Heather Dees NPC Junior National Recap

Hello Everyone,

So I just did Junior Nationals! What an experience :) There was crazy thunder and lightening storms in Chicago last weekend! So crazy that the power at the Host Hotel, 10 minutes before prejudging was supposed to start, went out!! We were all sitting in the dark, the Fitness girls were already warmed up ready to step on stage and we just had to sit and wait! Two hours later, it finally came back on! So Friday night prejudging went a little longer than expected! It was hot and humid in the venue, two hours seemed like an eternity when your nerves are tense and you are trying to stay in perfect condition to win the judges over! The power came back on and finally the show began!

I felt good stepping on stage again. I love doing Figure competitions! Everything about being back stage getting glued and glazed, then pumping up and standing in line behind the curtains just waiting to walk out! You look at all the girls in your line and it is amazing how good everyone looks on a National Level! You walk out alone the first time on stage, they announce your name and you hit four poses, Starting with front pose, then a model side pose, turn to your back pose and then your final side model pose... I always take a deep breath roll my head and shoulders and walk up the stairs to the stage! Next thing you know the lights hit ya and the Judges and staring at you, critiquing every move you make. It all happens so fast and then your off the stage. You walk back around behind the curtains and go out on stage again with a group this time, you do the quarter turns and then off you go again. Walking one more time behind the curtains and all of us girls in our class line up on both sides of the stage! You stand there holding a model pose and just wait for your number to be called out! That is the Most Suspenseful part of the show, CALL OUTS!

I ended up taking 6th place in Figure Class D, which had 37 girls in it! It was announced that it was the biggest class in the whole show! I got second call outs which was a disappointment right off! The 1st call outs only had four girls in it so I knew I didn't place in the Top 4, so after that I had assumed I had either taken 5th or 6th place, hoping for 5th! Even though 6th place was not the goal it was an improvement from last year which I took 10th at USA's. In 2008 I placed 10th at Nationals so after seeing my score and placing 6th I was just super glad it wasn't 10th again. :) The one consistent thing I noticed about all the girls that placed ahead of me was their quads! They all had very muscular quads and mine in comparison would need to come up a little bit. Also I had flexed my legs a little too hard which made them look too separated and a bit narrow. So just by correcting my front pose I probably could have looked like I had a bigger sweep on my quads and possibly placed higher! It is soo crazy how important your stage presence and posing is and what a factor it plays in how well you place at a show! It will make or brake you!!

There also is a thing called "Paying your Dues" I changed my last name when I married Justin to Dees in September of 2009 so all my previous contest history is under Heather Udy, which makes it looks like this Junior National show was my first time at a National Level Show... I am not sure if this hurt me or not but they usually like to see how many shows you've done and link it all together. Since my contest history is not linked, I don't think anyone knew that it was my third time doing Nationals... So many girls have done a lot more shows so I do realize that and I am super happy with the fact that I have made the cut at every show and placed rather well at that! Anyway I will just keep the goal ahead of me and keep competing! I will get my Pro Card eventually! Hopefully sooner than later ;) !

My next show will be USA's in Las Vegas on July 31st! It is in 6 weeks and I am once again excited to get ready for another show! After walking off stage at Juniors I always am ready to step on stage right away again, especially after making certain adjustments to the small mistakes I made and just hoping it will be enough to finally get that 1st place trophy and Pro Card! :)

I will keep you posted on my prep to the USA's! Wish me luck!!

Heather Dees