Mini Meet in the Books: Instructive

Competition is where you learn how your training is progressing. 3 weeks of training since the state meet (with a few changes in the programming) and this was the first check point. With the Title Belt on the line, anything could happen. It did.
The meet format was a point system. Each lifter would get 4 attempts per lift. Attempts would be at 92, 95, 97, and 102% of current maximums. 3 points for each lift made, bonus for 3 lifts and a bigger bonus for 4 lifts. Lifter with the most points gets the Title Belt. A crazy tiebreaker would take place if there was a tie.
The details.
Ron and Brian started at the same opener in snatch of 78. Easy. Megan, Ben, and Josh also easy times with their openers.
Ron had trouble the rest of the way with 80. Obviously thinking of drinks, food, and ships...
Brian progressed nicely hitting a PR snatch.
Ben made the second snatch, but slipped back into old habits as he edged closer to 100%
Josh went 3 for 3 and on number 4 ran it far in front of himself.
Megan hits her opening 2 snatches easily then tightens up the wrong way for #3. She pulls it together for the fourth and nails it.
3 way tie after snatch. Funny, it always seems to come down to the CJ.
Megan: easy opener. Cleans the second, valiantly struggles to stand, gathers herself, and misses the jerk. So much work for nothing! She gets credited with her first CJ of 64.
Ron's tropical woes continue in the CJ. he hits the first one with a bit of bother and gets nothing after that. He struggled to stand with 100 but could not put it overhead.
Brian cleans his first two with mostly upper body and jerks with authority. He misses attempts 3 and 4, leaving the door open for Josh to step on through.
Ben steps up to the platform and hits a solid three initial CJ. he calls for a PR of 130. It was a very fast moving dead lift, but not a clean.
Josh matches Ben by going 3 for 3. His fourth attempt is loaded; will he lift the weight or lift the bar? The weight. He misses, but still totals 22 points to Brian's and Ben's 17 each to take the Title Belt.
Lessons learned: it's still a meet and you still only get the one shot on the platform. It's tight, close, finish with your feet flat for as long as possible.

I see programming changes for all starting next week!

Thanks for Frank for visiting and Garrett for cheering the lifters on. Josh got the belt, but everyone else got cupcakes.

Borders to Tryharder Land are closed

Sadly, Tryharder Land has closed its borders to all immigrants. No more of "I will try harder next time". The good news is that the borders of DoGood Land are wide open and always looking for newcomers.

Competition requires one to do good (grammatically it should be Do Well, but this ain't English class...) at that point in time. To have goals to accomplish or to reach based upon what training and preparation has led up to that point is what competition is for. If you do not hit your goal(s), then something in the preparation went poorly.

Nor is progress linear; if it were we all would have 200 kilo snatches, 350 kilo squats, run 4 minute miles, and weigh what we want to weigh. Trying harder does not magically put 100 pounds on to your PR. Just saying, "I will put 5 kilos on my snatch in the next month" won't happen if you don't do the necessary and sometimes tedious work to get to this point.

"I keep missing snatches out in front when I get near my max weights. I will just try harder." No more. Knuckle down, perhaps even asking the ego to step aside for a while, develop the plan, work the plan, check yourself, and then adjust the plan.

Recently, our program has gone through some minor adjustments in the last few weeks. The effects will be checked at a meet simulation day, read that to be a competition. So much information in such a compact little piece of time.

Who will have his or her visa to Tryharder Land refused? Who will enter DoGood Land?
Saturday August 27 will be the day for the test.