The Bikini division is one of the most popular divisions in the IFBB Pro League. It’s also one of the most competitive. Standing out with the best physique and presentation is a must, and even one mistake can cost a competitor the victory. This is why bikini coaches are so valuable to these athletes.
Fortunately, Femme Flex Friday co-hosts Alina Popa and Lenda Murray knew just who to call to share valuable expertise. This is why pro bikini coaches Kim Oddo and Damian Segovia were the guests on this week’s episode of FFF.
Oddo was a lightweight competitor himself before he made the plunge into coaching. His first clients were female bodybuilders, and he also worked with couples. Among his clients were former Figure Olympia champion Nicole Wilkins and the 2020 Bikini Olympia winner Janet Layug. One insight he offered immediately was the importance of keeping up with the times in the sport.
“The sport evolves and you have to evolve with it,” Oddo said. “It’s a lot of talk, and it’s a lot of discussion, and it’s a lot of mistakes and learning from that to get the physiques to fit the protocol.”
Segovia came into bodybuilding from the world of college football. He was seeing success onstage, but he got more satisfaction from helping others who would ask him for advice. His work in coaching began in the early 2000s. He has only worked with female clients over the years since, and he is now one of the go-to bikini coaches in the sport. One key that he found to be important is having a strong support system around the athletes he is working with.
“For us, it’s important to put them around positive people. Kim and I make sure that our team members actually help one another and want to help one another. Unfortunately, there are a lot of negative people sometimes that trickle in and out of the sport,” he warns. “The young people, if you allow them to get in a circle that’s not conducive to them becoming successful, they’re not gonna be.”
Oddo wanted to speak to the co-hosts about another aspect to their jobs — helping them with focus and maintaining a positive mindset. “There are more aspects to this sport mentally than there are physically. I think physically we can accomplish and achieve anything we set our minds to. The mental aspects of it can be very brutal,” he explained to Murray. “I always tell everybody, ‘It’s not about being perfect. It’s just about standing out of quicksand because there can be many pitfalls throughout a career.”
Segovia then talked about preparing ladies for competition, and he discussed the ability to hide structural “flaws,” such as a wide waist or overly wide shoulders so they are less likely to be judged for having them.
“If they have a very broad upper body, then I would say tone down the shoulder training and make sure when they pose that they’re not opening up very wide and trying to project their shoulders much wider than they really need to,” Segovia stated. “The nice thing about Bikini is you can hide a lot. So if you do have some structural flaws, you can hide them, whereas in Figure you just can’t.”
The information that both coaches share can be a source of tremendous wisdom for anyone, male or female, that want to get into the sport or fitness industry. Watch this whole episode as well as every episode of Femme Flex Friday every week over at www.wingsofstrength.net.
