THE TRUE ATHLETE GAMES ARE HERE!

Cash Prizes. Standardized Scoring. Level playing field.

This Saturday, March 28, 2015, Austin Simply Fit and Outright fitness are hosting the True Athlete Games (TAG): The Standard of Fitness Competitions at Austin Simply Fit’s newest location in Leander, TX. (To register check out the event page here!)

TAG is the brainchild of David Brasswell and myself (Mark Rogers) where we’ve created the first non-sport fitness competition circuit that levels the playing field for all athletes. Rather than running a competition that broke up athletes by age and ability level, we put our heads together to create something that was fair (and fun) for everyone participating. The True Athlete Games creates a level playing field using a standard set of exercises and body-weight based fitness movements that test strength, power, speed and endurance of athletes where scoring is based on the participants body weight.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN…SCORES ARE BASED ON BODY WEIGHT?
We get how that can be a little confusing because it’s a new approach for an athletic competition. Here’s how it works: all of the exercises chosen are movements that athletes have done during their training (ie: deadlift, bench press, sled pulls, pullups, banded bear crawl, sprints, etc…). Similar to powerlifting where the WILKS score is used to determine overall best lifters across all weight classes, TAG uses mathematical equations that level the playing field in the same way. This means that athletes weigh in the morning of the event – 2 hours before the event starts, to be exact.

WHAT ABOUT THE EVENTS?
There are eleven movements in total and each athlete must complete all of them to get a final score. The movements are: Deadlift, 5/10/5-Pro Agility, Farmer’s Carries, 2k Row, Banded Bear Crawl, 10 Yard Acceleration, Bench Press, Broad Jump, Reverse Sandbell Throw, Banded Pull Ups, and a Sled Medley.

Athletes have 90 minutes to complete the first ten movements mentioned above. We’ll be using a shotgun start for the day – allowing competitors to complete movements in any order they want. This is great for the athletes because they can plan a strategy of how they expect to score best. For instance, since strength is my athletic bias, I would definitely deadlift and bench first so that I put my best energy into those events, get what I believe will be my best scores, and then move on from there. A sprinter on the other hand may want to start with the 5-10-5- Pro Agility and take bench press last. The point is, the athlete can strategize how they believe they will achieve the best score.

Once everyone has completed the first ten events, the entire community – athletes, judges, fans, and friends – will convene on the turf for the Sled Medley where there will be two sleds going simultaneously until everyone is done. The Sled Medley will be the most difficult of all the events and the reason why we want everyone to do it at the same time. We want the community there to rally behind each athlete and power through the end of the day with amazing energy.

The party will start as soon as the last sled medley ends and will roll into the awards ceremony where we will be giving away nearly $1,000 in cash prizes for the top three finishers in the Men’s and Women’s divisions.

The TAG circuit consists of three qualifier events and one finals competition, giving athletes of all levels an opportunity to test their progress every three months. The top 20 finishers from the first three contests will be invited back to participate in the 2015 TAG Finals in December (but before the holidays, don’t worry). Yes, there will be cash prizes at each event.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone this Saturday for the kickoff of this new competition series. The day will also be the Grand Opening Celebration of the facility where the event is being held: Austin Simply Fit Northwest. We plan on having food, live music, and continuing the fun long after the awards ceremony ends. See y’all at the bar.