On the podcast a week before Nationals, I said that you could do everything right and still have things not go your way. I didn’t know that would be foreshadowing how the meet would go. I went in with high expectations and fell short. I’ve had a lot of time to think about my performance, what went well, and what I’m going to change in the future.
I share these Substacks for two reasons. Number one is selfish. Thinking things through and writing them down is how I process information. It’s helpful for me to reflect on how things went, especially after a bit of time has passed so I’m not emotional about the situation. Number two I hope is helpful for you. If you hear how I messed things up, hopefully you won’t repeat those mistakes and can evaluate your own performance.
Preparation
Going into Nationals, I felt like I was truly prepared to have a great meet. I was hitting power snatches at numbers close to my opener and was pain free heading into the meet. Clean & jerks weren’t looking great in training, but I’ve always been able to lift about 5-10 kg heavier on the platform than I hit in the weeks leading up.
We spent the last month reading How Champions Think by Bob Rotella and visualizing hitting lifts on the platform. I got back to my baseball roots by adding in a pre-lift routine, making sure that I was setting up the exact same on each warmup lift so my routine would be automatic while on the platform.
The last time I hit a PR on the snatch and clean & jerk was July 31, 2021. 1,064 days and counting without a PR. I thought Nationals was going to be the day I finally broke through.
The Meet
I’m never going to be the guy that complains about the back room or having less than ideal circumstances. The most important part about being an athlete (in my opinion) is being able to handle adversity. Sometimes you’ll follow yourself, sometimes you’ll have a 10 minute break in between lifts. At the end of the day, it’s on you to know how to handle each of those situations.
Snatches went great. I could feel my heart racing the entire warming up. That’s something that always happens to me, so I’ve just come to expect it. I hit 100 and 102 on the platform and had a really close miss at 105, which would have tied my best snatch ever in training or competition.
Clean & jerks were a totally different story. I had a long break in between, which is another thing that I’ve gotten used to. As much as I felt the adrenaline on snatches, I felt nothing on clean & jerks. The intensity just wasn’t there and I couldn’t seem to get it back. I got the down signal while recovering my opening jerk. We had to bump up to buy time for my second. I’ve done that before no problem, but this gamble just didn’t pay off. I missed my second and third and in what felt like two minutes, my entire Nationals experience was over.
My First Bomb Out
In 20 meets, this was my first one. Every high level weightlifter has (or will) experience in this in their career. Even Olivia Reeves bombed once if you can believe that.
I think I went through every emotion possible in the ten minutes between walking off the platform and leaving the backroom. If you really care about something, it stings bad when you don’t reach your goals. In weightlifting especially, you have no one to blame but yourself. It was all my fault.
As selfish as weightlifting is, it’s humbling to realize that literally no one cares about your performance besides you (and your coaches/family). Five years from now, no one’s going to remember that I bombed out at Nationals. I walked out of the backroom with my girlfriend, who’s going to be my wife in a couple weeks, to see my parents. They all still support me and nothing changed in their eyes.
I still love this sport. I’m going to keep training. I’m going to compete again. I will break through those old numbers. Everything and nothing changed all at the same time.
Closing Thoughts
I’ve been talking, writing, and reading about the mental game for the last couple of months. Brian Cain (@briancainpeak) says that you can look at things as happening to you or for you. I guarantee that no one who bombed out at Nationals wanted it to happen. It’s up to me how I look at the situation.
If you got this far, thanks for reading and have a great week!