Texas State Meet Recap

Posted on by

The San Diego Chargers’kicker Nate Kaeding and I have two things in common: we are both ugly and we both didn’t perform very well this past weekend. The difference is that Kaeding is a Pro Bowler, and I’m just some jackass.

There were a lot of set backs in the month right before the meet. After hitting 127.5/165 in one training session in early December, I had a programming issue, a training break to travel for Christmas, got sick the next week, and then tweaked something in my shoulder the week before the meet (which I believe was unrelated to lifting). The shoulder issue didn’t seem serious and seemed to hold up Tuesday when I worked up to my openers and Thursday when I worked up to my last warm-up.

I felt it slightly as I warmed up on snatch on Saturday, and opened with what felt like a solid 125 (a meet PR). I don’t remember if I felt my shoulder during the lift, but I could feel it afterwords. Things went down hill from there. I felt pain on my second attempt at 130, and the shoulder seemed to not lock out and I missed it behind. In the warm-up room I could feel pain in my shoulder as I externally rotated with my elbow raised (imitating the snatch). I’m pretty sure that in an attempt to avoid that range of motion I looped the final attempt at 130, sort of racked it yet left the bar out in front, lurched forward to save it only to have my left knee hit the platform (which nulls the lift) and dropped it.

The clean and jerk continued to be disaster. I felt fine on my warm-ups until the last warm-up. It felt like my shoulder couldn’t shrug up to lock the weight over head, and I was lopsided, yet stood up with it. The weight I would fail on for three attempts was 155, 10 kilos below my PR, and something that I easily did earlier in the week. This was weird since I couldn’t actually feel my shoulder hurt like it did in the snatch — it felt like it didn’t work. I proceeded to miss the last two jerks, which was embarrassing.

As much as I don’t want the injury thing to be an excuse, it must have been an issue since it seemed that shoulder did not operate like it normally did. Perhaps it was my lack of experience in lifting with a shoulder issue — I don’t know. I went 1 for 6, didn’t total, thus didn’t win anything (I was the only open 105 kg lifter), didn’t qualify for nationals (287 kg total), and didn’t total 300 kg — which had been my goal for three months. It’s particularly frustrating to train very hard and fail miserably in every aspect.

Thank you to Dutch Lowy, who was handling some of his lifters at the meet. He helped load my bar for me during the warm-ups so I didn’t have to waste any energy.

The good that came out of the meet is that some of our lifters did well. Colton, a 14 year old 77 kg lifter (you may remember his deadlift video a few months back), went 6 for 6 and a 111 kg total after training the lifts for two injury riddled months. Alicia, who joined the gym when I first arrived here, went 5 for 6 with a 85 kg total after I convinced her to do the meet and start learning the lifts 5 weeks ago. Kyle, a 15 year old lifter snatched 75 (meet PR by 5 kilos), and a technicality prevented him from a meet PR 90 kilo clean and jerk (he dropped the bar before the “down” command), and finished with 75/85 for a 160 total (meet PR). My friend Brent, an 85 kg lifter, went 4 for 6 and had meet PR’s of 101/125, and thus a meet PR total at 226. Stef made weight (a chore), totaled, but didn’t have a great meet after barely surviving the bubonic plague that went around Wichita Falls recently.

I got a lot of experience handling lifters at a meet as well as watching Rip do the same. I have a lot of work to do in order to be better prepared for the next meet. First order of business is gaining 15 or 17 pounds…I only weighed in at 100.2 kg (at one point I was 228, down to 220 after being sick, then 224 on the gym scale before leaving for the meet). Despicable.

And for the few of you guys who showed up to watch the meet, I hope you enjoyed yourselves. Sorry if you had wanted to hang out a bit more. I wasn’t delighted by my performance, or lack thereof, and we had to get back to Wichita Falls in a reasonable amount of time.

Rip has said that we plan to have two weightlifting meets at our gym this year: one in the first quarter, and one in the third quarter. Start making plans to lift now. More on this later.

19 thoughts on “Texas State Meet Recap”

  2. Sorry to hear about your shoulder. Had a shoulder problem my self last summer that effectively ruined any progress on my presses for months.. Partly because I was stupid enough to not get a diagnose until I hardly could move my arm without excruciating pain. :-/

    Damn, I”m getting more and more tagged to get into oly.. What Alicia did was impressive!

