The Battle for The Belt: in the books

Another battle for the belt today as 6 lifters went at it and a new point scoring system was tested. I can already see one tweak in it before I use it for a weightlifting league. To the matter at hand. Zach has been the proud holder of the belt for the last few weeks. He has certainly lived up to the title: posting PRs and showing good progress over the time period. Plus, 4 days a week of lifting have helped tremendously. Will he keep it or will he relinquish it? Lifters made 4 attempts at snatch and CJ. The attempts were: 90%, 93%, 97%, and PR. Points were tallied for each lift made and there was a multiplier for lifters with totals closer to Ohio state lifting records. Kind of made it interesting. Garrett opened the contest up with his first attempt at 40. he makes it. His legs were dead after this as none of his attempts were good after this. Patrick, theoretically not in contention at all, hit all of his snatch attempts. With no true PR yet established, he got 4 points. Zach, certainly getting good elevation on the bar, hit 3 of 4 lifts. He failed to lock out the last PR attempt. So close! Keith, strong off the ground, but just a little off in pulling himself under the bar, hit two attempts. Ron was solid in his first three snatch attempts, missing a PR @ 90. Ben hit his opener solidly then was weak off the ground for his next two attempts. He nailed the 4th attempt. Standings after the snatch: Keith 5 Ben and Pat: 4 Zach: 3 Garrett: 1 the CJ would hopefully get some separation in there. Garrett got things going again hitting 2 of his 4 attempts for 2 points. Pat, not so great on getting the elbows around, but if he cleaned it, he jerked it. He nailed all 4 lifts gaining himself another 4 points. Zach was great all around through his first 3 attempts. he goes for the PR, does all the work to get it racked, get ready, dip, drive, and almost punch under the bar. Just a bit to the front and just not enough arm power. Keith was moving great with the bar. He nailed his 3 sub PR attempts and went for a PR of 95. He hit it with authority, earning himself a sticker in the process. Then, he came back and hit a PR clean. Ron was having problems getting that right heel down fast. It threw him a bit to the front on each clean. He did nail all 3 sub-PR lifts. He attempted 110 to set a new PR. a bit forward so, no lift. His only reward here was a tweaked wrist. Ben needed to hit all three lifts then come back and PR in a BIG way on #4 to tie Keith and go to the Triple C Leg Crank tiebreaker. Opener was a bit dodgy, but made. The good news is that he posted a total at his new svelte 94 kilo bodyweight. Last time, well, that was last time. he was not able to hit any more CJ. Points totaled out this way: Keith 18 Ron 9 Pat 8 Ben 6 Zach 6 Garrett 3 Keith takes the belt back and is the first repeat winner!

Then Robin said to Batman: "Holy loaded barbells!"

What a month it has been since the Arnold Meet in early March.

Keith after months of tough work, hits PR CJ, PR total, and finishes 4th at National Championships.

Jake gets screwed out of lifting at national championships because of competition secretary last minute scheduling changes. He has hit some PR lifts since then.

A lifter who began her career in our club and won a national junior championship with us qualifies for the Olympics.

Now it gets crazy; fortunately crazy in a good way.

Ben: PR competition CJ and competition total

Brigid: after spending a morning showing a Russian strongman how PRs are made, she becomes a PR machine for the month of March. Tying and breaking PR right and left.

Brieh: despite not being a weightlifter just a talented athlete, she has been posting PR in front squat (bodyweight) and snatch (60% bodyweight).

Garrett gets into the mix by moving up in his front squat.

Zach: SN/CJ/Total competition and training PR

Ron: in a particularly tough training cycle is still hitting vital PR numbers including a RJ PR.

Fern was able to make excellent progress in the "Stand up shrug down" department.

Imagine if the lifters were even more committed! Great stuff!

