Topic: About having an epic bad day at the office.........

[Aussie]

I thought I'd make a post here about something that happened at yesterdays competition as well as hunt down some good advice if possible.

First the finer details. I was due to lift in the 69kg class yesterday, with the 2nd snatch of the session. The first liter had put down he'd snatch 53, I wrote down 55.   In training a week ago I did an easy peasy 55kg snatch. Looking back now it felt around 90-95% of what I could do.

So after the introductions we were instructed (as usual) that we have 10 minutes to warm up. Herein lies the problem I believe.  My performance on the platform was...well...terrible. I walked out on the platform & I did a great snatch pull (of 55). I obviously got red lighted. Which is fair. I came off the platform pretty upset with myself. My coach gave me some words of wisdom, helped psych me up in the way that he knows works for me. After just under 2 minutes I walked out on the platform again & did pretty much the same poor performance.

After walking off the platform, I headed into the warm up area & made it clear that I wasn't going to participate in the competition anymore. I felt super down. I had the opportunity to lift in the clean & jerk section but selected not to...I was worried if I bombed out in that also, that I'd be even more upset.

I got a lot of good words of wisdom from the team of coaches. One chap (Ron Nylander) encouraged me to get stronger...very strong (which is something I really enjoy doing)...but to always work on technique and use this event as a learning point. He told me of liters who have gone years without a major bomb out...then they'll go to a national..or international event...and it'll happen. The president of Weightlifting Tas' pretty much said the same thing, it happens to everybody and to learn about it.  I've been around the block quite a few times..so I was going to learn from it anyway..but to have the two coaches encouragement was quite nice.

I'm glad the bomb out happened yesterday..and not at my first national competition!!

There are obviously a lot of variables that contributed to yesterdays efforts. The largest one is due to scale of economies I don't have as much time to warm up as lifters who are able to move more weight. That's reality. They could have 20-30 minutes, I have 10-12 minutes after introductions.

So after that long story I'm interested to know what I can do in future competitions, as a lifter who lifts the lease (right now). Am I able to lift prior to the introduction? Should I keep my warm up routine similar to how I'd do it in the gym?

[Jim Storch]

Yes.  Start warming up before the introductions.  Also remember that in a weightlifting meet what you start with matters less than what you finish with. 

Do some practice sessions as if you are in a meet.  Time it all out, see how long it takes you to warm up and interrupt it with an "introduction" in the middle of it leaving you 10 minutes to finish warming up. 

You gotta do what you gotta do, but for me I'd rather go down "swinging."  I would rather go out and miss every attempt than just give up (as long as I'm not injured).  Use every contest attempt to learn something.  Do not let what you cannot do stop you from doing what you can.

The main thing I learned from bombing out is that I never @#%&#@@! want to do that again.  Good luck.