The Bill Starr Memorial Weightlifting Meet was at the WFAC this past weekend. No, Starr isn’t dead, and the meet is a memorial to his lack of visiting (says Stef, the meet director). The meet went pretty well for most of our lifters. Here is a quick recap.

15 year old Kyle started lifting at the WFAC around last September, and has improved pretty consistently in his total due to getting stronger. After the Texas State meet in January, he went back on the linear progression with an emphasis on improving the technique in his lifts. Sometimes this is frustrating because it may require the lifter to drop weight on his lifts, but the payoff is worth it in the long run. This was the case for Kyle, who weighed in at 106.2 He had PR’s in snatch, clean and jerk, and total at this meet. The last week of training leading up to the meet went really well, and Kyle was hitting his lifts smoothly — he was definitely in a groove. This carried over on Saturday as he cruised to a 76 kg snatch, then stepped up big with a 96 kg clean and jerk — both gym and meet PR’s (a gym PR is something you hit in training while a meet PR is done officially in competition). Nice lifting by Kyle, and congrats on the 172 kg total.

Sammerr is a 21 year-old 94kg lifter, and things looked good for him as he hit his opening snatch at 112 kg. I wasn’t able to watch him lift since I had to warm-up during this time (there was only one session in this meet), but he ran into some trouble and didn’t hit another snatch. He was frustrated during the break (the period between the snatch and clean and jerk sessions) since his gym PR is 120. Nevertheless he came out and hit 140 for his opening clean and jerk, matching his gym PR and setting a meet PR. He attempted 145 on his second attempt, but apparently missed it on the clean because he didn’t finish the pull. This led to a heated lecture from Rip (Rip and Josh were handling most of the lifters). Sammerr’s goal was to clean and jerk 150, so Rip decided to give him 147 on the third attempt to force him to step up in a big way. After hearing about the 150, Rip said, “fuck it” and told announcer Tom Witherspoon that Sammerr would attempt 150. I don’t exactly remember what Rip said to Sammerr next (I was mentally preparing for my opening attempt), but I remember him jabbing his finger in Sammerr’s chest, probably saying, “Now go finish the goddam pull and get this fucking weight.” Well, Sammer stepped on the platform, finished the pull and stood up with a hard front squat. Amongst all of the yelling from Rip, Josh, and I, he reset his breath, dipped, and nonchalantly drove the weight up — it didn’t seem like it was going to be enough and then all of a sudden it was overhead. Three thumbs up made it a good lift, and Sammerr finished with a respectable 262 total in his second meet.

Quincy is a 105+ lifter who is getting back into training after a layoff. Rip and I encouraged Quincy to go on primarily a strength training program — in this case, a linear progression — with some Olympic lifts sprinkled in a couple months ago. Josh had been cleaning up Quincy’s technique earlier in the week, and Quincy has the potential to do 140/170 right now. I watched him do 130/160 earlier in the week, and this is exactly what he did at the meet. Not bad for his first meet back, and I fully expect him to improve his total by at least 20 or 25 kilos before the next meet in nine weeks.

I came into this meet hampered by set backs, as is the case for all three meets I have done. After the Texas State meet in January, I went on the Texas Method and was progressing my squat and deadlift pretty well until a low back injury occurred from squatting the day after airplane travel. In the last ten days of preparation for this meet, I could not jerk over 120 — it seemed like the acromioclavicular ligament in my shoulder was unhappy with a few things, which gives me one more thing to consider in my programming. I wasn’t snatching very well, and was only cleaning without the jerk in the last week of preparation.

I dropped a day of training last week and figured I would go for broke at the meet with a strategy of opening conservatively with the best case scenario to qualify for nationals. The qualifying total at the end of last year was 287 for the 105 kg class, so this was my goal. I had been watching my friend Brent snatch (who did not have a great meet and seemed to have some kind of shoulder issue on his jerks), and sort of forgot about warming myself up. I had to speed through my warm ups, power snatching 60 a few times on a 20+ year old York weightlifting bar. I power snatched 80, then proceeded to miss 100 and 110 on the bar. I was baffled by the misses as I don’t usually miss warm-ups. I may have been unfamiliar with the bar, but whatever the case was, I wasn’t sticking it at the top. After a talking to from Josh (who coached me through the warm-up room and my attempts with Rip helping), I hit 115 as my last warm-up before heading out to the competition room.