PRs were smoked all day

Another meet in the books and progress is being made by a bunch of lifters. Nice progress. The Cabin Fever Open had 15 lifters and all had great lifts.
Thank you to the volunteers for helping make the meet run well: Frank, Fred, and Steve acting as judges, Pat helping with loading, and Frank contributing to the Best Lifter awards. Great stuff! Great bunch of spectators, too.
Of course, the meet was about the lifters and they did indeed provide entertainment.
Grace, all of 11 and in her 4th year of lifting, hit solid lifts of 20/25 for a 45 total. She continues to improve.
Fern, in only her second meet with an entourage cheering her on, hit a solid opener of 35 in snatch. She cleaned a misloaded CJ attempt and just barely missed that jerk. Ah, well, she had three more attempts ending up with a 42.

Ralph, thankful he was away from his family members with the cold and flu, hit a respectable 55/80/135 going 5 for 6.

Zach in his third meet opened with a PR snatch then could only hit his opening CJ. The jerk proved to be his undoing. He posted a 62/75/137 total, meet PR all three.

Kyle opened with a PR and got it. Then closed with an even better lift. He was a bit more cautious in the CJ, but got a nice PR on his third attempt. 67/82/149 for Kyle for a really good day.

Bret, 12 y.o. and 38.2 kg, provided the most entertainment for the day with aggressive attempts at national records. He opened with a 40 snatch which was missed. Then went up for his second attempt. he nailed that 41 then came back with a 42. Both were American records. He called for an AR opener in CJ and nailed it. He made valiant attempts at a 58 but his knee hit the ground in his jerk. He was credited with a 42/55/97 total.

Keith opened with what proved to be a very comfortable 70. The jerk was the objective for the day and he was able to nail the 87 which had been dogging him for some time. Fresh from a Russian Squat Cycle, he went after a meet PR of 93 in the CJ. Nailed. The state record 100 was attempted but there was just not enough pop coming off the hips to complete the clean. 70/93/163 were his final numbers.

Adam, lifting as a very light 77, nailed his 75 snatch. His slender build proved to be his undoing in the CJ as he just could not rack his second and third cleans. he did post a fine 75/95/170 total.

Milo, in the 69 class, showed good speed in the snatch with a solid 82 on his second attempt then a nice comeback in the CJ where he got a 98. A bit more muscle and his CJ will skyrocket as the speed is there. 82/98/180 was his total.

Ron, also in the 69 class, opened with a solid 77 and nailed all three snatches. His CJ went well, too, as he went 2 for 3 and hit a niiiice lift of 102. 85/102/187 for solid meet PR and 5 for 6. A good day for him.

Anthony, the third lifter in the 69 kilo class, made it interesting. His first snatch was behind him. His second was in front. Can you guess where the third one was? nailed a very, very solid 80. His Cj opener of 105 looked a bit press-y, but the referees gave all whites. He went for a 110 and got it albeit with some lazy arms just at the finish. He was credited with a 80/110/190 for a fine effort.

Ben, seeking continual improvement, nailed all his lifts. He was the insider's favorite for most improved lifter. 3 for 3 in the snatch finishing with a meet PR of 95. 3 for 3 in the CJ, finishing with an all time PR of 130. 95/130/225, more PR on the horizon.

Quinn, fast and strong, in the 77 class, hit his first two snatches of 90 and 95. He smashed his first two CJ of 115 and 120. His third CJ seemed to drain the life from him and he could not get it. Credited with a 95/120/215.

White Ben opened with a very comfortable 95. Then he rolled to what one can only assume was a PR snatch based upon his reaction of 106. He got it though there was a bit of a fight as it was just a bit in front of him at the finish. He made an easy opener of 120 in CJ, missing the next two. a 106/120/226 was his total.

Jake closed out both sessions. Wanting to get a meet under his belt prior to nationals in a few weeks, he banged out solid 110 and 115 in snatch. The 120 was 98% made but just a bit weak on the punch had him miss it. The CJ was interesting. A 145 opener was missed, but form was good enough to warrant going up. 150 was loaded and Jake nailed that guy. solid. 157 for a meet PR CJ and a PR total was loaded. A solid clean. The jerk was launched nicely, but just a bit too much arms and not enough legs: failed to lock it out. Still a nice 115/150/265 for the day.


