A failure full of success

My second meet as an RWL (Robinson Weightlifting) lifter has come and gone.  The results from this meet weren't as impressive on paper as the results from the beast of the east competition a month ago.  My totals this meet were 67 in the snatch and 101 in the clean and jerk... and I went 3 for 6.  Missed a snatch at 72 and at 75 and I missed my last jerk at 105.  But I'm not upset.  Part of me (a small part) wanted to be upset, but a bigger and maybe more mature (?!) part knew this meet went just fine.  Ellyn and I talked about what we/she/i wanted to do and at Trinity it was 75 and 105. So when I missed 72 and I got off the platform she said "75...?" I said yes, and she said "stick to the plan, right" yup.  Even though I missed it- my attempt was the biggest success.  And the 75 was better than the 72.  In 2 weeks there will be a different result.  75 wont be a problem.

 I don't think i'm doing a good job explaining what I'm trying to with that last paragraph.  Let me start over.  Okay. . . Ellyn often has the team take attempts at weights we are not comfortable with and/or weights we haven't made.  I would say more often than not, for myself, the misses aren't because my body isn't ready to lift the weights, but because my mind isn't ready.  With that said, taking (and sometimes making) attempts during practice when I'm nervous or have anxiety about the weight on the bar puts me in more of a game time feeling.  Learning how to manage, control, channel, ignore, reign in, etc the anxiety or nervousness that comes at meets... but doing it at practice... has paid off for me.  

With snatch I can easily say I've had an extremely small amount of confidence since I've started competing... or even before I officially got into olympic lifting.  It has been hard for me. It has been a pain. I've wanted to be better, but haven't had the knowledge, guidance, or technical know-how to do anything but stay the same.  AH-HA! that is until I moved up to the freezing state of Massachusetts and started working with Ellyn on a daily basis.  I'm not sure I would go as far as saying I enjoy snatching, but I don't dread it like I used to.  Now RDLs are my hated exercise.  :) progress... perhaps?  I think I have flipped a switch in my lifting brain that now accepts snatching as a challenge.  I've got to get better at it- there are no other options.  Here's an example of what kindof goes through my brain when it's time to snatch... How many people have been told by someone- doesn't matter who- that they can't do something or that they won't be good at something...? anyone.. ahh good I see a few hands and head nods.  At the same time this person is saying how you'll never be able to do xyz, you know you can and will do xyz and part of the motivation is going to be able to go back to this person and say "HA! told ya!!" If you tell me I can't or won't do something... I'll prove you wrong and I will take an incredible amount of joy doing what you said was 'impossible'  :)

Alright. I think I explained it more appropriately

Clean and Jerk has been my better/favorite lift since... um forever. I'm strong and I know it and when I didn't have the best technique, I was able to muscle the bar up.  Cool. I'm strong. that's always a good feeling. but there came a time when my brain got in the way of that too.  There seem to be some typical blocks  when it comes to increasing weight... 100 was one for me.  And then until this meet, 105 was another one.  The weight starts to get heavy! Then I start to question how strong I really am and then 2, 3, and 4, more kilos seems like an impossible feat.

Approaching the weight is half (let's be honest... it's a whole lot more than that) the battle.  Having me take and miss (not on purpose) lifts in practice makes me think about what I did wrong and how I can fix it next time.  Sometimes I miss lifts because I'm scared. Sometimes I miss lifts because I'm not focused.  Sometimes I miss lifts because I'm lazy. Sometimes I miss lifts because I'm not committed.  Sometimes I miss lifts because my mind isn't in the moment.  Sometimes I miss lifts because I don't feel confident. Sometimes I miss lifts because I don't feel strong.  Sometimes I miss lifts because my technique needs work.  But if you look at the sentences I wrote about where I miss lifts- it's my head that gets too involved or not involved enough.  Working on, realizing, recognizing, and managing my thoughts at practice leaves one less thing to worry about at meets.  I guess this is another post where I say "Ellyn's right" and something along the lines of "I guess she knows what she's talking about" ;-) I'm in good hands, and so is the rest of RWL.  Ellyn knows what she's doing and is starting to help me know what I'm doing too.  Thanks for all you do Ellyn...

RWL Family <3

Meet update! Beast of the East

Woahhh!! I'm so far behind on my blog!! Sorry for those of you who have been checking in on a daily basis and have been left high and dry with my (lack of) typing.  Here's what I started typing on Friday, but never finished..

"Friday before the "Beast of the East" meet.  My first meet "officially" with Robinson Weightlifting, a team, a consistent and available coach.  Ellyn says she doesn't expect too much from me this meet because so many things are 'new'.  She's also mentioned that this meet should be more like a practice for the American Open in December. Hahhh all of those things drive me crazy to hear, but the more I've thought about them, the more sense they make...."

