Competitive-eating tips from The Bear

When I ask you to name a sport, what comes to mind? Hockey? Football? Snowboarding?

There’s an obscure sport emerging that may be more physically and mentally taxing than any of those — competitive eating.

This gruelling sport involves eating a large quantity of food in a short amount of time, with most contests being less than 10 minutes in length. Obviously, the competitor who has consumed the most food by the end of the predetermined time limit is declared the winner.

Now you’re thinking, “eating isn’t hard at all, how can it be considered a sport?”

If you share in this school of thought, you’ve clearly never been to a speed-eating competition.

Competitors relentlessly cram food into their mouths, dunking each piece of food into water to aid in swallowing. With no consideration to what they look like to the crowd, competitors dunk, gorge, shove, chew (barely) and swallow as much food as physically possible, racing not only against the competitors beside them, but against the clock as well.

Currently, the competitive eater who is making the most waves is Jamie “The Bear” McDonald. This man is an absolute beast! Last year, he was named competitive eating’s Rookie of the Year, and this year, All Pro Eating named McDonald the undisputed No. 1 Ranked Independent Competitive Eater in the World.

I met Jamie at an International Pizza Eating Championship at Pie Wood Fired Pizza Joint, in Barrie, Ont. I asked him a couple of questions about the unique sport that he has recently been dominating:

City’s World: Mentally, how do you prepare for an eating competition?
The Bear: I have a background in bodybuilding, football and mountain biking and the prep is no different than what I would use in these sports. Visualization is very important. I will spend time leading up to the event visualizing how I think it will go, and how I will handle the food. Just before the contest, I like to clear my mind of everything but the event. Distractions can slow you down or even cause you to choke.

City’s World: What kind of food/drink is good for stretching out your stomach? 
The Bear: Because of my involvement with bodybuilding I like to keep my body fat less than nine or 10 per cent. Therefore, I use strictly vegetables and sugarless electrolyte drinks for stretching, to keep the caloric impact as low as possible.

City’s World: I’ve heard people talk about a “six-minute wall.” Explain the six-minute wall, and how you push through it.
The Bear: At about five to six minutes, your mind tries to stop what you are doing, and you will start slowing your pace. Assuming that there are no capacity issues, this is where your willpower and awareness come in and you have to focus on keeping the pace and sometimes even kicking it into high gear. This ability is what separates the good from the great.