Picture the trainee who has registered for nine first competitions and competed in three. The other six — withdrawn the week before, deferred, "didn't feel ready." Of the three competed, two bombs and one finish with substantial misses. Year on year, the same pattern. The first comp keeps being scheduled for next year.
The First Competition Field Guide is for the trainee with an established training base preparing for their first competitive event in any modality — powerlifting, weightlifting, strongman, CrossFit, HYROX, running race, triathlon, jiu-jitsu, whatever your discipline. It treats the first competition as what it actually is: an education, not a PR test. The PRs come from competitions 2, 3, 4, 5, once you've learned what you didn't know.
Inside this one
- 22-page pocket field guide — sport-agnostic protocol
- The first-comp framing shift — education, not PR test
- Attempt selection logic — opener at 90% of estimated 1RM, second and third decisions
- Pre-competition routine — day before, morning of, warm-up timing, weigh-in
- Mental management — breath protocols, V38 sport-psychology framework
- Troubleshooting — missed opener, bombed lift, nervous-before-the-platform
The standard it is held to
Every factual claim in this volume names its source, and every claim carries a confidence grade — settled, strong, emerging or contested. Where the evidence is thin, the text says so. How it’s made, in full → · What we’ve got wrong →