Week 12, Day 2

Snatch: 3 singles @ opener
Clean and jerk: 1 single @ opener*

*This shouldn't be overly taxing. Work up to a weight you know you will make.

John with a great receiving position on a 105 clean and jerk at our last meet.

We are only a few days away from our fun Industrious meet, and I'd like to take a moment to talk about openers and goals. I'm hoping we get a bunch of people their first meet experience this weekend, and I think this is an important topic to address going in. A weightlifting meet is quite a bit different from what you may have experienced through CrossFit. You get only three attempts at a snatch and only three attempts at a clean and jerk...that's it. No do-overs. This makes it all the more important to select attempt weights that are within your abilities. This is especially true for your first attempts or "openers", because once you take an attempt, you cannot go down in weight. So that first attempt needs to be a weight that you KNOW you will make. Not a weight that you THINK you can make, a weight that you KNOW you will make with absolutely certainty. This is a weight that you make nearly every heavy day in training, no big deal. You can go up from there, but it's important to get that first one in. Missing your opener isn't the end of the world, but making it provides a big boost of confidence for the rest of the meet, and will enable you to make much bigger lifts.

As far as goals for your first meet (or meets, we're all pretty new at this), I think the biggest goal is to have fun. None of us are professionals, we're not getting paid to lift, and we're not going to lose our jobs if we bomb out or don't hit PR numbers. We do this stuff because it's fun, we enjoy it, and it enriches our quality of live. That's it. So go into it with a good attitude, and just have fun with it!

Okay, goal number one is to have fun. Beyond that, I think that especially early in one's lifting career the goal should be to make as many successful lifts as possible and establish a record of success in competition. Six for six is an awesome goal to shoot for. A lofty goal, but doable if you keep your attempts within your abilities. It's always nice to PR, and at some point this is a good goal to set for your last attempt if you make all your lifts, but I think the focus should be more on just making successful lifts in your first few meets.

I hope this helps some of you have an idea of what to shoot for going in. Most importantly, remember to have fun, and go into it with a positive attitude!