Is Going 50% a Good Thing?

It's Sunday evening August 3rd as I write this, and I'm not sure if I should be satisfied or not...

I spent my day in Stamford Ct. Competing in an Olympic Weightlifting (the snatch & clean & jerk) competition. Why I'm not sure if I'm content with the results or not is because I went 3 for 6 in my lifts and took 2nd palce... That means 50% of my efforts were successful. Is that really a success?

I have been training for this competition for the past 12 to 16 weeks or so and I have had high hopes.

High hopes of a multitude of things...

To place (achieving 1st, 2nd, or 3rd) for one, but more importantly I wanted to perform at a high level as well as beat my last total weight lifted of 200kg. You see I completed my first Olympic weightlifting competition this past March and I took 1st place in my weight class. The only catch was that I was the only one in my weight class - 85 kg/187lb. My total for the first competition was an even 200kg. For those that are not familiar, the contest winner is determined by the total of each event - the Snatch/Clean & Jerk. For my first competition I didn't mind so much as to where I placed, but it was more the experience and getting the feel of what one of these competitions were like.

Back to today's event.

As I was saying I'm not sure whether or not to be content with the outcome of the competition. To make a long story short, I took 2nd place out of a dozen or so lifters and my total was 213kgs. That's not bad. I actually outperformed people in my own weight class this time around, and I have increased my total to 213kgs. Thats a 13kg increase.

Seems great right?

2nd place and a new personal record of 213kg.... What else could I ask for...

Well something doesn't feel right. Here are the facts. In a competition like this you get 3 attempts at each lift (the snatch and Clean & Jerk). The winner in each weight class with the highest total in each lift is the winner.

My goals coming into this competition were simple, to beat my old total of 200kg, and to hit at least 2 out of 3 in each lift. - a minimum of 4 out of 6!

My strategy was as follows - 1st attempt was to successfully complete a weight that I know I could get. 2nd attempt was a current personal record, and 3rd attempt was to set a new personal record. So basically my goals were to hit my current PR's and to possbly set new PR's in both lifts and actually go 6 for 6 if things played out right. and I was having an unbeleivable day...

Here's how it unfolded.

Snatch

attempt 1 - 90kg - success

attempt 2 - 93kg - success - not my current PR though - I have actually hit 95 in training

attempt 3 - 100kg - missed - this would have been a great accomplishment for me. Look at the 3rd attempt in the snatch in the video - I was good for it, I just couldn't stand up with the weight. If I kept my head up in the bottom of the squat, I think I would have got it.

overall not bad 2 out of 3 with a solid 93kg lift. So far so good.

Clean & Jerk

attempt 1 - 120kg - success - barely I almost lost my grip on the initial pull, but I muscled through it and got the lift.

attempt 2 - 125 (current PR) - missed - this one was quite frustrating... I got a solid clean, but seemed to press out at the end(the lift overhead wasn't constant, I paused 3/4 of the way up and then finished it). As soon as I dropped the weight I knew I wasn't getting credit for it.

attempt 3 - 125 again crushed the clean (except for the bar sliding off my shoulders on the way up. The jerk - missed badly. As I dropped down to drive the weight up I dropped my elbows as well, resulting in the bar flying out in front of me.

So here I am, a silver medal and only going 3 for 6/50% where I should have easily went 5 or even 6 for 6.

Should I be content or not? I'm still undecided. I guess for now I'm content, but definitely not satisfied with my overall results.

What do you think? A good outing or not?

JZ