I wanted to take some time to think about the whole Nationals/Arnold Classic experience before I went and wrote a blog about it. I snatched really well – went 142, 147, 150x. I felt good for 152+ but just didn’t put it together. The Clean & Jerks turned out to be a disaster. I cleaned 180 very easy, then made an amateur mistake and let the bar smash my finger before jerking, so I dropped it. Then, I made my second attempt with 184kg (3 white lights) only to have it overruled by the jury to a no lift. Ok, fine. I had a 3rd attempt to make 184 to put me on the podium and just couldn’t pull through. I chalk the whole thing up really to just a lack of meet experience and not being mentally tough enough when it mattered. It is what it is. All I can do is go back to the drawing board, train smarter and harder, and be ready to go for the next battle.
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On a positive note here are my last 4 National results:
Nationals (June 2010) – 130 snatch, 160xxx cj (bombed out)
Arnold Classic (March 2011) – 141 snatch, 168 cj
Nationals (July 2011) – 131 snatch, 166 cj
Nationals/Arnold Classic (March 2012) – 147 snatch, 184xxx (bombed out)
It took me a while to have a little break through but I felt that I even though I bombed out at the Arnolds I did have s mini breakthrough. Going straight from the mid 160’s to the mid 180’s in 9 months or so. And, I put 2kgs on my all time strapless snatch PR. I can’t complain too much about that.
The #1 thing I learned is simply that I need more MEET experience. A lot of my mistakes were simply because of a lack of meet experience. I am looking forward to the next meet and will quietly keep training trying to do it the right way.
I wanted to say thank you to everyone for their support once again. I’ll keep pushing until I figure it out and have a true breakthrough. Quitters never win, so I’ll keep pushing until I smash the wall down. It could be tomorrow, a year from now, or who knows. All I can control is today and I know I am one step closer after the workout I had today! Sky’s the limit.
