Competition: Does Privilege drive Performance?
In the past two years, while competing regionally and nationally, I have begun to wonder what really drives the success of a competitor in terms of preparation and capability. Many people spend countless hours prepping for competition with hundreds (maybe thousands) of dollars invested in competitions, and many walk away empty handed, which is expected of most any competitive arena. However, I want to know what puts people at the podium, trophy in hand.
I will acknowledge upfront that I realize that not all who compete are of the same skill level, both in terms of understanding their coffees enough to pick excellent coffees for espresso and in their actual ability to prepare that coffee well. I will also acknowledge that it is easy for me to question what I am about to, given my privilege in terms of resource for preparation.
The real question behind all this is simple: Is competition truly fair in that some have many resources for preparation and others do not?
Some work for roasters; some do not. Some have access to competition equipment for practice; some do not. Some have extensive training programs with quality control experts and past champions on hand while others do not.
I mean no disrespect to any of the amazing competitors I have seen in the past two years and I revere many of the companies that pour resources into their employees' training development.
Yet, the question remains: will we ever see a champion competitor who does not come from a large roaster or notable cafe again?
I will acknowledge upfront that I realize that not all who compete are of the same skill level, both in terms of understanding their coffees enough to pick excellent coffees for espresso and in their actual ability to prepare that coffee well. I will also acknowledge that it is easy for me to question what I am about to, given my privilege in terms of resource for preparation.
The real question behind all this is simple: Is competition truly fair in that some have many resources for preparation and others do not?
Some work for roasters; some do not. Some have access to competition equipment for practice; some do not. Some have extensive training programs with quality control experts and past champions on hand while others do not.
I mean no disrespect to any of the amazing competitors I have seen in the past two years and I revere many of the companies that pour resources into their employees' training development.
Yet, the question remains: will we ever see a champion competitor who does not come from a large roaster or notable cafe again?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chris/Dale on
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great question.... my short answer is , "probably not."
However my long answer poses a question as well...
"Why are we competing?" Is it bragging rights? A sweet reg barber trophy? Roaster or shop recognition? A promotion waiting in the wings? The opportunity to better our craft?
My first competition was this year. I spent countless hours at my roasterie pouring, tasting, testing, trying my shots, caps and sig bevs. I spent months of practice tweaking my setup, streamlining my performance , stripping out the unnecessary replacing it with other kinds of unnecessary.... I spent a ridiculous amount of time selecting music alone.
Within in the first two minutes of competition I didn't click one of the buttons for extraction, and by the time I realized it ended up costing me a minute of my performance, i got most of my time back but the performance was shaky and rushed and overall just not good ..
End result , i tanked and i tanked hard.
i was super pissed about the whole experience for a long while but here's the thing. I noticed with in the next few weeks at my shop that , my dosing was a helluva lot more accurate than before competition, my caps were sweeter, my station much cleaner, my shots more refined...etc etc
I didn't have a trophy, I didn't get to make the trip to portland, i didn't have any reason to brag but my craft was greeeeaaatly improved.
Deep pocketed backing or no, the vast majority of competitors walk away from these comps without any sort of prize but they certainly don't walk away empty handed.
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Permalink Reply by Jesse -D-> on
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exactly the point of competing. DO it again and you won't tank. MY first cometition went way, way worse than yours (trust me) and I made it to the finals for my region on my second try.
And to answer the orginal post, well we all have the chance to geta job with one of the big roasters so, our odds are all the smae. You also don't have to work for them to use their coffee, go get em' I want to see the little guy oust Intelli and Square Mile, even if they use there coffee, oh wait that happened already. Way to go Gwylim.
Chris/Dale said:great question.... my short answer is , "probably not."
However my long answer poses a question as well...
"Why are we competing?" Is it bragging rights? A sweet reg barber trophy? Roaster or shop recognition? A promotion waiting in the wings? The opportunity to better our craft?
My first competition was this year. I spent countless hours at my roasterie pouring, tasting, testing, trying my shots, caps and sig bevs. I spent months of practice tweaking my setup, streamlining my performance , stripping out the unnecessary replacing it with other kinds of unnecessary.... I spent a ridiculous amount of time selecting music alone.
Within in the first two minutes of competition I didn't click one of the buttons for extraction, and by the time I realized it ended up costing me a minute of my performance, i got most of my time back but the performance was shaky and rushed and overall just not good ..
End result , i tanked and i tanked hard.
i was super pissed about the whole experience for a long while but here's the thing. I noticed with in the next few weeks at my shop that , my dosing was a helluva lot more accurate than before competition, my caps were sweeter, my station much cleaner, my shots more refined...etc etc
I didn't have a trophy, I didn't get to make the trip to portland, i didn't have any reason to brag but my craft was greeeeaaatly improved.
Deep pocketed backing or no, the vast majority of competitors walk away from these comps without any sort of prize but they certainly don't walk away empty handed.
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