    Cheers and good luck with the 17 pounds!

  4. Justin,

    I appreciate your ability be disappointed with yourself and be so open about it. I know everyone in this little group of ours owes you a lot, and we wish you a better outcome next time, even if you are ugly. Some things you just can””t fix.

    Well, I didn’t particularly want to talk about it anymore, but you all were asking.

    –Justin

  8. I was at the meet on Saturday, and here”s what I saw…

    Justin was obviously upset about missing 5 of his 6 attempts, but here is the awesome thing about Justin…he was easily one of the most, if not the most technically proficient lifter at the meet. And while I understand why he is disappointed in missing his lifts, it was still really cool to see him lift (he knows how to move some stink”n heavy weight!). And he may not have totaled, but his 1st attempt on the snatch (125k) was at least 15k heavier (if not more) than anyone else in his session.

    Also, I got to watch Justin coach his lifters from WFAC, and he is a really good coach. He talked them through warm-ups, gave them pointers, helped them work out kinks, and watched and encouraged each of them during their attempts on the platform. He also spent time watching and listening to Rip coach the lifters, which just shows his desire to learn more and become an even better coach.

    For those who have never been to a weightlifting meet…One reason I went to the meet was to see how a weightlifting meet works, and see if it is a type of competition that would interests me. I didn”t sign up to compete in this meet because I figured anyone competing in a competitive meet would be a huge beast of a man, with near perfect technique, and I would probably get asked to leave for imperfect technique and not being HUGE. These concerns were totally misplaced. First, not everyone lifting at these meets is a heavyweight. Second, many of the lifters had terrible technique. This is where I really must express my respect for Justin. Not only did Justin lift with great form, but he coached his athletes to have great form. It was not about how much weight can we get on the bar, and then you get it up any way possible that will count as a lift. And there were several “coaches” there that were trying to do exactly that with their athletes. I saw a lot of scary looking lifts on Saturday. So for those of you who are considering a weightlifting meet, but are nervous about it, I would highly recommend going to see one as a spectator. You”ll feel more confident about how they work when you show up as a competitor.

    I took in a lot on Saturday, and I appreciate Justin for letting me hang around and see him in his element. It was great fun being out there. Justin, I hope you get to 100% for your next meet. You were still inspiring to watch, both as an athlete and a coach.

    —–
    Good note, ES. That”s why everyone should compete. Once you”re past the major team sports, amateur athletics, even at the state (and sometimes national) level have a wide disparity in terms of quality of competition. Of course the top performers are going to be good, but you can show up and not embarrass yourself.

    Don”t wait until you”re good to get out there. Getting out there will make you good. We all start somewhere.

    -Gant

  9. My meet on Saturday (FDU Open in Madison, NJ) was similar to yours. I was feeling pretty good going into it though, but I knew of an injury that could have possibly hurt my chances of lifting well. I was trying to fix my shake blender two weeks prior when I accidentally hit the power button while my thumb was inside, which made hook gripping quote the chore.

    I taped my thumb up pretty good and started warming up on the snatches. I worked to 95×1 powersnatch in warmup and caught it extremely high to the point that I felt very very good about the meet as I went to the platform for the first snatch. Granted the tape on my thumb was now pretty dark red because it was bleeding, but with the way I had hit 95 I didn”t think I”d have any problems on the platform.

    I don”t know if it was nerves or the fact that my grip wasn”t completely sound on the first attempt that made me completely cut my pull and left me with an absolute horrible attempt. I ended up upping my next attempt to 97 just so I could at least conceivably match my gym PR if I hit this lift. I was determined to not let the thumb effect this lift so I clamped down, pulled the hell out of it and swung it right over my head and missed it way high and way behind. Took a third attempt at 97 and missed it due to once again cutting the pull.

    So bombed out for the snatch.

    Started warming up clean and jerks and found out at my first warmup set that I would not be able to hook grip. Worked up to 115kg for pc/split jerk and the jerk (where I normally miss) felt really good. So I went to the platform for my opener of 120 and missed the clean because once again I had cut my pull short as I was worried about my grip (was double overhanding). I took the same weight again and got the clean and nailed an easy jerk, which was probably the best I”d ever jerked 120 so at least that was good. Called 125 for my third, got a clean where the only hard part was holding onto it and had an interesting time with the jerk as I walked around about a quarter of the platform before I was able to stabilize it. Ended up bombing out but came within 2kg of equalling my gym PR for clean&jerk, and it was a much better jerk than my 127 in the gym even if I had to walk around with it.

