In the new facility, a healthy set of 15 lifters were able to go at it. Many PR were attempted, more than a few were made, and there were a couple of first time lifters. Hopefully, the weightlifting bug bit them and bit them hard.
Many thanks to the lifter for coming and the volunteers who make the meet flow smoothly. The judges: Fern, Rick, and Steve. There were not any white flags for sale from this crew! Loaders: Luke and Adam. Frank donated prizes for the best male and best female lifters.
To the details. Grace, now 10 years old, returned to lifting after a year or so off. Competing in the 52 kg category, she went 6 for 6 and posting PR lifts of 20/22 for a 42 total.
Brigid, attempting nationals qualification, hit her snatch opener with ease, missed her second in front, then nailed the third with about 5 kilos to spare. Credited with a 57, she had to PR in her CJ to qualify. CJ opener was an easy 70 then 74 was loaded. Easy cleans times two, but no jerk . 57/70/127 for the Best Female Lifter.
Zach, lifting in his first meet, posted an official total of 53/68/121, going 6 for 6 in the process.
Ralph the elder, lifting in a post-surgery test meet, also went 6 for 6 hitting a nice total of 50/75/125.
Zach from Central Kentucky Weightlifting Club hit an easy opener of 52, went up to 56 missed it, then called for an increase to 58, which was easy. He hit his first CJ of 90 then was unable to hit PR lifts of 98 and 100. 58/90/148 for him.
Keith, fresh from the American Open, hit his first two snatches then went after a state record lift. Just a bit in front of him. He was credited with 72. The CJ did not go so well for him as the 85 was cleaned each time, but looked to increase to 185 when he went for the jerk. No total for him.
Kyle from Indiana lifting in his first meet did a fine job. Solid lifts of 55/76/131 for him. A little bit more work on getting the hips down and he will start to see the numbers go up!
Mike Johnston from C KY WLC, hit 77/105/182 and looked solid.
Ralph the younger had a PR day hitting 3 of them: snatch, CJ, and total. 75/101/176
Ron hit an easy 77 to open things up then got 82. He went after a PR of 86 but it ended up getting away from him. He got the CJ opener of 95 then missed 102 and a PR 106. Needing a little more strength to last for the 6 lifts...
Matt from C KY WLC provided most of the day's entertainment. He hit two solid snatches then he was just a bit too anxious putting his 86 down as he failed to wait for the center ref's down signal and got two red flags. He nailed his first two CJ with strength to spare. His 130 clean was a grind to stand up, then he laboriously moved his hands to jerk position, then set up for the jerk. Practically 20 seconds passed with him standing there. Then, he grabs a breath and he nails the jerk, posting a 82/130/212 total.
Jon, lifting in his first meet, posted a total good enough to lift in the junior national championships next month. Weighing in at 84.2 he hit 100/130/230 with a Sinclair total of 275.21156.
Coached by the 1987 world weightlifting championships silver medalist helped Douglas hit a solid 82/115/197. He has room to spare.
Aaron, Doug's teammate, hit a nice 100/120/220 in the 94 class.
Chadd, teammate to Aaron and Doug, went 3 for 3 in snatch posting a 112 as his best. Then he hit 130 and 140 in CJ. To win best lifter title, and beat Jon, he would have to hit his third CJ of 150. A solid clean lead to a solid push jerk and the Best Lifter prize. 112/150/262 for a Sinclair of 279.3795
A great meet and thanks to the lifters, coaches, spectators, and volunteers!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Random, though coherent, thoughts on talent
Starting off, let it be noted that there were quite a few PR lifts generated in the last few weeks by our lifters.
This leads me to the discovery of talent. Specifically, how does one identify weightlifting talent? More specifically, since weightlifting has only one governing body (begging the question: What happened to Ivan's American Weightlifting?), how is talent identified keeping the mission statement of said governing body in mind?
"...The Mission of USAW shall be to enable United States athletes to achieve sustained competitive excellence in Olympic competition and to promote and grow the sport of weightlifting in the United States..."
I guess "...sustained competitive excellence.." is defined as 2 slots in the upcoming Olympic Games for women and none for men. Though I did laugh out loud when I received a nice letter asking me to contribute to the USAW Olympic development program.
