competition Archives - Strong Snatch Masters Olympic Weightlifting

Fear is the Mind Killer – More Lessons From Weightlifting Camp as I Prep for the World Masters Cup

When I first saw the start list for the 53k/45w class at the Masters World Cup in Dallas I thought I had forgotten how to breathe. There were seven – SEVEN!- women entered and while most of us were tightly clustered in terms of previous totals, the entrants included the multiple time world champion in the class, Joanne McManus from Great Britain and the current American snatch record holder in the class, Sandra Arechaederra.

Now let’s stop a moment and contemplate how ludicrous my reaction was. Yes, I’m more used to be one of only a few at any given competition and yes, I’m used to being pretty good. But why the panic?

Keep in mind that if you were lying on a stretcher in front of me with multiple gunshot wounds to your trunk, I would calmly and efficiently assess whether or not you needed a life saving operation while simultaneously wondering if the cafeteria would close before I was done in the OR. How do I know this? Because I’ve actually asked the clerk to call the cafeteria to set aside some banana pudding with ‘Nilla wafers while I was waiting to go to the OR for a gunshot wound to the belly.

I know how to keep calm under pressure. I also really like banana pudding with ‘Nilla wafers.

And I’m not afraid to be in public in revealing clothing so it’s not the singlet that bothers me. My closest friends call me Dr. Buttfloss in honor of the string bikinis I prefer at the beach.

So why the panic?

Because this was going to be my first competition with a lot of competitors. What if I were finally revealed as a fraud? This is what’s known as imposter’s syndrome. Where you live in constant fear that others will realize that you’re a fraud and don’t belong in whatever situation you’re in. That you’re never as smart/capable/pretty/strong whatever as others have thought you were.

There’s also a profound sense of the unfamiliar. Blood, guts and alas, poop, are my daily life. They don’t particularly scare me (unless I can hear the bleeding; that’s really bad). But put me on a platform to lift weights in front of strangers and my mouth goes dry, my hands shake and my heart races.

None of these things are conducive to making successful lifts. The adrenaline helps make all my cleans high powers in competition, but the shakes have caused me to miss snatches and jerks.

So I need to spend more time doing what my coach Nick Horton described at camp this week as noticing the emotion, but not letting it affect you. Recognize it, acknowledge it, but don’t let it have power over you. He recommends meditation as the mental tool for sharpening that skill which is something I’d like to pursue. In the short term, I think just practicing the mantra of “this is weightlifting, not facing execution by guillotine” will help me defuse the mental tension.

Because let’s face it. I love the sport, but it’s just weightlifting. If I go 0/6 the worst thing that will happen is that my dad won’t have cool pictures to edit in photoshop. No one will die, my kids will not love me any less and in fact might love me more because they’ll feel sorry for me.

So as I finish the last 10 days of prep toward the World Cup, I am trying to learn to be a little bit more of an adult about my lifting and the competition. I want to go in confident, but not cocky. Excited, but not terrified. And I’m avoiding donuts because I’m still a kg over weight. I am learning to love baked kale chips.

May the best woman win.

Warming Up For Competition

I was asked today about tips for national level competitions. I’m not super experienced having only been to two, but I had these two insights that I thought I’d share.
One, colonize a warm-up platform early to put yourself where you’ll be most comfortable. I read a great article recently that talked about being in the “power position” in the warm-up area, like the CEO at the head of the board table.
But I realized about myself that I like being closer to the front where the desk is. I don’t go to meets with a coach who can track attempts for me. And without my glasses I have a hard time seeing across the room. So I feel more secure being closer to where the action is and I can see the clock and glance at the table easily. Many people hate it there because it’s a high traffic zone.
You need to figure out where you’ll be happy and make sure you secure that platform. Like a quiet corner where you can survey the room? Or do you like to be the center of attention? Don’t listen to pundits, listen to what will make you feel the most at home. You’ll already have nervous jitters aplenty. I liken this to listening to music in the gym. Lots of people like to shut out surrounding sensory input by listening to music in headphones. I really don’t like doing that. I like feeling more connected to my surroundings. Maybe I”m just a paranoid soul or maybe I’m overly social. But I like being able to both see and hear what’s around me at all times, so music in headphones in the gym is almost a stressor for me.

