NOVEMBER 4, 2023 MEET RECAP

The competition was a success for all 8 of my athletes that competed. Each lady made a total that surpassed their previous best competition total! Two girls experienced their 1st competition and made their 1st official weightlifitng totals. There was a lot of great energy in the building. Lots of people chipping in to volunteer to load or judge or help count attempts in the warmup area. It was possibly the most fun meet I have been a part of regarding a collective team spirit. The positivity clearly permeated into people’s lifts, because everyone did well; not just my lifters! I just want to write down the way the lifting went for each of the 8 girls here to help shed some insight on how these competitions impact different individuals. The day started with a female session, and it was for the ladies with the bigger entry totals. Devin Radosky, Amanda Craig, and Meghan Chan were my 3 lifters in this session.

Dev opened things up with a 70kg Snatch, but she was nervous and she missed. Competing is hard, and it can be very challenging for people that haven’t done any sort of performing sport or act in the past. Dev struggles with channeling her energy into aggression for competitions. We have discussed she needs to compete more to get better at it. Dev also went into this comp with some bad memories from her last competition a year ago where she missed all 3 Clean & Jerks at a weight she shouldn’t have missed. Thankfully Devin pulled it together to make her 2nd Snatch attempt and she got credit for a 70kg Snatch, which is 3kg less than her best comp Snatch. She missed her 3rd attempt at 72kg. In C&Js Dev found her aggression and her fight and she put together 2 competition PR C&Js and totaled 2kg heavier than her best comp total! I had Dev open lighter than last year to insure a make this time around. She made 78kg then went to 82kg, a comp PR, and then 85kg! 85kg is 2kg under the heaviest Dev has Clean & Jerked just a couple of months back, and it’s 5kg heavier than Dev has done in a competition!

Amanda went through a mental block for several months after doing so well in Snatch where even though she had done an easy PR of 74kg she was unable to bring herself to even try a Snatch at 70kg off the floor. Getting her through this took a lot of trying this or that and telling Amanda various things to really encourage her. Thankfully when she was 2 weeks out she finally got back to a 70kg Snatch which is where she really wanted to open up at. She opened with a very easy 70kg Snatch; it was pretty close to a Power Snatch in fact. Then Amanda made a competition PR with her 2nd attempt of 72kg! She unfortunately let her head get in the way for 74kg and didn’t actually try, but the confidence of Amanda for Snatch is coming back! Amanda went into C&Js just making a recent PR of 93kg just 2 weeks out. She really wanted to push the C&Js and her training showed she was ready so she opened at a 1kg comp PR with 91kg. It was very strong so she pushed up to a 1kg all time PR of 94kg and crushed that! She went for 97kg on her 3rd attempt but missed the Jerk. The 97kg Clean was a 1kg PR Clean though! All in all Amanda finished with a 6kg increase to her competition total with a Snatch that was 97% of her all time best and a C&J that was 101% of her all time best!

Meghan arguably had the best day of lifting out of everyone in this competition, or at least as far as I know. This girl came into the competition with competition lifts of Sn 71kg and C&J 93kg. She ended the competition with Sn 77kg and C&J 96kg, but she ended the day with Sn 80kg and C&J 100kg! Let me explain. Meghan opened at her competition best of 71kg in Snatch, then 74kg, and then 77kg which is 100%! This was a 6kg comp PR! She hadn’t done this weight since a year ago, and she’d only ever done this weight that one time. This was big! She came to me and said “I don’t want to wait a year to see if I can Snatch 80kg. Can I try it now?” Of course I am going to let her try it after her lifts had all just looked the strongest I’ve ever seen them look! We loaded a bar to 80kg for her and she made it solid! 3kg all time PR! C&Js were next and as Meghan was warming up she was looking, again, stronger than I have ever seen her look. We bumped her opener from 90kg to 92kg (99% of her comp best). 92kg was excellent. Taking the bar to 99% of her all time best C&J she went for 96kg on her 2nd attempt. She made the Jerk even better! Today was the day Meghan would C&J 100kg. She’d tried this weight a couple times and was unsuccessful in the Clean. She stood the Clean up and we waited for her to hit the Jerk. Arms locked, but her torso leaned too forward as she went to recover and she lost the weight forward. 3kg PR Clean though! She wasn’t done… Meghan came up to me a minute later and said she felt like she could do it, and wanted to try again. We got a bar ready in the warmup area and she got it! 100kg for a 3kg all time PR. An official total of 173kg (9kg increase to her comp total) and an unofficial total of 180kg! What a day!

The next session was a men’s session, and I won’t spend too much time on myself, but I will share that this meet was my best competition yet. I made lifts on my 3rd attempts that had been goals for almost 7 years now. I’m sure the girls lifting so well in the 1st session helped fuel my drive to succeed in my session. A 225kg total for the day and a 3kg all time PR Snatch of 100kg paired with a C&J PR match of 125kg which is a weight I’ve only ever hit once before back in March 2020. Big day for me for sure.

The Third session had 5 ladies of mine in it: Zannia Hill (M35), Kelly Sabolsky, Kelly Hughes (M50), Genevieve (Gigi) Moore, and Katie Davis. Zannia and Gigi both competed for their 1st time ever and are both only 1-2 years into weightlifting, so a very exciting day for them!

