Mike’s goals for this meet were to go 9/9 and total at least 1550 (if all the lifts were good, he would have had 1552). But the theme of the day was “trouble” for Mike.

During the squat warm-ups, I noticed that Mike’s knees were sorta forward at the bottom of the squat. Lately he’s been using high bar and front squats on his volume day, and it seemed that he developed a bit of “forwardness” in his squat. I brought this up to him, but we decided not to try and cue it all that much. Instead, I was more concerned with cuing “speed” on the descent. At 2011 USAPL Raw Nationals, I thought Mike’s lack of speed on the descent limited him in his bounce, and it also facilitated the judges in red-lighting his third attempt in that meet. My emphasis on a fast descent would ensure he gets the full stretch-reflex out of his hamstrings and probably help him achieve some depth. He looked better during the final few warm-ups. Note that it’s possible he sits back better with heavier weight (anything over, say, 475); some lifters will look different with light stuff than heavy stuff.

Mike's third attempt squat -- it was red lighted on depth

The 2012 NAPF Raw Challenge is sanctioned under the North American Powerlifting Federation, which is under IPF ruling. It’s a step up from USAPL and a step down from IPF Worlds and was our first international competition (you could compare it to the Pan American Championships with Olympic weightlifting). You can view all of the results HERE.

The primary method of admission to this meet for USAPL members was to lift at the 2011 Raw Nationals and have at least a 375 Wilks total. Only 75 lifters were accepted including Chris, Mike, and Alex. Alex originally planned to lift in the 105kg class, but decided he didn’t want to lose at least 20 pounds, so moved to the 120kg class. Mike originally was going to lift in the 120 class, but figured he would only be able to make 5th place in either class (based on his top numbers), and decided not to worry about losing the weight (he weighed in at 280, so about 16 pounds over the 120/264 limit), especially since he has to do so for an Air Force PFT every six months. Chris lifted in the 120+ class.

L to R: Chris, Mike, and Alex wait to be called for final squat warm-ups

All three of my guys were lifting in the same flight. I’ve handled five lifters in the same meet before, yet they were in different flights or sessions. Having three guys in a flight of 15 was a different experience. There were times when Alex and Mike were following each other and Chris was up only five attempts later. I actually missed coaching Alex’s first squat because I was putting Mike’s second attempt in at the table.

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While the fellas were weighing in on Friday, Jennifer Thompson was busy with a World Record performance in the NAPF Raw Challenge. This is a video of her final deadlift, but she had alreadysquatted 142.5/313.5 and benched 136.5/300.3. That’s right, a woman weighing right under 132 lbs benched 300 lbs. Sounds like some of you need to step up your bench game, huh? This video is of her final deadlift at 195kg/429lbs. Amazing.