Olympic Lifting

Saturday is the Montana Big Sky State games, athletes from all over the state in a ton of different sports get together and compete.  This year, lucky for me, is the first year they will be having olympic lifting.  So Saturday will be my second meet.  I don't really expect there to be anyone else in my weight bracket, so I'm mostly competing again myself.  But that's ok, I've only been doing this a few months.

I thought I'd take a minute to educate and clarify about olympic lifting because I keep getting asked what events I'll be doing.  Which is ok, olympic lifting isn't hugely popular.  When most people think of competitive lifting, they are thinking of power lifting: bench press, squats, and dead lift. Power lifting vs. Olympic lifting are two very different things.  Power lifting is more about sheer brute strength.  Olympic lifting involves a huge amount of technique to make a successful lift.  In power lifting you can compete in 2 or 3 events (the lifts I mentioned before).  Olympic lifting is always both a snatch, and a clean and jerk.  You always do both lifts, you have three attempts at each lift.  Your best lift from each is added together for your final score.  Your lifts also have to meet some technical requirements, so you have three judges watching you.  I won't get into the details.

Here's a snatch:

Here's a clean and jerk:

(What's amazing is that girl is smaller than me and lifting nearly double what I lift right now.... Her snatch was about 187lbs in that clip, and the clean and jerk was 220lbs... can you say beast?)

Anyways... So I've been getting ready for the state games.  I'm a little nervous, my snatch has been kind of a train wreck the last couple weeks.  I've been missing weights that I've hit before.  I'm hoping the adrenaline of being in front of the crowd snaps me out of it.  Oly lifting can be as much mental as physical, it is so easy to psych yourself out and think too much causing you to miss a lift.

My plan is to open at 38kg on the snatch (about 85#).  My goal is to hit 46kg (100#) but we'll see how the day goes.  I'm comfortable with my clean and jerk.  I'm going to open at 48kg (105#) maybe shoot for 55kg or 57kg (120# or 125#).