Two, be prepared for much stricter judging than you might have experienced at a local meet or in your Crossfit box while training. No wobbling, no pressing out, no hitching. Power cleans and Power snatches are fine if you can do them, but they still have to manifest excellent form. Film yourself leading up to the competition and be harsh with what you see on film. A corollary to this is that you choose an opener that you can hit in your sleep. Get something on the board that doesn’t worry you too much before reaching for the PRs on the next two attempts.

American Masters Open 2014

What did you wear for Halloween?

This year, I dressed in a singlet and for Halloween I went to Savannah, Georgia, home of ghosts and all things Southern, to compete in the American Masters Open.

It was my first time at Howard Cohen’s gym and it was a marvelous experience. There is so much history that has passed though those walls. Pictures of legendary strongmen from the past grace the hall where we waited to weigh in. CJ Cummings American records are inked on the whiteboard over the office.

But All Hallow’s Eve was reserved for the masters, women and the oldest men.

I felt good going into this competition. First, it wasn’t my first rodeo anymore. I’d done a local, state and national level meet already so I understood the flow and the level of judging to expect.

Second, I liked my programming a lot more. I put on a bigger emphasis on strength in many different planes and ranges of motion instead of being contest-lift specific all the time. Yes, I have a lot still to learn and perfect with technique. But I felt stronger overall which makes me feel better under the bar. In the month prior to competition I PRed my front squat and hit my openers repeatedly and easily. That’s a great confidence booster.

In the end I didn’t make the lifts I wanted to, but I improved on my Nationals total and that makes me very happy. I did discover about myself that I have terrible public performance anxiety. On the one hand, the anxiety of performing makes me strong as an ox. My nervous system is so turned on that the bar flies like an eagle. On the other hand, it makes technique much shakier and so I miss lifts I could make under better circumstances. I’ve rarely had to go below a power clean in competition because the bar flies so high.

My advice to myself? More competitions! I’m going to be looking for more local meets to get more immunized against platform jitters. I’m going to try and lift in front of more people at a local Crossfit box instead of lifting so often by myself. I need to get used to failing and succeeding publicly. I remember having very similar performance anxiety when I first started operating, which has long since passed after thousands of repetitions of performing in front of the nursing staff in the OR. Now I just have to re-learn that confidence of staying on task in front of an audience in a different venue.

For the first time ever, I didn’t follow myself for all three lifts because I wasn’t the smallest nor the weakest lifter. That brought a new element to this competition and I really appreciated having the rest between attempts. It was also an ego boost to actually be out lifting some taller, heavier women. Maybe I need a Mighty Mouse Singlet. I definitely need warm up pants, a hoodie or maybe a blanket to stay warm while waiting though.

I did come home with a shiny new gold medal. And a renewed appreciation for the wonderfully generous and supportive people in this sport, from the fans in the audience who cheer for strangers, to the experienced competitors in the warm-up area who share their knowledge and advice and pats on the back.

So onwards. I already went back to lifting today 48 hours later, no down time. Hit 80% cleans 6×3 and some heavy deadlifts and moderate presses in the split. I am so thrilled that project “fix my jerk” is yielding results, so more jerk work in the split, behind and in front, with cleans and alone. More unilateral leg and arm work to wake up the sleepy right glute and make the shoulder “Russian Strong” in all vectors.

And Halloween candy for recovery. It’s a holiday after all.

Masters Nationals

For those who don’t compete, olympic weightlifting is divided into four groups: youth (the under 17 crowd), juniors (the under 20’s), senior (20-35) and masters (35 and above). These are not inviolable divisions. I watched a 14yo girl snatch a US record at the American Open this year (ostensibly a senior event) in the same session as last year’s 53kg masters champion who is 47 years old.

