I arrived in Denver a couple hours before Brent, Chris, and Mike. I sat by myself outside of their terminal in peace, but when they walked off the plane that was the last peace I had until Monday when they left. Brent commenced trolling me immediately asking me what I thought of his traps, Mike was at his stock 300 mph talking rate, and Chris had a constant response to their antics. Pretty standard, really.
I always thought Brent was kind of a shy person, but instead when he’s in public with us, he increases the volume of his voice to at least 100 decibels. This means that the old couple across the bus aisle from Brent and I weren’t amused when his response to me asking if he thought the girl next to him was attractive was, “You know I’m a virgin, right?” That isn’t to say that Mike and Chris monitor their volume in public, because they don’t. Chris usually gets agitated at something Brent is doing, and then will swear loudly while Mike is continuing whatever conversation is going on in his head. All standard-ops throughout the weekend.
AC didn’t get in Denver until very late because of complications in the Atlanta airport (he has the worst luck with travel when he’s doing powerlifting meets), so we didn’t see him until the following morning. Brent was the only lifter who was competing on Saturday, and he had to weigh in at 7:00 AM. I filmed a little bit of the morning Brent and I shared as he weighed in. First he had to get his rack heights in the warm-up room which was down the hall from the weigh-in room. There was a ridiculous confusion on Brent’s part as to what hole the rack needed to be in for bench. Later, we found out that he was supposed to get it on the competition rack – a fact that would have been necessary to know to begin with. I was irritated with a few things that USAPL did, and the whole “not giving extremely dire and relevant information” thing pissed me off. To add to the silliness, Brent forgot not only his driver’s license, but his USAPL membership card in the room. The other 82.5kg lifters were amused when I referred to him aloud as a “wily Asian”.
After Brent was finally done weighing in, the four of us (Brent, Chris, Mike, and me) had breakfast at a charming little joint called “Egg and I”. It was delightfully overpriced but was satisfying nonetheless. When we finally got back to the hotel, it was about 15 minutes till 9:00 AM when Brent’s session was supposed to begin. There was a small computer monitor that was supposed to show the order of the lifters, yet it didn’t have any information on it. The table with the attempts card was fifteen feet away and I was denied access to look at the order of the cards. Just to clarify the irritation of this situation, it’s completely necessary to know how far ahead the lifter is opening so that you can warm them up properly. The guy at the computer monitor table just kept telling me to listen to the announcer. I kept saying, “I don’t know when to have my guy ready if all I hear is the next three lifters,” but I was ignored. I was fucking PISSED OFF at this point. They were still entering data into the computer when the session was already going. It doesn’t make sense to me to start the session promptly at the scheduled start time if they don’t have their shit together, regardless of the reason (I later heard a rumor that the “computers crashed”, but still, there’s no excuse).
Eventually I found out that there were two flights, and Brent was in the second flight. He had plenty of time, but the fact that this schedule wasn’t posted anywhere and nobody could tell me what in the hell was going on left a sour taste in my mouth.
PR second attempt, 207.5kg
Anyway, Brent hit a solid opener at 200kg (440lbs), and then had a no-big-deal second attempt at 210kg (463lbs) for a 2.5kg PR. It looked pretty solid, and Brent really wanted 215kg (474lbs), so we went for it. He said he took his breath a bit early which threw his timing off and he missed the rep about a third of the way up. Upon video review, he drops his chest a bit, and the bar actually tilts to the right and I think his body rightly turned off to prevent a catastrophe. I think if he were to do it today he’d probably get it, assuming the bar stayed over the middle of his foot.
After a bit of a break (a five minute break, then the first flight went), Brent opened on bench at 115kg (254lbs) which is around what he finished with at the last meet. It was stupid easy, so we went on with our plan of going to 120kg (264lbs), which was completed without trouble, and then to our goal of 125kg (275lbs). Brent actually had to work for this rep, but it was never in doubt. The 275 was a PR of about 20lbs. At this point, Brent is 5/6 with a PR in both lifts. He would have been ecstatic if he had hit that third squat, but if you were to ask him how he felt, he’d say, “I could take it or leave it.”
We opened on deadlift with the same weight that Brent opened with on squat at 200kg (440lbs). This attempt was Brent’s standard “no big deal” for Brent, so we went with the plan of a 7.5kg increase to 207.5kg (457lbs). Normally I’d be worried about three attempts for a lifter, but when I asked Brent if he was good for three attempts about a month ago, he said, “Justin, I’m Brent Fucking Kim.” He was confident he’d be good for a third. 207.5kg was only slightly troubling to Brent, but he finished the pull without trouble. Brent wanted 212.5kg (467lbs) on his third attempt.
PR second attempt, 207.5kg
Now here’s the difference between this meet and the last meet. At the Texas State meet I was conservative with attempts, especially since it was everyone’s first meet. However, at this national meet I had a mindset of “fuck it, let’s go for the PR’s”. I wanted to put the pressure on the lifters so that they had a do or die moment. In retrospect, it may better prepare them for future meets, but I wish I had been a bit more conservative in a few instances, and this was the first.
Keep in mind that Brent’s second attempt deadlift was a PR of 2.5kg, but he really wanted the 212.5. Even if I called for something 2.5kg lower, I don’t think he would have gotten it because of the accumulated fatigue, and he missed 212.5 below the knees. Whenever Brent does another powerlifting meet (which may not be until next year’s Texas State), I’d have him go for the bigger lift on his second attempt, or take his last warm-up on the platform as his first attempt.
Brent finished 7/9 with a PR on every lift (210/125/207.5) as well as his total (542.5kg/1194lbs). Not too shabby for an Olympic weightlifter. And he weighed in around 79kg. If he had hit that third attempt squat, he would have come out above 1200lbs on the total, so I think that last squat would have put him in “take it or leave it” status to “impressed”.