First up was Zannia. While most lifters would have some sort of taper week leading to a competition I had Zannia practice her exact warmup scheme and projected 1st, 2nd, and 3rd attempts each day since she is so new and her lifts aren’t taxing on her body yet. The practice throughout the week worked great. Zannia only missed her 3rd Snatch and that was because I overshot her 3rd attempt by a bit since she had looked so strong in her 2nd attempt. Some nerves got to her on her 3rd and likely the feel of the weight increase. However, Snatch 38kg and then 41kg were great attempts and 41kg is 99% of her best floor Snatch. She has done 45kg a few times from the Low Hang position, so I bumped her to 44kg for her 3rd attempt. Zannia just stopped moving under unfortunately. In C&Js Zannia has made 55kg in training but it was a very noticeable pressout so I had her open light, 45kg. She made 45-50kg all 3 days in training the week of the comp and locked them out nicely. So, she went to 48kg for 2nd and it was strong. For her 3rd I brought her to 51kg and she crushed it. Not a bad 1st competition!

Kelly Sabolsky was next opening at 48kg in Snatch. Kelly gets pretty nervous, so my goal for her in any competition is to get her to make her opener 1st. Her training leading up to this competition was the best yet making multiple PRs. Consequently this competition was the best she’s done with me as her coach thus far as well! Her 2nd Snatch was 50kg and it was even better than her opener! For her 3rd attempt she went for 100% at 52kg. It was close! I think it was a bit of nerves that caused the miss, but that’s ok, just getting that weight on the bar for her 3rd attempt is a win. C&Js went very similar. For whatever reason at 3 weeks out it became evident that a 59kg opener was a bit too steep so I lowered Kelly’s opener to 58kg so she felt more confident. She crushed her opener. Then 2nd attempt at 60kg (97%) it looked fantastic with a very strong Jerk. The bar was set to 62kg (100%) for Kelly’s 3rd attempt, but the Jerk was too much after the Clean. Again, getting these weights on the bar for Kelly to attempt is a big step in the right direction; the next competition I believe she will surpass these numbers!

Kelly Hughes was reluctant to compete in this meet, and shortly after I talked her into it she had a physical set back when she strained her hamstring in a Jerk. Thankfully we found that if Kelly switched her feet in her Jerk she was able to Jerk, but it was awkward splitting her legs differently than she has for several years. Let’s talk about her Snatches first though. Kelly opened at a strong 50kg, then going to 53kg she looked stronger than she has in training. Kelly’s best comp Snatch is 55kg and she has done 56kg once in training months back. She decided that 53kg felt strong enough to go for 56kg, and she made it! 100% made solid and in competition for a 1kg comp PR. So, now back to C&Js, I lowered Kelly’s opener to a safe weight for her to make a total, 60kg. She felt strong so she went to 63kg next, which matched her best comp C&J. I asked her if she wanted 65kg or 66kg and she said “Let’s go for it. 66kg.” She got it! 3kg competition PR C&J at 99% of her all time best C&J and a 3kg increase to her comp C&J. All of this on her switch stance split! Altogether a 4kg increase to Kelly’s best competition total.

Gigi had a fantastic 1st competition. Making her openers was my main priority for Gigi, and she was not just successful in doing this, but her openers were up there as some of the best looking lifts I have seen her do. She got up to 97% of her best Snatch on her 2nd attempt and in C&J she got up to 99% of her best on her 2nd attempt making 57kg and 67kg respectfully. In both lifts her 3rd attempts were loaded to PR attempts, but she fell short a bit for both. Overall I’d say this is an awesome first competition experience because many people take several competitions to arrive to the point where they are attempting even just 100% of their best lifts in a competition. Gigi has made tremendous progress in the short time that she has been with Never Give Up Weightlifting, and I expect bigger numbers from her this next year coming up.

Last lifter of mine in this final session was Katie, and Katie literally signed up the last day of registration. She had been sick and just in a bit of a funk lately. I told her that it would be nice for her to lift with her friends and just get more experience competing so she ended up deciding to just sign up and see what happens. I lowered her Snatch opener to be less aggressive since I knew Katie’s headspace was a little off. She wanted to feel comfortable, and I obviously wanted her to make lifts and have fun. She opened at one of the strongest looking 60kg Snatches I’ve seen her do. She made a small mistake off the floor with her 2nd attempt at 63kg, so she took the same weight for her 3rd and made it solid. 63kg is just 1kg under her best comp Snatch and it’s 94% of her best Snatch, so not too bad! In C&Js Katie has this belief that she isn’t good at Jerks, and what a lifter believes of themselves bleeds into their training. So, we work with this, and try to produce as much success as possible. I had Katie open on the lighter side in C&Js, 72kg. It’s been a while since Katie competed so this was still a 2kg comp PR. Next up was 75kg and that was very strong! Katie’s best C&J from several months back is 81kg, and we took the bar up to 80kg for the 3rd attempt. She got it! A 10kg PR competition C&J at 99% of her all time best! Great day that almost never happened!

If you’re thinking about competing, do it. And do it a few times. Find yourself a team to be a part of and train with them and compete with them. It’s a lot of fun and you get to be a part of something with people all working towards the same thing and going through similar things. I’m blessed to have a great group of people who all support each other and want to work hard individually. Hope to see you at the next Competition hosted by Philadelphia Barbell Club and Never Give Up Weightlifting at CrossFit West Chester.