Lesson 5- Don’t Err
I saved this one for last because it’s the most obvious and also the most detrimental to a successful meet. I bombed on clean and jerk. While there are probably 5,000 different factors I could point to as a legitimate excuse for why that happened, the reality is that three judges (and a jury) sat in front of me and saw something that warranted red lights.
To give you a bit of context for why this is on my list, here’s what happened on my clean and jerks. On my opener, I felt a bit of shakiness in my left elbow but I got 2 of 3 white lights. As I was planning my next attempt, I was told the jury overturned the decision and ruled it a no lift. I had been sniped by the jury. I wasn’t very mad about this because I felt there was probably some grounds for that lift to be overturned. I just flat missed the jerk on my second attempt. As I approached my third and make or break lift, I went through the specific cues in my head that I knew would secure the jerk overhead. The drive was a bit out front but I felt like I smoked it and had no wobble whatsoever. I have not seen a video nor do I know if there is one out there BUT I would argue still that it was a good lift. The reality however is that because the jury had overturned a lift earlier, the judges were hyper-sensitive to my lifts and paid closer attention as a result. That means that even movement in my shoulders (which is legal) might warrant a red light from them. Likely this is what happened.
Big lesson learned for me is simple. Take the judges out of the equation by being perfect. Don’t err! I gave the judges the chance to take away a total at the meet because I wasn’t absolutely perfect. (The same happened on my second CJ at the American Open) We could probably talk for hours on why that was BUT the truth of the matter is that I must have done something that garnered at least a question in their minds. Much of this goes back to training. What am I allowing to be considered a “good lift” in training? I can tell that some days 75% of my jerks would get red lights. Am I really helping myself in competition by allowing for error in my training? The best preparation I could have done to secure a total is make sure that every rep I do in training would be a good lift on the platform.
Allowing a little error is enough grounds for the judges to take a meet away from you and many of them live to do just that. Don’t give them the chance. Be perfect in training to avoid error in competition.
Remember made lifts in training mean made lifts in competition.