Excellent wrap-up Warren, always great to see judges giving feedback!

Parenthetically, you didn't spill any beans here that would affect the other judges so no problem, but it's a good rule of thumb to maintain radio silence until all judges have done their bit.

Also, what happened on the 3rd C&J? There wasn't a lift in the clip!

Kat, can you take a peek at your source clip? If the lift is there, let me know and we'll have it judged manually.

Kris - When's your debut???

Not any time soon. I actually did start training for one a couple of years ago but ended up getting the upper back really messed up due to not being flexible enough in the upper back/shoulder department. When it got so bad I couldn't even raise a stick overhead I called it quits. I loved getting to know the lifts (and drop snatches really rocked!) so I may be back a-stretching in the future. But the first order of the business is really to get back in some kind of shape overall again. If the Gathering happens 2011, I'll at least hit the PL platform then.

Wade, did you do any stretching/mobility work before starting on the WL stuff? Or were you already mobile enough?

I had to really work the dislocates hard to get enough shoulder flexibility to do the snatches.  In the end it still wasn't enough as I couldn't get the bar behind my head enough to drop underneath the snatches.  I've improved a bit since the competition, but I'm still not nearly flexible enough.

I've also noted that my upper middle back is getting pounded with the olympic lifts.  Just catching and holding the bar in place has done good things between my shoulder blades.

I now see why it's much easier to move from Oly lifting to powerlifting, but the reverse is difficult.  Oly lifting develops the main strength which can be used for P/L, but requires much more flexibility and technique.  P/Lers would like to believe that their lifts are technical (and they are) but not nearly so much as Olympic lifting.

I'm actually considering making the quick lifts + assistance my staple routine with an add-on of benching to stay in the P/L comps.  These old knees may be the limiting factor on that though.

Warren -

Well, both Jim Schmitz and Glenn Pendlay are within driving distance...But I'm currently unemployed so I have to make do with the online help of a former Masters American weightlifting record holder.  He's already given me some really good feedback.  I do really enjoy the lifts and plan to continue doing them. 

Then y'all will have to watch out in the comps!

I'm actually considering making the quick lifts + assistance my staple routine with an add-on of benching to stay in the P/L comps.  These old knees may be the limiting factor on that though.

I had that thought as well during my brief Oly stint. Not only because the Oly training felt really good and athletic in a way that I hadn't felt since my martial arts days, but because I saw a good opportunity there to do more with less weight (limit squats and deadlifts are not always the best thing for the old back injury..).

Take away point: hope more of our PL regulars would dare to do a Dare and try out an Oly meet for kicks.

Now here's a thought: what about hosting a "first-timers oly meet" sometime in late 2011? Add in a support group for sharing training and learning progress (and with some luck some of our resident Oly lifters would drop by from time to time to share their wisdom), plus arrange to have someone give everyone proper post-meet feedback on their lifts. Now that could be fun (and I would surely join it)... bet this would be a very exciting meet to watch too. Plus it would leave behind a valuable primer on "Olympic Lifting for Powerlifters".

This kind of concept could work nicely with other kind of meets too (some kind of CrossFit challenge meet springs to mind, or why not a PL meet for Oly lifters once there is enough interest?). It would also rhyme well with the idea of Virtualmeet being a place where lifters from different disciplines are encouraged to mingle and learn from each other. I think Virtualmeet has a lot to offer here as the barrier is a lot lower than doing this for an official meet.

Thoughts?

I am jealous of you, Wade. I'd love to train down at CS, those guys are monsters. I don't know where abouts you are in California but you should really get in contact with Dan John and explain your situation to him.

http://www.danjohn.net

Kris, I think the first timers only meet would be a good thing, but the numbers are still low for as crossover from PL.

I think if I could learn to back squat without hurting myself (last attempt involved a reverse Steinborn into my wooden floor) I would be up for attempting the CrossFit Total at the back end of next year:

library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/52-2006_CFTotal.pdf

I am jealous of you, Wade. I'd love to train down at CS, those guys are monsters. I don't know where abouts you are in California but you should really get in contact with Dan John and explain your situation to him.

http://www.danjohn.net

I forgot about Dan John.  Yeah, I guess he's living in San Mateo now, about 15 minutes down the road from me.