Conclusion: make sure that said potential weightlifter has championship level weightlifting parents.
Another way is to market the living daylights out of weightlifting to not only the general populace, but to youth sports in general. A kid turns 5 and his parents are already on the phone trying to find the local soccer club to put the kid into that program. Talk to said parent about getting this same kid to perform skilled athletic maneuvers which may involve a barbell and your life is in jeopardy.
Importantly, there are not that many out of the box talented weightlifters. Not everyone can run sustained 4 minute miles; not everyone can total 350 kilos as a 77. Let's define the talent pool as one of the top 10% in the world in every one of the 15 weight classes. now, how do you pick that set of people, one at a time, out of a line up of athletes? And, make sure that you have enough in the pipeline so when one lifter gets derailed by life's happenings, there are bodies waiting in line to replace him.
Presumably, the person selected will be somewhat athletic and coordinated. Perhaps that prospective lifter can jump well and is moderately quick. The most basic physical desire would be that the person be able to fog a mirror. From there, we look at coordinated, conditioned, coachable, possessing good body awareness, and committed.
The prospective lifter has to be able to rub his stomach and pat his head at the same time. Has to be able to go into a split position, with either leg, and not fall over. Conditioned enough that he can squat more than a few times with his own bodyweight and that exercising for an hour or two won't lead to certain death. It's difficult to coach someone when he is bent over gasping for air after picking up an empty barbell.
Coachable in that the person can handle cajoling, challenge, cues, adjustments, criticisms, and make progress without incredible amounts of consternation or argument. Eventually, the training will take on a solo effort in the lifter's garage or gym.
Committed to the monotony of training. Committed to the monotony of steady progress toward goals. Committed despite setbacks. And, by corollary, committed enough to realize when there is no progress in training leading to the conclusion that it is time to cut one's losses.
How does one develop this talent pool of lifters in a timely, steady manner? To me, it appears as if the game would be one of numbers. Take a large pool of athletes who have these qualifications (and hopefully have them be under the age of 25) and start funneling them down towards the aforementioned mission statement. The athletes could be involved in football, soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, etc, during the course of development in weightlifting.
Without the numbers, one is out of luck. More young people learning the lifts, completing at meets, and lifting in general should lead to the discovery of latent talent as well as "getting lucky" with more than a few gems who could be headed to the Olympic Games.
In a sales training class, I ran into a fellow who told everyone his close ratio was 100%. At first glance, that seems like an astounding feat, especially thinking that sometimes I am meeting with 50 people a month. Upon digging deeper, he only called on a couple of people. Not hard to have a 100% close ratio if you are meeting with only 2 people!!
This leads me to the discovery of talent. Specifically, how does one identify weightlifting talent? More specifically, since weightlifting has only one governing body (begging the question: What happened to Ivan's American Weightlifting?), how is talent identified keeping the mission statement of said governing body in mind?
"...The Mission of USAW shall be to enable United States athletes to achieve sustained competitive excellence in Olympic competition and to promote and grow the sport of weightlifting in the United States..."
I guess "...sustained competitive excellence.." is defined as 2 slots in the upcoming Olympic Games for women and none for men. Though I did laugh out loud when I received a nice letter asking me to contribute to the USAW Olympic development program.
Conclusion: make sure that said potential weightlifter has championship level weightlifting parents.
Another way is to market the living daylights out of weightlifting to not only the general populace, but to youth sports in general. A kid turns 5 and his parents are already on the phone trying to find the local soccer club to put the kid into that program. Talk to said parent about getting this same kid to perform skilled athletic maneuvers which may involve a barbell and your life is in jeopardy.
Importantly, there are not that many out of the box talented weightlifters. Not everyone can run sustained 4 minute miles; not everyone can total 350 kilos as a 77. Let's define the talent pool as one of the top 10% in the world in every one of the 15 weight classes. now, how do you pick that set of people, one at a time, out of a line up of athletes? And, make sure that you have enough in the pipeline so when one lifter gets derailed by life's happenings, there are bodies waiting in line to replace him.
Presumably, the person selected will be somewhat athletic and coordinated. Perhaps that prospective lifter can jump well and is moderately quick. The most basic physical desire would be that the person be able to fog a mirror. From there, we look at coordinated, conditioned, coachable, possessing good body awareness, and committed.