The competition I went to this past Friday was Masters Nationals, so a national level competition for lifters over the age of 35. It is further subdivided in 5 year age increments, so 35-39, 40-44, etc as well as the traditional international weight classes.

It was an amazing experience for a variety of reasons. First, to see 80+ year old lifters still competing with good form (albeit with more power receipts than full squats) was encouraging. Having found this sport late in life, it’s nice to know that there is still a place to compete and encouragement for people who worry more about hormone replacement than hormone surges.

Second, it was held at LSUS (Louisiana State University Shreveport) the home of Kendrick Farris, two time olympian and a nationally competitive weightlifting team.

But most importantly, it was the culmination of a year of training, studying, worrying, and discussing these two lifts for me personally. It was a chance to qualify to compete at the masters world championships in the fall. It was an opportunity to prove to my family that their support wasn’t in vain.

First, the good news. I am now the 53kg/45w national champion. I lifted a total that will allow me to go to Worlds and compete against some of the best lifters in my age and weight class from around the world.

But now, the analysis. As meets go, it was actually fairly awful for me. I went 1/3 on the snatch and 2/3 on the C&J and both were far lower than I had planned. My total was lower than either my first local meet and the Texas State Championships.

So what did I learn? I learned the timing of warming up. I’m a lifter who does best very warm. So I started a little earlier than everyone else with my foam rolling and standard warm-up maneuvers. But then the session in front of me went over and I ended up lifting about 30 minutes later than I had planned. Rookie mistake to be sure, but I probably should have been paying more attention to that. So I hit my opener easily in the back, then got cold, missed it on first attempt, went up a kg, got it, but was frazzled and missed the third attempt forward from overhead in the hole.

I noticed when I went to the back after finishing the snatches that I was sitting in what I consider a meek and sad position. Arms folded around my middle, kind of hunched over. So I decided to shake my disappointment at the crappy snatches by adopting a power pose – knees out, chest up and back, arms out to the side taking up space. It really did help me get back in the game and get focused on the second half of the competition. I convinced by brain (though adopting a physical pose) that I wasn’t pitiful and was still in the game.

Cleans and especially jerks are harder for me technically than snatches. I don’t work them as much because a) I like snatches more (and yes, I realize this is not a mature way to train) and b) since snatches were initially more challenging, I spent more time focused on them. So my C&J aren’t the big powerhouse savers for me that they can be for other people and that is most surely going to be a big focus going forward. How? Squats, leg power, plyo accessory movements and simply more reps from the floor.

My competition cleans have been overwhelmingly power cleans which means I’ve got a lot more kgs in me if I can just trust myself to get under the bar. What I noticed with both cleans and snatches this competition is that I can get even heavy weights up to my eyebrows, so strength ain’t the issue. Technique and speed most certainly are. Part of technique is keeping the bar closer so that I can just scoop under it after the second pull is finished. So there’s my homework for the next 5 months.

Jerks just need work. I just started playing with squat and power jerks, and who knows, maybe I’ll end up there because I’m much faster down in a squat than a split. But I am going to keep working on my split jerk for now, with more aggressive feet and moving back leg first and landing with front leg at 90 degrees, not with knee over toes.

With snatches I need to strengthen the overhead position. What good is it to get it overhead than lose it because you can’t lock it out? Sots presses, heaving snatch balances (learned courtesy of the Catalyst website) and static overhead holds around 200% of max snatch is my plan there, along with more behind the neck push-press work at “stop being such a giant candyass” weights (as opposed to what I often lift).

All this may sound very negative, but overall I’m pleased. I learned a lot about competing, about training about my weaknesses and even discovered a few strengths.

And if I choose to go to Copenhagen for Worlds in September, I’ll get to wear a USA masters singlet. That will be an extraordinarily proud day indeed.

If you want to see a slomo version of the snatches here it is: