Every damn meet! Every one! You have seen it yourself. That one lifter or that group of lifters that don't know what their next attempt is or should be, bomb out on the same weight as their opener, don't know how to wrap their knees, forget their belt, forget their wraps, hell forget their singlet! Who is coaching these folks?
I have been going to power lifting meets for 20 years. 20 years wow. Never thought I would be saying that but yeah 20 years and no matter what I see the same damn unprepared folks at every meet. Every time....
Its fu%&ing pathetic really. Sometimes a lifter is by himself and don't know what to do or what to have and dont even know the meet federation rules. Really? Even if you don't have a coach do you not have enough common sense to do some research and read the rule book of the federation in which you will be competing? All the time, effort, money, equipment, supplements, food, training, gas, hotel room and on and on and you come unprepared?
What makes this situation worse is the lifter who has a "coach" and his dumb ass is at a loss too. When "his" lifter does not know the rules or forgets items to bring or has no idea what his/her attempts will be, oblivious of the federation rules, now you have two dumb-asses instead of one dumb-ass....This sh#$ really gets me heated....
How about that "online coach" that is feeding this lifter the same training template he just fed the other 30 lifters to do but did not cover the intricacies that go into the meet prep itself that does not covering only training. The rules, openers, attempts, depth, gear needed, knee wrapping, handlers and the list goes on and on but he just hammered you for $200+ dollars for 10 to 12 week "training cycle" and all you got was the - "you got this bro" adage. SMH....
I think to myself how can these online coaches and gym coaches lead their "soldiers" into battle without even teaching them how to aim their gun, set their sights and know how to fight? Its mindless madness to me and one the biggest down falls in our sport today that continues to be overlooked meet after meet, year after year, lifter after lifter.
When my Team is at meets they always say at some point, "Do they not know how to wrap their knees?" "Know the rules?" "Don't they know what their attempts are" "Wow they just bombed on the squat and they are a raw lifter". There have been numerous meets were we have helped wrap folks knees that needed help, helped handle someone that was alone, asked to call their depth, give a suggestion for their next attempt, give a hand off, make an on the fly technique change to help on a lift, let someone borrow a belt, wrist wraps and or knee wraps. No we are not special because we have done that. Yes im sure you reading this has done these things too. Isn't that what we should do? But is the question ever asked why the hell are these folks not better prepared than this? I ask it all the time and still have not gotten a legitimate answer....
We go over meet prep and rules at Nebobarbell like we go over technique on our lifting. Over and over and over again. My job is to not just help my lifters become stronger and add to their total but to make sure they understand the rules, understand what we are doing training wise leading up to a meet and why. We train every lifter in our gym on how to wrap knees. How to call proper depth. Understanding lift attempts. Understanding openers. Having a roll call two days out from a meet of what we are taking and what we will need and rechecking that again. Our Team works like a well oiled machine at meets and I take a lot of pride in that. Everyone has a role that's not lifting or that is lifting and that will be helping.
Sometimes I think the little things get overlooked too frequently by power-lifting coaches and by lifters themselves. Those little things can add up and cost you in the end. Stop worrying about just your numbers (lifters) and just your lifters lifting or money your making off lifters (coaches) and learn the rules and teach them the rules and how to be ready and prepaired. Almost every one of my lifters at our gym has taken the written exam to be a judge. That does not make us special. It makes us prepared and being prepared is half the battle!....
This is a picture (meet back in March 2015) of my Teams attempts for each lift (I have this with me in my notebook the entire meet so i will know everything I need to know for each of my lifters during the meet), federation records in their respective class/division, their best meet lifts for each lift and projected numbers to hit for the meet....
I prepare these spred sheets for every meet and each lifter of mine lifting....
1 Comment