The prospective lifter has to be able to rub his stomach and pat his head at the same time. Has to be able to go into a split position, with either leg, and not fall over. Conditioned enough that he can squat more than a few times with his own bodyweight and that exercising for an hour or two won't lead to certain death. It's difficult to coach someone when he is bent over gasping for air after picking up an empty barbell.
Coachable in that the person can handle cajoling, challenge, cues, adjustments, criticisms, and make progress without incredible amounts of consternation or argument. Eventually, the training will take on a solo effort in the lifter's garage or gym.
Committed to the monotony of training. Committed to the monotony of steady progress toward goals. Committed despite setbacks. And, by corollary, committed enough to realize when there is no progress in training leading to the conclusion that it is time to cut one's losses.
How does one develop this talent pool of lifters in a timely, steady manner? To me, it appears as if the game would be one of numbers. Take a large pool of athletes who have these qualifications (and hopefully have them be under the age of 25) and start funneling them down towards the aforementioned mission statement. The athletes could be involved in football, soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, etc, during the course of development in weightlifting.
Without the numbers, one is out of luck. More young people learning the lifts, completing at meets, and lifting in general should lead to the discovery of latent talent as well as "getting lucky" with more than a few gems who could be headed to the Olympic Games.
In a sales training class, I ran into a fellow who told everyone his close ratio was 100%. At first glance, that seems like an astounding feat, especially thinking that sometimes I am meeting with 50 people a month. Upon digging deeper, he only called on a couple of people. Not hard to have a 100% close ratio if you are meeting with only 2 people!!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
AO: By the lifters for the lifters? OR: Is weightlifting a secret sport, not even worthy of cult status?
Hardly. Of course, I was only there for the Thursday and Friday. Perhaps it cleaned up a bit for the rest of the weekend. Specifically, here are the items which indicated that something was amiss with the meet organization.
No water in the warm up area for lifters.
No food in the warm up area for the lifts.
Long, long, long walk for the lifters from the meet hotel to the platforms.
Hard, if not impossible, to hear the announcer in the warm up area.
Flags versus lights for referee signals.
No posting of a copy, except in one spot, of schedule changes implemented post-technical meeting.
No signage of where the meet actually was taking place. Though I knew where the Crossfit Challenge was happening...Is weightlifting a secret sport, not even worthy of cult status?
Results posted only for Friday, here it is Sunday, and then the results for Friday are incomplete. I repeat: Is weightlifting a secret sport, not even worthy of cult status?
No indication of where the check scale was located.
Once located, it was in the middle of a meeting room, offering no privacy.
10 years of the Arnold and not one lesson learned. Sigh...
No water in the warm up area for lifters.
No food in the warm up area for the lifts.
Long, long, long walk for the lifters from the meet hotel to the platforms.
Hard, if not impossible, to hear the announcer in the warm up area.
Flags versus lights for referee signals.
No posting of a copy, except in one spot, of schedule changes implemented post-technical meeting.
No signage of where the meet actually was taking place. Though I knew where the Crossfit Challenge was happening...Is weightlifting a secret sport, not even worthy of cult status?
Results posted only for Friday, here it is Sunday, and then the results for Friday are incomplete. I repeat: Is weightlifting a secret sport, not even worthy of cult status?
No indication of where the check scale was located.
Once located, it was in the middle of a meeting room, offering no privacy.
10 years of the Arnold and not one lesson learned. Sigh...
American Open: Results
The good news is that both lifters posted totals and hit PR lifts. Unfortunate news was a massive coaching mistake and the list of details that this meet was not by the lifters, for the lifters grows.
Keith, after a one week taper and hitting good numbers about 10 days ago, was our first lifter. After an 800 mile drive, there was some relief that he was not the first session of the day on Friday, 12/1.
Warm ups were nice. Some lifts kind of getting away, but nothing serious. All good. Opener: solid. Whew. Second attempt with a PR 72: straight up off the floor; no salvaging that one. Coaching cue: "Tight." Not quite finished at the top on the second attempt though it swept in nicely and off the hips was good. Miss.
