The team were back on the platform at the start of the month with a great turn out and an excellent all round performance! Before I get the ball rolling on our own performance I'd like to thank the team at Fylde Coast Weightlifting for an amazingly ran comp, in particular Sally Thompson-Taylor who was absolutely everywhere on the day and made sure that not only the comp ran smoothly, but also handled a load of lifters too! Second big thanks to Eddie Halstead, the officials and loaders who kept things moving all day! Right, let's get on with it! We had 5 lifters this outing, Greg, Karl, Yingwei, Michael and Sharon. The build up to this was unique in that each lifter had different obstacles to work around in their preparation for the competition - be that illness, injury, holiday or having a technique meltdown! So we all had some added pressure and serious graft to do in the build up, which I think really ended paying off come comp day!
Greg
Snatch: 73/78/81
C&J: 95/100/104
Total: 185
This is Greg, and since his last competition he decided to forget how to snatch... maybe not entirely... but something was missing in his lift that was causing him to miss lifts frequently even at light loads. So we had to rebuild literally from the ground up, which in the end really worked out well!
His main issue was that he had started 'falling back' through his lift, right from breaking off the floor he would lean back away from the bar, distribute weight back towards his heels, loose transmission past the knees, end up behind the barbell and end up with a really loopy bar path that he would rarely end up making lifts after. The second issue we came across was that even with hangs he had developed a swing with his arms in the third pull rather that using the barbell to actively pull himself under.
To address things we worked by breaking the lift up, we ensured that he understood how to pull under the barbell with simple drills like tall snatch, no foot hang snatch (performed in slow motion initially than with more pace and load). Concurrently, and usually within the same session we worked on his snatch pull from the bottom up, pauses off the floor, slow pulls, yoyo pulls, (even eyes closed pulls!) all movements that required him to be connected to the floor and maintain tension on the barbell. We stitched things together about 4-5 weeks out, with full lifts paused just off the floor and snatches with no foot movement (as well as performing the full lift more regularly too). The result of this effort was Greg going 3/3 on snatch and also hitting 81kg on his last attempt, 1kg below his best ever in training and he looked good for more which is really promising going forward! I'm really proud of Gregs attitude to the process, and to be humble enough to 're-learn' the full movement from barbell up says a a lot about the kind of person he is. You'll also be pleased to know that clean and jerk went 3/3, but its a lot less interesting than than what happened with snatch!
Karl
Snatch: 83/87/90
C&J: 115/120/123
Total: 213
As always, I always appreciate when Karl is part of the team on comp day - he raises the energy, intensity and focus of the entire squad purely by being Karl. Intensity, hype, and Ronnie Coleman quotes go a long way to getting everyone amped to lift! Karl had the most straight forward build up to the comp, just a short holiday then back to training. He had a really strong build up to comp hitting PBs in a quite a few variations and special exercises (in particular, yo-yo snatch and paused jerk has really come on!) and we knew that he was on for a PB in comp if we got off to a good start!
We opened at 83, which he almost power snatched. Second attempt was 87 a comp PB, and his third at 90, an outright snatch PB and a number that he had only hit in a yo-yo snatch and never before from the floor.
Clean and Jerk, opened at 115 smashed it "Light weight!!", then nailed 120 and 123 for a new comp best! Karls cleans are so strong, any improvements he makes in the jerk now = kgs on his best C&J!
Yingwei
Snatch: 40/43/45
C&J: 48/51/53
Total: 98
Yingwei had a few set backs before the build up to the comp including a knee and elbow niggle one after the other, both of which cleared up without any special attention, they were just annoying! Other than that however Yingwei found some really good form in training and has developed a ton more consistency particularly in the snatch. Largely due to the amount of no foot power snatching she has been doing of late, you can see that she is really able to use arms way better than she ever did in the third pull! With cleans committing in the third pull was sometimes an issue, we didn't need to do much other than cue her to be aggressive and commit to pulling under the barbell even if it felt like it was too low.
Her competition performance was excellent, again a 6/6 performance and a really display of what she could do. She actually did so well in the C&J we convinced her to have a PB attempt in the backroom, which she nailed! (so technically 7/7!). Well done Yingwei, zero misses, zero clownery!
Michael
Snatch: 83/87/90
C&J: 100/106/110 Total: 200
Michael's goal for this competition was nothing other than BUCS qualification. A total of 183kg would secure that for him his spot, we really weren't concerned before the competition we knew that he should make it on openers. The only thing we needed to consider on the build up was a back niggle he picked up on the lead up to the competition. To deal with the back strain we dialled things way back for a number of weeks and just did our best for the first 3-4 sessions to ensure that he rehabs well and that his technique was excellent, after that it seemed to be enough to get him gradually back into full training again - we just kept the rehab work in!
In the competition itself, we knew that if we opened at 83 and 100 he would meet the qualifying total that he needed. After that anything that he hit would be a bonus, by that point we weren't actually sure on his fitness for comp as we didn't have enough time to push him particularly hard in training after his injury so we just loaded the bar as we saw fit on the day and he just kept smashing his lifts!
So in the end another 6/6 performance and a BUCS qualifying total comfortably met, and a PB performance on the platform! Job well done!
Sharon
Snatch: 33/36/39
C&J: 41/45/48
Total: 87
Sharon had a really solid performance - especially given that she had the pressure of being the last team member to lift and no-one had missed a lift before her! To be completely transparent, I think I went a little too easy with her attempts knowing that she was ill the week of the competition, I thought it might have impacted her performance harder than it actually did. If we had to do the day again I'd have opener her where she took her second attempts (36/45) and have aimed for 40+ on snatch and 50+ on C&J, so something to work towards next comp! I dont really have much to say with Sharons training, squats are starting to come along, her weightlifting technique is solid, just needs more horsepower to drive the bar with!
My summary
A great day out! 30/30 lifts made was a nice surprise and it speaks levels about the consistency the team has at the moment. This was easily the most laid back competition I've handled at, everyone knew what they were doing, they get the same cues in training as they do on the platform so I didn't really have to pull out anything special on the day at all. I must admit that I left CrossFit Blackpool thinking that I should have pushed everyone harder, but as far as the stats go every lifter put up a comp PB, and we had numerous matched and new bests made on the platform, so I can't really be too critical of the attempt selections!
An all round good day out!
*Note: Our weightlifters had artistic licence over the media in this article. So they might have subtly edited in some mischief.
Want to check out the recap from our last comp? Click below to see how Liverpool Weightlifting Club did in the North West Open Series in Wigan!
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