Competition Day January 2012

Let me start this off by saying I know I haven't posted anything in quite a while. I was on a roll and then I developed a case of writers block. That is what I am going to call it anyway. I actually have no good reason for not keeping up with my blog. I sat down many times to try and write but it never seemed to come out good enough or end up like I wanted it to....this has to do with the perfectionist part of me. So in the end you could say I gave up and ended up not writing anything at all. Now this was definitely not the correct direction to go because the more we continue to do something the better we get at it. If we give up that sends our direction nowhere....at a standstill. Probably not a good place to be.

Now moving on to my last competition which was on January 7th, 2012. It would of been much better to write this post right after the competition but I wanted to wait until I got a hold of all of my videos since they existed. Now have I learned how to control my nerves in competition yet? Not exactly but I am making improvement which is what matters the most. I tend to be a very anxious person at times and almost uncontrollable. I wish I could say that wasn't me but we have to work with who we are and kinda tweak ourselves to be better. I was very nervous at this competition. I did try hard to get myself under control but was not quite as together as my previous competition. That being said I still made tremendous improvement.

We can start off with my snatch which I am very very happy with. You could see a huge improvement in my technique during this lift. My previous competition in October I ended my snatch with 57kg (125.4lbs). This competition I ended my snatch with 62kg (136.4lbs). That is a 5kg (11lb) jump just in my snatch which is where most of my improvement was made. Still need improvement in some areas but these videos I can watch all day.

Now moving on to where I lost it a bit. You can't underestimate the very challenging part of sitting and waiting for your turn to lift. My body starts to ache. I start to feel tired. My mind starts to deteriorate. While I waited I tried repeating to myself that I could do it. Maybe I got too comfortable and my mind and body forgot I still had 3 more lifts left. Whatever the case may be those last 3 lifts were some of the hardest lifts I have done. I went out there and missed my 1st jerk. Then I was really upset kinda doubting myself. Had to get some encouragement from my great friends and teammates and get myself ready to go back out there. I had to get really fired up. When you watch the videos you will notice I had a horribly loud scream. This is what I tend to do when I am not in control. Making loud noises are great but it should be in a controlled manner. If you don't control your body it will control you. Always more things to work on. My clean and jerk seems to look as bad in the videos as they felt but I am going to continue to learn and grow from my mistakes. We fail so we can learn how to succeed. Now this probably can't even be considered a failure but if you knew how well my clean and jerks have been in practice this was not even close to my capabilities. But guess what.... practice makes perfect and I am determined to get on the big stage and when I get there I want my best to come out.

So in the end I increased my total from 136kg (299.2lbs) to 144kg (316.8lbs) which turns out to be an 8kg (17.6lbs) improvement since October. It actually makes my overall improvement 23kg (50.6lbs) since my very first olympic lifting meet on October 2010. That is a little over a year and my improvement is not just in the weight I am lifting it is in my mind as well. I am stronger, healthier, have better technique and more determined then ever to achieve my goals.