Fern and Jake were best lifters. Jake graciously declared Bret the best lifter for the meet and transferred his award to Bret.

A nice, fun, entertaining meet by all!

Squat cycle results

Another long Russian squat cycle in the books and, shockingly, improvement in the squat PR. Oh, and the snatch and CJ are doing well, too.
Keith, working with a two rep squat PR of 120, double dunked 127 last week. Valentine's Day was planned for an assault on the one rep PR. It happened. 130 went up and down smoothly then enthusiasm got the better of everyone. 137 was loaded. 75% of the rep was done. The second attempt was a pure negative.
With better selection of the second attempt, he probably could have dunked 135. In any case, the squat goes up the CJ goes up, the snatch goes up. With 39 "good" stickers, Keith has leap frogged Ron for the sticker lead. The meet on Sunday should prove to be exciting to see who can set PR and move past 40 stickers!

Greater risk; greater reward

But, you can also go down in flames. Keith decided after his nearly perfect performance last week to go after the greater reward and had to hit 9 squats to do so. Some months back, he put in an all out effort to do a double at 120. Last night, it called for 3 x 3 at the same weight (which was previously an absolute 1 RM PR for him).
Even more piston like, Keith hit every single squat with authority, let out a scream when he hit the 9th squat, and earned himself 3 stickers for the effort.
Under the bar, you learn a lot.
Ron had to get under the bar in his own way. Hitting 95% jerks while making the rack happy...legs tired from driving the bar, arms tired from punching his 70 kilos under the bar...
Ben finally learns that the jerk is a leg exercise. Funny how driving with the legs makes the weight light. And the pipe never lies...
Under the bar, you learn a lot.

Great stuff by the lifters this past evening!

Close to perfect

In the final run up to a PR squat maximum, Wednesday night calls for 4 x 4 @ 90% for Keith. First, he bangs out multiple doubles in snatch balance. He learns to really commit to punching himself down.
Warm up complete, he is a machine: squatting perfection for 1 set, 2 sets, 3 sets. He has 15 reps under his white Eleiko belt and squats for number 16. It looks good as he rises. Wait! He pauses just at the point of poorest leverage. The bar stops dead. Incredibly, he has to dump it at the 15.85th rep. Progress nonetheless as he had never done this much weight before.
PR on the horizon.

Sunday's meet results

A nice little meet at the Central Kentucky Weightlifting facilities. Thanks to John and his volunteers for putting the meet on and hosting. And, it was the first meet in Kentucky since who knows when. Could be the start of a lot of good things.

Everybody totaled! Yay. Our newest lifters, Fern and Zach, both had great fun. Zach posted PR lifts and Fern is just getting started.

Fern was first and followed herself. She opened with a solid 32 then hit 35 though got one red for her efforts. She then put up her next lift, but not all the way to lock out so, she was credited with the 35. She opened with 40 in her CJ then got her next lift missing her third. 4 for 6 and a nice 35/42/77 total.

Zach hit his 52 opener then missed 56 (a bit of a press out). 60 went up nice and easy. CJ was the same. 70 nice and easy to open. Then 75 on his next attempt was red flagged though his arms did not move to press out. He just did not quite get them completely straight. The tough referees tossed the lift and he made it with authority on his third. PR all across the board: 60/75/135.

Ron had good warm ups and was looking to break through a CJ barrier. A routine opening snatch proved to be anything but as he missed it the first time and made it on the second. The third attempt was a complete discombobulation. In the CJ, the opening 95 was very comfortable and the second at 102 was the same. Going for the 110 PR, he had plenty of pull on the bar, just not enough getting under...77/102/179

Ben, arriving late and able to take very few warm ups, hit his opening 85 like it was a toothpick. The next 2 attempts proved to be a bit much as he did not pull himself under the bar to lock them out. He hit a nice 120 and an even nicer 125 in the CJ. He went for a PR of 128 and was unable to rack it; looking at me right after saying, "I cut it, didn't I?" 85/125/210, tying his previous PR.

All in all, not a bad day for everyone. As always, physical and mental information is accumulated with every meet.