awww just finished a looong day of an Olympic Weightlifting competition. I’m tired not from the competitions but from the ridiculous traffic back, bad timing as the beach goers were coming back into the city…
It was a great day seeing old faces and catching up with the some other Coaches. We also had a lot of support from Eric, Adrienne, Alex’s whole entourage of 50, Becka, “No Neck” Mike, and Reid. Fusion Weightlifting had a big crew that rolled in to say the least.
It was our first competition as a team and the guys did amazing today, they stayed cool, calm, and collected despite all the chaos of finding a platform and attempt changes. There was an issue on my part where I missed the attempt jumps and suddenly it was James turn to go. He had to hit 80 but only warmed up to 65… Now he had two choices from here, to freak out or to just go out and crush it…James DEMOLISHED it! He was in hulk mode at that point!
He handled it well to say the least and finished with a nice PR of 84ks!
Alex opened up his snatch with 77, crushed it, 84 blew it away! So we decided to go all out and go for 90k…this was his 2nd or 3rd attempt ever at trying this weight, so I was little nervous but it’s the 3rd attempt, weight was flying so why not? Frodo foot…
I mean Alex goes to take the lift, pulls it amazingly, racks it over head and barely misses it…so close! With a few more attempts at 90k he’ll get it soon.
I also have to give massive credit to Assistant Coach/ “Taxi man” Nick who stepped up as a runner and allowed me to focus less on the order of attempts and more on the guys priming themselves for the Clean and Jerk.
The Clean and Jerk session was a litte rough around the edges but it showed the guys fire to make the attempt. James was killing the cleans but had a rough time with the jerk. James had laser focus and fought for the tough jerks and again hit a PR clean and JERK at 105k! The jerks weren’t pretty and you can see that he was struggling to get air but the guy kept his cool and fought to the death for it.*forgot to mention he ripped his callous in the snatch…not good…he was bleeding a good amount but he toughed it out. He’s a strong willed dude and you saw it on the jerks.
Alex had the opposite issue, he was having a little trouble with the clean but was nailing the jerk. First attempt at 97 was a joke, 102 was a little grinder, so we took 104- he crushed the clean and lost a little positioning on the jerk and missed. Alex “Frodo Feet” has hit 107 like nothing before and I know with a little time that 110 is right around the corner.
Overall the guys were amazing today, not only on the lifts but their composure. This sport isn’t just about technique, strength, and power but mental toughness and focus, especially during the competition, and these guys rocked it! They came out fighting to make a successful attempt and thats all I can ask for. We’re going to work on some technique issues, build up some size and strength and the next competition they’ll be monsters!
🙂
Also forgot to mention that the guys had the ULTIMATE complement when Artie Drecshler mentioned how well the guys looked out there lifting. In the world of Weightlifting, Artie is KING, he’s a great Coach and for him to say something like that is amazing! I’m proud of the guys and can’t wait for Fusion Weightlifting to keep growing stronger!