RPS Everett - Meet Writeup 10/12/14

Day After Update:
Woke up this morning with a strained left front delt/trap. I'm wondering at this point if when I fell forward on my 2nd squat I strained my left pec tie-in/delt/trap, and that messed with my bench. As I wrote up below, all my raw bench warmups didn't feel right, and all 3 benches missed on the left side lockout. Its not a bad injury, just a strain I can feel... but definitely enough to screw up my bench I'm thinking.

Well this meet didn't go completely as planned. (Kind of an understatement)

First off let me make a few things clear - first, I'm not going to try and pass off the fact that bombing out on bench doesn't suck. It sucks.

Second, I'm not one of those guys that question any judging. I mean yeah - calls can go one way or the other, and if one call one day doesn't go my way, I probably got a call in my favor last meet or the meet before. It is what it is.

The 10 week pre-meet prep cycle went awesome. I didn't miss any lifts, and I really couldn't have asked for a better prep cycle.

A couple of things didn't go in my favor/worked against me going into this meet, that had more of an impact than I thought..

• I usually train with one regular partner, who I've trained with for the past 5 years. He knows how to setup my suit and shirt and help cue me where I need. This weekend was his son's birthday, and I couldn't ask him to miss his kid's birthday to come to my meet. (Well, I actually did ask him, but his wife wouldn't let him..) Another good friend of mine stepped up and did a great job wrapping my knees, and helping get my shirt set, but when you don't train with someone every day, you don't have the rhythm of each other, you're not familiar how I like my bench hand-off, and he can't recognize when something is wrong
• This meet was an hour and a half away, and rules clinic started at 7am. So I had to be up by 5am, and in my car by 5:30am. I probably should have got a hotel room closer so I could have rested a bit more.

Anyhow, I shouldn't have let this stuff effect me, but it did. I'll be better prepared next time.

Squats:
Warm-ups felt great. Fast. Stable in the monolift. This is a big thing - we don't train on a monolift, so squatting in a monolift can go either way on meet day. I feel I am finally getting really comfortable on the monolift, which definitely makes equipped squatting much easier.

Opener- 560lbs, felt good. Hit depth, A little loose in the hole, but came up strong. I realized the rack height was too high. We dropped it down one notch for the next attempts.

2nd attempt- 600lbs, Came out of the rack strong, felt good on the way down, but on the way up, I let the weight get out in front of me. No lift.

3rd attempt- 600lbs, I had my mind made up I was getting this lift. Strong out of the rack. Stayed tight, dropped to depth (or so I thought, again I'm not questioning any calls it is what it is. I shouldve went deeper), came up strong, stayed back and tight. No lift, depth call.
Video:
 
600 in the hole..

Not getting the 600lbs passed really messed with my head honestly. I probably shouldn't have been so weak minded, and I should have let the rage out on the bench. I also think going up and down with the 600lbs twice had more of an impact on my CNS than I thought. (This was the first time under 600lbs in a meet)

Bench:
Warmed up raw to 315, didn't really feel fast... but many times my warm-ups feel slow on the bench, and then I crush it on the platform. Not today.

On all 3 attempts I didn't feel like I had my back/lats right, and I didnt feel like I stayed under the bar enough.

Opener- 450lbs.. Rack height was too low. I should've noticed this. Came out, touched too high, no gas to lock it out.

2nd attempt-450lbs.. Corrected the rack. Touched lower. No speed at transition/lockout. Reversed direction about 3 times while locking out.

3rd attempt-450lbs.. can we call one of the 3 misses my best miss? Probably this one. Uneven lockout.

I'm not someone who makes egotistical openers. Or at least I try to think so. I've crushed this 450lbs with commands 1000 times over, and 4 times in meets over the last 2 years. I benched 485lbs in March.

It wasn't there today.

So today is a turning point. Time for a decision. Do I come back in March, and make a point to crush 600lbs in the squat, and 500lbs in the bench better prepared single ply? (My single-ply stuff is 3 years old at this point).. or do I make the transition to multi-ply with the Metal Jack gear I have sitting on the shelf in my closet?

Regardless, I am walking away from this meet with some progress. I'm a lot more comfortable in the monolift, and I know that 600lbs on the squat is definitely within reach.