You’ve entered your first weightlifting competition! Awesome work!! But what happens next?
Well, you probably sit there and think ‘Why on earth did I agree to enter a comp?? Or ‘Am I good enough to be on a platform competing?’. Well, the answer to those two questions are: Because you love weightlifting and testing yourself, and for sure! Everyone that steps on the platform at a competition has a right to be there. You’ve earned the place to go out there showcase your talent. So well done you!
On the practical side though, there are always going to be some formalities that you should be aware of to make your experience that bit easier.
1-2 weeks prior to comp
So, at this stage the training program should be starting to peek. About 5-6 days out from comp, you should be practicing your openers. These will be your 1st snatch and 1st C&J on the platform. For me, I use this as a full dress rehearsal for comp day.
Give yourself 20 mins to warm up and on the 20 min mark, practice your opening weight. For the snatch, do this 3 times. As soon as you’ve finished that 3rd attempt at your opener (successful or fail) move on to your clean & jerk warm up.
Here you have 10 mins to warm up before your opening weight. For the clean and jerk, only attempt this twice.
Once the session is done, you should now have your warmup written out and a really good idea of what your opening weights should be. Remember the 4 P’s.
Perfect planning prevents piss poor performance.
Comp Day!
The weigh-in:
Get to the venue with time to spare. Generally, weigh in is 2 hours prior to your session starts. The earlier you get weighed in, the earlier you can refuel. If you’re anything like me, I have to cut around 3 kilos for comp, so post weigh in fuelling and hydration is essential.
At the weigh in, bring ID and a singlet if you are wearing one. The technical official will ask you to stand on the scales, and then ask for your opening weights. Remember, these can be lower or higher than what you did on your rehearsal. I generally give lower openers and change them depending on how I’m feeling during the warmup. Once weighed in, I’ll have a quick catch up with coach about timings and how I’m feeling. Normally, they’ll help settle the nerves and recentre me. If you don’t have a coach, now would be a great time to see if you recognise someone that can help you in the warmup. Coaches really don’t mind helping if they can as we all recognise this is a stressful day for the lifter so whatever we can do to minimise the stress, we’ll do it.
Post weigh in:
Hopefully you have a great nutrition plan sorted so you can sit there and eat and hydrate. Do not introduce new things for the day. The last thing you want is a dodgy belly on the platform after trialling out a new passion fruit and avocado Nocco.
As you have a couple of hours to spare, find something easy and stress free to do. For me, this involves not watching weightlifting. I take myself off somewhere and listen to music or chat to mates.
Warmup time
You’ll get a notification to say when its ok for you to enter the warmup area. I’ll get changed before going in but leave my lifters off. For me, once I put my lifters on, that’s when I focus on the job of being there as a weightlifter. Until that point, I’m just a spectator taking in the atmosphere.
Coach will now take over. It’s their job to make sure the only thing I have to worry about is lifting. They tell me when to stretch, when to warm up with the bar. They’ll load the plates on the bar and tell me when to start my warmup. They know what I need to lift to get to my openers. I’ve not only practiced this the week before, but I’ve also visualised this over and over in my mind in the days leading up to the comp day.
10 mins prior to the start of comp, all the athletes get a call for the introduction. We line up, and then walk out onto the platform and nervously wait for our names to be called so we can step forward, smile, and wave. It’s an odd feeling, but it’s nice when you see your friends there in front of you cheering you on.
Back in the warmup area, my coach will look at the start list and see what everyone is lifting and then as if by magic, they know how many lifts there will be before I go out on the platform. I go through each lift with coach giving little cues here and there. ‘Stronger drive past the knee’, ‘Tighter overhead’, ‘relax ffs!’. And normally about halfway through I take a moment to appreciate where I am.
This is a purposeful act. I actually stop myself, take a few deep breaths, look around and remind myself of why I do this. It sends a shiver down my spine every time I do it. It reminds me of how much I love the sport and why I am testing myself on the platform. I finish my warmup lifts and all I hear is coach saying, ‘you’re on, you know what to do, go out and do it just as you have been doing’.
Showtime
Walking out from behind the screen is a daunting. This is where all the nervous energy culminates into what seems like forever but lasts less than 60 seconds. Look for the clock so you know how much time you have. Chalk up, approach the bar, find the spot on the horizon that you can focus on for the lift. Set yourself, check the clock…. 20 seconds left…. Breathe…. 15 seconds… head up and fix your gaze… 10 seconds.. and off you go. Before you know it, you’re standing there with the bar overhead looking at the refs waiting for the down signal. The buzzer sounds and you drop the bar, and you turn to coach who is smiling, but knows this is just the start. You have 2 more snatches and then the C&J to go yet. Coach reminds you to reset, sit down and asks how you feel. They are in control of everything except what I do on the platform. I generally have no idea what coach tells the technical official when they give them the weight increase for the next lift. They have judged my last lift and know if it looked easy or hard. So, I just sit and wait until coach calls me up again.
And that’s it. You roll through the snatches, and you feel great hopefully, but now its warmup time for the C&J’s. You follow the same process, even the recentring and making sure you acknowledge how great this is to be here doing something you love.
Without knowing, your coach will have pushed you a little more than you thought you were going to do and a good day at the office for me isn’t a medal or podium, but knowing I gave it my all. That I was present and committed. Where I place is a by-product of how invested in the process I was. If there are other athletes still lifting, I’ll stick around and support them from behind the scenes as this is now an absolute privilege to be backstage with not a single pressure on me. Now I can enjoy the moment even more so.
And that’s it… the comp is over and done with. Well, that and the possibility of getting your name called out to go and get a medal. But even if that doesn’t happen, you have done something that most people simply do not want to do. Test yourself under pressure in front of technical officials and an audience. Most people would run a mile from that. But not you. You chose to enter and that makes you a competitive weightlifter. Welcome to the club.
One response
Thanks for this, really useful as i’m just about to sign up for my first comp!