CJ. Keith will be following himself so, need to get that opener in and then go for it. 82 opener: Whew. Total can be posted. Second attempt at 87. Left the floor out in front where it stayed throughout the jerk, too. Miss. Loading it to a PR attempt, Keith gets ready. Nice off the floor; the clean was much easier than the 87. Stands up nicely. Now,the jerk. Straight down, drive was good, but the arms became engaged too early and the bar ended up over the forehead. Miss. 69/82/151 and a competition PR clean.
Afterwards, an international level coach came to Keith to tell him that he looked good and he needs to stay with it.
After what seemed like forever, it was finally Brigid's turn. She gives a mini-clinic on the warm up platform of how to move quickly around the bar. All looks good. Some jostling of attempts among the other lifters (none of whom were in podium contention...) puts her going first. Bang. Superb lift to open.
Then the inexcusable happens.
Somehow, she is called but nobody, including Brigid, hears her name until Three Ring (hat tip) yells, "Brigid is up!" 13 seconds on the clock and she is running to the platform. Or, wait a second, maybe it was a coaching tactic to make sure there was no thinking and all doing... She nails the lift with absolute smooth perfection. 2 red flags and no lift. Nobody knows why.
A former national champion now coach of champion lifters says, "She looked great on that lift. You are going to move her up, right?"
She goes for a PR 59 on her third and final attempt. The lift was doomed to stay in front as her elbows were just slightly pointing backwards from the start. Everything else about the lift was good; it is a game of millimeters and milliseconds when you are going after a PR.
Need to move on to the CJ. Fortunately, she is able to flush the coaching mistake and move on to a focused warm up. Another clinic on the warm up platform and she is ready for the opener. Nailed. Now, it's time to go for it.
73, PR clean, jerk just to the front. 74, PR clean (up from the bottom much more nicely than the previous lift). She sets, good drive, but the arms got involved a millisecond too early putting the bar over her forehead. She finishes with a 53 (a moral 56)/69/122.
Keith, after a one week taper and hitting good numbers about 10 days ago, was our first lifter. After an 800 mile drive, there was some relief that he was not the first session of the day on Friday, 12/1.
Warm ups were nice. Some lifts kind of getting away, but nothing serious. All good. Opener: solid. Whew. Second attempt with a PR 72: straight up off the floor; no salvaging that one. Coaching cue: "Tight." Not quite finished at the top on the second attempt though it swept in nicely and off the hips was good. Miss.
CJ. Keith will be following himself so, need to get that opener in and then go for it. 82 opener: Whew. Total can be posted. Second attempt at 87. Left the floor out in front where it stayed throughout the jerk, too. Miss. Loading it to a PR attempt, Keith gets ready. Nice off the floor; the clean was much easier than the 87. Stands up nicely. Now,the jerk. Straight down, drive was good, but the arms became engaged too early and the bar ended up over the forehead. Miss. 69/82/151 and a competition PR clean.
Afterwards, an international level coach came to Keith to tell him that he looked good and he needs to stay with it.
After what seemed like forever, it was finally Brigid's turn. She gives a mini-clinic on the warm up platform of how to move quickly around the bar. All looks good. Some jostling of attempts among the other lifters (none of whom were in podium contention...) puts her going first. Bang. Superb lift to open.
Then the inexcusable happens.
Somehow, she is called but nobody, including Brigid, hears her name until Three Ring (hat tip) yells, "Brigid is up!" 13 seconds on the clock and she is running to the platform. Or, wait a second, maybe it was a coaching tactic to make sure there was no thinking and all doing... She nails the lift with absolute smooth perfection. 2 red flags and no lift. Nobody knows why.
A former national champion now coach of champion lifters says, "She looked great on that lift. You are going to move her up, right?"
She goes for a PR 59 on her third and final attempt. The lift was doomed to stay in front as her elbows were just slightly pointing backwards from the start. Everything else about the lift was good; it is a game of millimeters and milliseconds when you are going after a PR.
Need to move on to the CJ. Fortunately, she is able to flush the coaching mistake and move on to a focused warm up. Another clinic on the warm up platform and she is ready for the opener. Nailed. Now, it's time to go for it.
73, PR clean, jerk just to the front. 74, PR clean (up from the bottom much more nicely than the previous lift). She sets, good drive, but the arms got involved a millisecond too early putting the bar over her forehead. She finishes with a 53 (a moral 56)/69/122.
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