Masters Week: Finale

Another year of The Masters are completed.  I wold be a liar if I said I didn’t want Tiger to win but wow what a putt by Adam Scott on 18!  Then for Cabrera to come back with that approach shot!  Talk about clutch performance when it matters most.
This leads me to one of the more subjective and yet pivotal pieces of Olympic lifting.  Performance.  Nobody wins the Masters without perseverance, complete mental focus, and the ability to overcome the unexpected.
In weightlifting the same is true.  You can practice your warmups and prepare for certain weights and jumps for competition.  However, things can change in the blink of an eye.  Trying to predict the warmups and totals of other competitors in competition is like predicting the ball flight of my drives off the tee box.  There is just no telling what could happen.
The reality is that champions in golf and in weightlifting have to be prepared for anything.  Doomsday if you will.  Tiger in his post-round interview noted that he was unable to adjust to the speed of the course and as the rain increased he just couldn’t get a feel for the speed of the greens.  Scott and Cabrera made those adjustments and the results were noted.  In weightlifting, both in training and in competition a lifter must be ready to adjust the timing of their warmups, the load on the bar, etc.  However, ultimately a great weightlifter must be able to lift the weight on the bar with precision and power regardless of the circumstances.  Great weightlifters are able to make impossible jumps in their warmup attempts and impossible jumps in their lifts in competition.  Lifters who are able to put aside imperfect and often unpractical warmups and step up when it’s time to perform often will out-lift a competitor with perfect warmups and perfect preparation.  Competition lifters are often the most dangerous because you can never guess what type of improbable performance they will pull out.
In both golf and in weightlifting small increments matter the most.  (No better example than Cabrera’s missed putt in the playoff)  The ability to show up, lift heavier weights than planned, and perform at times that it matters most is the mark of a champion lifter.