I wrote 120 down as an opener, but had planned on moving it up to 123, and this is what I did (you cannot lower your attempts, but you can raise them). The platform that we were lifting on is one of the platforms that I train on all the time, so when I approached the bar, I knew I would have to pick something to look at since there was now a head judge in my face with 20 people or so behind him. I picked a spot on the judge’s left shoulder, set-up, and stroked 123 kilograms like a kitten. I called for 127 on the second attempt, which would match my gym PR that I had hit many, many times and it would be a 2 kilo meet PR. The approach was the same, and it was business as usual. I had apparently smoked this weight because Rip wanted me to go to 132 or 133, but I told him about the necessary 287 total I would need for nationals, and if I hit 130, then all I would need was a 157 clean and jerk, which I could do on my second attempt. He agreed and told me to seal it up with this next lift.

The best I have done in the snatch is going 2/3 last October, but that thought never came to mind. I approached the platform with the same set-up, found the judge’s left shoulder, got set, and stuck the weight just as routinely as the first two attempts. I was pretty happy with the snatch performance, especially with the trouble I had in training…not to mention I dropped 130 on my neck in December when my left shoulder “turned off”, which didn’t feel good.

The clean and jerk warm-ups went well, and Quincy, Travis (a guy who trains at the Spoon Barbell Club near Dallas), and I used the same bar. 150 was written down as my attempt, but I planned on taking 153. Josh coached through this portion and chalked my shoulders as Sammer was getting his “un-fuck yourself” speech from Rip before he hit his 150 clean and jerk. After Sammerr’s good lift, the bar was loaded for me, and I made an easy clean — so good in fact that I over pulled it and the bar landed higher on my clavicles than it ever has, which allows the bar to press on the carotid arteries. When I jerked the weight, I couldn’t really see, but got the weight over head easy enough. I walked over to Rip, and said, “I couldn’t see on the jerk.”
“It’s okay, you don’t need to see.”
Fair enough. My second attempt was at 157, and if I made a good lift, then the qualifying total would be wrapped up, which was all I could ask for earlier in the week with a sore back, hurting shoulders, and bad training. I don’t remember anything profound about the clean, routine as usual, and the jerk was stuck ovehead, albeit a bit goofy. It looked good enough for Rip to suggest that I go to 163 for my final attempt. This would be a big meet PR, and would be near my old gym PR of 165. I went out to the platform, adrenaline surging while thinking about one or two cues from Josh and Rip. I finished the piss out of the pull on the clean, so much that it landed high on my clavicles again. I had a pretty tough front squat, yet it wasn’t ever in doubt. The problem was the pressure on my carotids, because my vision was fading — apparently my head was beet red. I exhaled three quick bursts, breathed in deep, and started the dip for my jerk, yet everything felt weak, and by this time my vision was totally gone. I dumped the bar dumped forward, and toppled to my left like a dead tree. I haven’t seen the video (there will be video of the meet soon), nor could I see, but I remember the noise my lifeless body made as I plopped on the platform as my elbow slammed down. It felt like I more or less rolled like a tea cup, because I was back on my feet instantly, although I staggered two steps. I felt like I had my balance, but Rip nonchalantly commanded, “Take a knee”, so I did. I was slightly bummed that I missed my first chance at going 6 for 6 with a huge increase in the clean and jerk, but I quickly put it in perspective, especially since I couldn’t really have done a better job. If I was at least a half second faster in my transition from the clean to the jerk, I might have staved off the collapse. It just goes to show how much efficiency is important in these movements, and efficiency and mechanics are what we emphasize in coaching. But hey, I went 5 for 6 at 130/157 for a total that qualifies me for nationals, so it was a good birthday present.

I don’t have any pictures (I was coaching/lifting, give me a break), nor do I have any video yet (although it will be here eventually). In the mean time, watch Alexander Kurlovitch and his efficient mechanics in this 250 kg clean and jerk. He catches the clean precisely in the the position that he will jerk from.