Fast forward to the meet (Saturday).... Leading up to the meet, I wasn't really excited or even looking forward to the meet, even up to the morning of, and once we were in the "cow palace" (more on that later) the feeling didn't really change.  After introductions and once warmups started, things got better, I was getting excited, focused, and ready for the competition.  Before warm-ups started, I asked ellyn to put me into the right starting position for the snatch and when I got into position, she said it looked perfect. Ha. I'm getting better! The nervousness about the meet and not having Ellyn right there with me was eased by the fact the competition platform and the warmup area were practically inches away from each other.  Lorie was in charge of warming me up and telling me when to go and when to wait, and that worked well.  There weren't any bumps or hiccups with the warmup process. We (Ellyn and I) talked about the speed of the warmups from nationals and I felt like there was too much time between the sets, so we sped up the warm-ups.  I liked it a lot better because I had to stay focused on the lifts and there wasn't a lot of (any) time for my mind to wander and for me to be unfocused.  When it was my turn to go, I was ready and from what everyone says, the first two attempts looked easy. yay for that.  I was just happy I made the first two attempts! The third attempt came and Ellyn had put 72kilos on the bar and out i went.  Another successful lift. 3 for 3.  Only the second time I'd done that... ever.

When snatch was over, I had a long time before I even started jerking. So I ate, waited, and just relaxed before it was time to turn the switch back on and get ready for clean and jerk.  I was the last lifter to go for the clean and jerk so I followed myself after each lift.  I opened at 96 kilos, made it. went to 100 kilos. made that one. and then Ellyn asked me what I wanted to do next, and I said it was up to her.  We went to 103kilos and I made that. My second meet where I went 6/6.  The only other meet I've gone 6/6 was almost a year ago, so it was about time I had another one.  :)

All of my warmups for the meet felt great! Everything that I've been working on seemed to have come together when I needed it too.  Ellyn even said I didn't have any crazy feet!! HUGE! :) I wasn't sure what to think about snatch warmups (because I'm still learning the technique, positions, and feeling of the lift) and maybe not thinking about it all was what I needed to do for snatch. . .  Clean and jerk was a different story.  I have a little more experience and confidence with those lift, and I can do a better job feeling what the lifts are supposed to be like.  My cleans were tight, my jerks were fast and solid- and they were so much easier! :)  I think over the past few weeks I've had good clean days and I've had good jerk days, but I don't think they've ever come together as nicely as they did this weekend. yay!

Here are a few pictures of the team and my teammates from this last week (most of them are at the meet), but here's Joooooh and I stretching together in Kelly the week before the meet.  If I would have been on top of my blogging, this would have been up sooner!

New and exciting News!!

Well, I still can't edit videos because... somehow... my flip videos got transferred onto Ellyn's computer and deleted from my camera.  Oops. I think I have some videos from Friday's workout saved on my computer and will probably add them on here just so everyone doesn't have to just read my (not always interesting) analysis of my practice.  But this is exciting news that I am surprised I haven't mentioned yet... My first meet with Robinson Weightlifting is this Saturday! Yipes! This will only be my second local meet- my first meet having been almost a year ago.  The next 4 meets I had were National level meets and then I moved to Bridgewater, and here I am.

I've told Ellyn and a few other people that I'm more nervous for this local meet with 13 lifters than I am for Nationals.  Weird. It doesn't make sense, but I think part of the nervous-ness about this meet is not having my coach right next to me.  I'm used to the 1 on 1 attention and I won't have it this meet- yes she'll be there and be taking care of me and watching me lift, but she'll also have 5 other people. I've already been told I'll get less of her time because I'm one of the last lifters.  Patience...? I will be fine, but I'm just a little bit nervous. Sometimes... usually a little bit of nerves are good for me.

Practice today was shorter than usual because of the tapering for the meet- which was weird- I didn't have to rush around like a mad woman showering, eating and getting ready for work! It was a nice change of pace! :)  Today we did clean and jerk "clusters" which were new to me! With the clusters you take a percentage of your lift (today it went 75, 80, 85, 80, 75) and you do each rep right after each other.  Teammates help load and unload the weights so the lifting goes quickly.  I made all the lifts. yay.  My cleans feel good. Better than they have ever(?) they are getting closer, tighter, and faster.  I am still working on keeping the bar close and not snapping my knees back, and I think I'm doing a better job.  Jerks are still a little wobbly.  Not as fast or as tight or as crisp as I want them or that they need to be.  I've got to be better about holding my breath and staying tight through the dip of the jerk.

There's not a whole lot of negative things to say.  The work I've put in the last 4 weeks will be what makes the difference this weekend.  I've worked hard and gotten better, and now it's focusing on the the technique work this week and letting the strength, confidence and technique work I've improved upon shine and to the work! The work has been put in, now I can just go and enjoy it! Alright, I think I'm a little less nervous for the meet now!

Here's an exciting link to share.. USAWeightlifting sent me an e-mail a week-ish ago and asked for some information on me so they could put together an athlete page for me.. here it is!! http://weightlifting.teamusa.org/athletes/carly-mauch  It's an exciting and cool honor to be on the USA Weightlifting website for my accomplishments, but it also means I've got a lot of work to do.  Always more work to be done!