I know this is a few days behind (and I have a TON of stuff to fill y'all in on) but if I would have written a blog over the last 3 days about my thoughts, feelings, emotions, reflection etc of my performance at the American Open- each of the three days would have been completely different. Day one would have gone something like this: it was awful it was horrible I hated it awful awful awful awful. Let my coach down, let my team down, let myself down.. it was a great day. not. Day 2 would have been like this: Ok maybe I over reacted. it wasn't that great. but it wasn't that bad. im okay with it. no im not. yes it was fine. no it wasnt. up and down up and down. When I got back to Massachusetts Ellyn and I had a chance to have a talk about what happened, how I was feeling, what I was thinking, and a chance to reflect on what happened...
The talk we had was really productive. We talked about what we wanted and what we needed from each other and what worked for us and what did not work for us as a coach/athlete team. We're still 'new' to each other. This was only our third meet together- so there was a lot we didn't know and a lot we're still learning about what works best. Before the meet Ellyn and I had a few different conversations about what we wanted to do and the numbers we wanted to hit and what we would do if we had to or wanted to change numbers and what our ultimate goal would be at the meet. Would it be placing? would it be getting a higher ranking? would it be PRs? What if it's one of those things and not the others? I think each time she asked me what I wanted to do my answer changed or I wanted all of them. My new-ness was a disadvantage when it came to strategy and really knowing what would be the greatest good for me. I'm new, I can't help it! :)
Retracing the steps back to the American Open after I was done with snatch I was in the middle of the pack maybe sitting somewhere from 6-8th place and being comfortable with where I was because my clean and jerk is a good 30 kilos heavier than the snatch (which is atypical... usually the two lifts are a lot closer than what mine are). With that said, being in the middle of the pack after snatch left the possibility for placing because I could make up the 10-ish kilos I was behind in the snatch. With snatch I was the second lifter and with clean and jerk I was the third to last lifter... so i had a while to wait. From a strategy point, it was nice having the girls who lifted more than I did in snatch being completely finished before I started my clean and jerks. (please note hind-sight is 20/20 and most of what I'm telling you now I had no idea about while I was jerking... the only thing I knew was that I was in the middle of the pack after snatch)
This is what I knew: Ellyn and I had a plan. our plan was 97, 102, and 105. And I needed to hit all of my lifts to finish 3rd. Okay. I can do that. I got attached to the plan and to the numbers. I hit 97 and Ellyn asked me if I wanted to do 100... i was a little taken aback by her question because I didn't understand why the plan was changing-and with the clock running there wasn't time to sit down and have a full-length conversation about why 100 would be better or why 102 would be better. So I told her stick to the plan. 102 should be next. So she put me in for 102. What I didn't know until I got back and Ellyn and I had our sit-down chat about the meet was that 100 would have put me in 3rd place. And what I was thinking when she asked me that was 'snatch didn't get me to the numbers we talked about, so now i need the 105 to just be close to 3rd and to stick with the plan.' 102 was on the bar and I went out and cleaned it.. setting up for the jerk.. got the jerk over my head and wasn't able to stick it. missed attempt 2. 102 stayed on the bar and I was up for my 3rd attempt. Ellyn told me she needed everything I had on this last lift. Okay. i can give you everything. cleaned it and setting up for the jerk got the weight over head... but wasn't tight (or something else) and I walked all over the platform and eventually dropped the weight.
Was i disappointed, yeah. I had a flood of emotions (that will be discussed in a later blog) that i had been putting off and not thinking about until the American Open was over.. and once it was over WHAM. they all came. but that's for later.
Back in Massachusetts Ellyn and I talked about it all.. the lifts... the preparation.. the disappointment.. the training... the next step.. the lessons learned.. where we go from here... what we do next...what we don't do next... what we'll change.. and how we'll get better...
Here's the video from the meet... Enjoy it. I got better because of these failed attempts...
No comments:
Post a Comment