Kris, I think the first timers only meet would be a good thing, but the numbers are still low for as crossover from PL.

I think if I could learn to back squat without hurting myself (last attempt involved a reverse Steinborn into my wooden floor) I would be up for attempting the CrossFit Total at the back end of next year:

library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/52-2006_CFTotal.pdf

I like the CrossFit comp idea.  I also like the idea of a five lift fusion meet where the quick lifts and the XFit total are combined.  That would be challenging simply in terms of endurance.

Meet update: a week in judging has now passed, so I'm checking up on the meet status.

Hi all, well, I'm late to the party. I just checked in and found it is being judged!

Warren, about this -

Kat - Naughty Kat, you are pulling with your arms too much in the snatch. Needs more jump and trap shrug. This may also be why you are late to rotate your elbows for the clean, which means you'll miss racks when the weight goes up. You're spending too much time bent over the bar before you lift (C&Js), which may be fatiguing your legs. Jerks are sound. Also, what happened on the 3rd C&J? There wasn't a lift in the clip!

Thanks. You nailed my bad habit, at least the worst one to break, pulling with the arms in the snatch. I have been working on technique religiously with my coach for months on just this. I have good days and bad, but under pressure, like a meet, generally bad!    Ah well, we are all works in progress.

Interesting that you think I may be prepping too long. I picked up that tip from Virtual Meet ages ago on my deadlift, and it's been a HUGE help. So I look forward to seeing if that helps me as well.

Hmm, a missing clip! It's probably too late to be added to the meet now, but I'll look for it anyway, Kris.

Wade, if you are within Jim Schmitz driving distance, you are also within distance of Chip Conrad's Bodytribe in Sacramento. I highly recommend you check that out. In fact, I can't recommend it highly enough. Check it out online.

Thanks everyone, for another VM. No matter how it goes, it's always satisfying to have DONE it. 

Kat -

Thanks for the suggestion.  Sacramento's a little too far for me, though - or I'm just not that dedicated...

Kat, if the third attempt is not cut short on the original, I'm sure the judges would not mind judging one more, especially as the judging is still not done. E-mail me if you have a clip to send me.

I have not yet heard back from the third judge, hope all is well at that end. If I haven't gotten any word this time tomorrow then I'm going to start looking for a replacement so we can get this meet out and the bench meet into judging (the current judging interface does not support concurrent meets in judging). If anyone who did not compete feels up for some weightlifting judging, let me know.

Kat, did you have a chance to check out the truncated clip?

Hi Kris,

I can't find it. In fact, I can't locate any of them at the moment from the meet.. weird. No matter, because I missed the lift. Thanks for checking.

The meet has finally been released!

The delay in judging turned out to be due to a simple misunderstanding in regard to when the meet was (i.e. that it had already been held) combined with an older e-mail address that was not checked so frequently. These things can happen, just very happy to see this out before Christmas. Sorry for the delay, thanks to all the judges and the lifters who took part (especially so to Wade/Tony Dare who came in very well in his first Oly platform encounter).

Nice job everyone.

Kat's got a real nice-looking jerk going (no entendre -  double or otherwise - intended).  You get under the bar nicely.

Congrats to Geoff for going 6 for 6 in the meet.

Jeff was so close on each of his CJ's that I fear for my placing in our next meet.  I gotta get my game up a good bit to approach his level.

Thanks for competing!

Wade: I was just looking at the updated rankings and thinking I've got to up my game if I'm going to stay ahead of you...  you're stronger than me in the squat and deadlift and still power cleaning the weight up.

I think Kat needs to give us some jerk tips. what's the trick to getting a solid lock out Kat?  Any jerk drills you'd recommend?

Geoff: why the same weight on the 2nd and 3rd snatch attempts?  The 3rd was definitely better, but the second looked passable.

Warren: Yeah, I`ve made 120 a number of times - and now I can prove it: http://www.albertaweightliftin...om/Assets/Results/2010prov.pdf