BBQ.

[mcdodge]

Hang on, I am competitive. That's why I don't compete. It ends in tears because I will try and cheat.

I'm not proud of it, but it is true. I'm not allowed to be the banker in Monopoly due to this...

[Steve]

So is that it then?????

Am I to understand that the rest of you were competition shy until adulthood when you found BBQ? Very interesting indeed!

Quite an assumption to make

[Steve]

To be honest Al, I really don't go in for this kind of thing, but I'll humour you this once

I started Judo at 7 years old, use to do competitions and summer schools regularly and I practised the sport until I was 12 by which time I was playing a lot of Rugby for my school and for my local club (Orrell RUFC). Despite being from a League family my dad persuaded me to play for Orrell because they were a community club who focussed on sportsmanship rather than results for juniors. Played for Orrell until I was 17 when I had an (unrelated) accident which left me unable to play contact sports for 18 months while I was on the waiting list for a shoulder operation.

By the time I had my op and did the rehab I was at University, had become far too fat and unfit to play well and had discovered several ways of passing the time that were not conducive to athletic performance

I've not done any competitive sport for years but have been very competitive professionally for all of my career. This is part of the reason I made Principal engineer grade inside five years of leaving University. Workwise I've been a lot more chilled out since I met my wife, she's the polar opposite of me in competitive terms and the effect has rubbed off.

I'm still very driven and tenacious in everything I do but I don't tend to compare myself against others or give a monkey's about beating others or losing to them. I like to do everything I do well and always look to improve whatever I do.

[mowse73]

i have never competed in a bbq cookoff as yet. I am competitive though and have always been a bad loser, but that has mellowed with age. I need to improve my cooking before i go in a competiton, an i also need to check out a comp this year to see where i need to go with my cooking. But give me 2 or 3 years and I will win at memphis in may.