    I hate to use the thumb as an excuse as I did this entire post, but its hard to lift when you aren”t confident in your grip as its something extra to think about and as a true novice olympic lifter I don”t need any extra things on my mind. But it left me hungry for more and hopefully a rebound to a 240-245 total possibly at the Arnolds.

  10. To Justin:

    Shit happens, you knew what went wrong and will be able to fix it next time.

    To Justin/Gant:
    I plan to compete in a USAPL meet in December and am currently 171 lbs. What weight class should i aim to compete in?

    Thanks.

    —–
    That answer obviously depends on where you are now with respect to age, weight, bodyfat, lifting experience, drugs, goals, and fitness and lifestyle considerations. Do you want to be a powerlifter, or do you want to train and enter the occasional PL meet?

    The easy answer is to encourage you to shoot for the 100kg class as that would qualify you as an adult male. However, there may be more important practical considerations. You are currently 77 kg. You””re 10 lbs. under the ceiling for your weight class (82.5kg), so, unless you””re obese and need to cut, aim for 82kg. The next class is 90 kg. Beyond that is 100kg, which is a very large jump from where you are now.

    If you””re a novice lifter, forget about weight for now, do linear progression, eat like hell, and see where you end up before making a decision. If you””re an intermediate lifter and looking to move up, decide if you want to lift at 82.5 or 90 and eat appropriately.

    -Gant

    I think you should do what Gant said. You want to get as strong as possible, so try and get into one of the higher classes. How tall are you?

    –Justin

  12. I was also at the meet on Saturday.

    I would like to thank you, Justin, for saying hello to me even though you were obviously disappointed. It was an honor to meet you and Rip.

    I stuck around for part of the next session, and some of those “super stars” in your weight class (maybe one lower) were snatching the same as you.

    Your technique is good, and you”re definitely strong so don”t let this one meet bum you out.

  14. today, i learned what happens when one doesnt eat enough over a 2 day break. got the first set of squats and epically failed the remaining sets with only 1 rep in each set. Im going to blast 170 on wed.

  15. Justin,

    I””m sorry to hear you had a lousy day. It””s good that you know what went wrong and how to fix it.

    Regarding the Texas Method, I have what may be a stupid question. I just read PP, and in the “Intermediate Trainee” chapter, there””s an example of an intermediate squat program (5×5 across on Monday, 2×5 @80% of 5RM or 3×3 FS on Wednesday, and a 5RM on Friday). Then there””s an example of a similar program for pressing exercises (6×3 PP Monday, 2×5 press Wednesday, 1×1 or 1×2 or 1×3 PP on Friday).

    From the way they””re described, it sounds like these are two totally separate programs, but presumably this is not the case. I guess the reason there aren””t explicit examples of complete programs is because the intermediate has more freedom to choose exercises and set/rep schemes based on goals, while still following the “Volume/Recovery/Intensity” structure? Again, sorry if I””m making myself look foolish.

    Texas Method is just volume in the beginning of the week and intensity at the end. The standard deal is 5×5 Monday and a heavy set of 5 on Friday. Variation will have to occur as you are a more experienced intermediate lifter.

    –Justin

  16. i had a pissy workout tonight, less calories and less sleep than usual seriously limit ones ability to move real weight. nailed 395 squat for sets on saturday and only managed 4 reps with 400 then 3 reps before moving onto bench to save myself from a complete mental breakdown…. will have to kill 400 on wednesday, i may have been too focused on getting to 4 plates, none of that again, focus on the task at hand, dammit.

  18. i want to get to 190-200 and make sure that my squat form/maxes are above 220, then i want to get to 220+ weight and get as strong as possible, and maybe cut for the fall rugby season so that i might be useful.

  19. Bummer about saturday but you don”t deserve to associate your setback with Kaedings complete inability to execute at his day job.

    Kaeding is Finkle, Finkle is Kaeding.

    Laces out!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.