The meet is now with the judges. As usual, they will have seven days to complete the judging, that is until July 9th.

One lifter dropped out, so three lifters in this one.

Wow, that's got to be a record for fastest judging ever!

Yeah! Thanks a lot to Jamie, Ramon and Brent for the quick turnaround. Meet release scheduled for around Friday midnight GMT, but if all fails Saturday.

And thanks to the lifters for prompt uploads and well prepared material, that is what saves the day at my end.

The meet has been released!

Indeed that was quick turnaround! Thanks, judges! And thanks guys for not dropping out cuz of the low number.

Warren, isn't it exhilarating to lift in a thunderstorm? Much less a competition - did it fuel you?

I almost lifted outside, too, just for the lighting. But I was afraid to do it on the ground; the platform is too heavy to move. So Warren, it looked to me like you laid down two mats on concrete...isn't that hard on your knees? Also, were you able to get the right grip/slip with your feet?

Jeff, when you lift outside, like in your amazing avatar, what do you do? Drag out plywood? Or do you have some semipermanent structure?

The dropouts were a shame, but now I can say I came second in a weightlifting competition! And then hope no one asks how many competitors there were...

I can't help but wonder what the other guy would have lifted though, since he was so young.

Kat, the thunderstorm was more an incentive to hurry up! The atmosphere was very heavy, and we had some serious hail that day.

I laid down the mats to spare the bumpers, but yes I had to make do with concrete. We have a small patch of level grass at the bottom of the garden, but the earth is so soft that after a couple of attempts the plates would dig holes into the ground. Didn't fancy pulling from a deficit.

For me there was a definite disadvantage to using the concrete. I think it was mostly psychological, but in my warm-ups I was missing lifts that came easily on grass. A comparitively small dumping target, combined with the ever-present threat of falling off the step and rolling down the hill.

The grip/slip for me was about the same as on grass. This is because I used a pair of Chucks and I find them pants for Oly lifting. Rubbery around the edges and not stable. I train barefoot 90% of the time, but I think I'll have to invest in a pair of weightlifting shoes for the next meet.

What bothers my knees most is my ropey foot placement on heavier attempts. My stance comes out too wide and my toes point outwards instead of forwards. Not only is this painful, but it also looks stupid!

Well done for winning the women's meet Kat (and by winning I mean breaking PRs), and to Jeff for soundly trouncing me. New records for you too?

Now that the meet is over, I can tell my tale of woe... I didn't want it to affect the judging.

But first - Kat - I've got a 3/4" sheet of plywood that I've been dragging outside with me when I lift.  It gives good consistent surface to lift on.  It's getting a little beat up now though as it breaks when you drop weight on it if the ground underneath is soft.

Warren - I set a new PR snatch and tied my best competition c&j.  However, I was really hoping to break a 200 total and fell just short.   Next time I should be able to blow it out of the water!


Now the story...  It was a dark and stormy afternoon, the day of the meet.  I'd just finished my snatches and was starting my warm up for the C&J.  I have been working on really driving through my jerks with my shoulders so that I get in a stronger position underneath the weight to lock it out.  As I held the empty bar in rack position getting ready for my first jerk I was really thinking about getting down and under it.  Unfortunately I moved my head too quickly as I drove up and slammed the bar into the bottom of my nose.  I saw stars and felt my nose start to bleed.  I lay down on the floor.

After a couple minutes on the ground, I figured I had the bleeding under control enough to make it upstairs to our condo to get myself cleaned up.  When my wife saw me, she asked if I was done.  When I explained my situation she just laughed and told me that was a dumb thing to do.  I got myself cleaned up and shoved some toilet paper in my nose to stop the bleeding and went back downstairs to finish the meet.

I got warmed up and completed my three remaining attempts.  None of the jerks were very good, I don't think I was locked out under any of them, I was a little nervous jerking again.  I couldn't wait for the judges so I uploaded my lifts to youtube to see if I'd get credit.  Most people said they wouldn't give any although some said they'd give the first.  I feel quite fortunate that I didn't bomb out this meet.

It used to be that anything I could stand up with I could get overhead.  Now it seems like my jerks are lagging behind.  I've got to do a lot of jerks and presses and overhead work between now and October.

I know what you mean about the jerks lagging behind. It's frustrating because the strength is probably there but the technique holds us back.

Since we're sharing stupid injuries, the reason I couldn't get those last two attempts in was a 50kg snatch warmup that I dumped - ON MY HEAD.

Holy crap, Jeff! Glad you were all right. Between that and the weather, you had a pretty memorable meet!

And Warren, dumping on your head...

What a study in grace this meet was - hahaha! Thanks for sharing.

That's interesting you both mentioned the jerks lagging. That's recently become an issue for me as well; one I never expected, cuz my jerks were always the easy part. One combo Jim Schmitz recommended to me to address this is three front squats followed by a jerk.

I really like the idea of taking the plywood outdoors for a lift. Hmm. Thanks for the idea. Maybe someday we could do a video project to lift in front of major world landmarks :-)

PS Not to highjack this into a training thread...

There's also the jerk support and recovery, not everyone does them, they're vital and oh so satisfying... http://www.vimeo.com/1783320