My rest and recovery week is over now and I am starting my new 8 week program to take me up to Nationals and world domination on Monday. I am meeting up with Harry tomorrow evening to put the finishing touches on it and I am already looking forward to it. There are a few things I must sort out as well as I can in these 8 weeks:
1. Have a flat back when lifting: I have booked my flights and accomodation and myself and Zag are going over to Tom Bruijen's place. He helped me a lot last June and the only time I have been able to lift with a flat back was after training with him. I will be going over from March 31st to April 4th and will train every day. I am already looking forward to it. In the meantime, I will continue to do my back mobility work, flexibility and will do more core training.
2. The plan is to stick to the plan: I am stealing this phrase from Dan John. Basically, I need my plan to be so well organised that what gets me in trouble is taken out of the equation: me! By being more organised and having more specific targets to hit, I will take out my ego and pride. These get me in trouble and cause me to steer clear of the plan. I need and will have far more specific targets and I will stick to them. When I have light days, I will stay light. When I have heavy days, by God I will go heavy. I need to trust the plan and not my mind which lies to me all the time.
3. Widen Snatch grip: I started this when I trained on Monday, Thursday and Friday. I have widened my grip out an inch and a half on both sides and the movement does feel different and I feel less powerful, but I know it is a necessity. I will now no longer Snatch with as narrow a grip as before and I will force my body to co-operate. I know this will help me in the long run and I am willing to sacrifice short term poundage for long term gain.
4. I have to get stronger: While I am taking my time getting used to my new Snatch grip, I will be getting stronger in the squat. The Russian program got me up to where I was when I weighed 100kg--I am now 95--and over the next 8 weeks I need to Back Squat 190 and Front Squat 170. I am expecting this to be relatively comfortable. Like my classical lifts, I will work out what exactly I need to be lifting each week in order to get those numbers without psyching myself to the gills and going all powerlifter on it. I now I can do it.
5. Take my mind out of my lifting: When I was going well in January and early February, I disciplined myself to leave out thinking and analysing while lifting. Reading The Inner Game of Tennis really helped me on this front and I will read parts of the book again. Focus on feel and leave the mind out of it. If I could do it before I can do it again.Instead of worrying about whether my positioning is right and am I finishing the pull vertically rather than horizontally and am I keeping the bar close and am I etc etc etc. Shut up. Just shut up. I will listen to Byrdie when he tells me that now.
That is it really. I worked up to a few singles with 97 in the Snatch on Friday and 110 in the Clean and Jerk. I worked up to an easy 170 Back Squat and I failed 180 annoyingly, but I know I will get that next time I go for it. Monday is the start of a new cycle and a new perspective. Stick to the plan. Stick to the plan. Now it is up to me and the lads to write a plan that I am fully confident in taking me to the 120/150 that I know is there.
This is the dawning of a new day in Irish weightlifting. I can feel it and it is coming to fruition in our senior male and female lifters and some of our masters' athletes. We can do it. We need to work together to do it. We need to organise a two week training camp in June or July where we set our stall for the future and the present. It can be in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria or even at home if we get one or two coaches in. Everyone needs to lend their organisational skills, their time and intelligence. We have a lot of smart people in Irish weightlifting and we need to use them for everyone's benefit. We can keep inching up like we have or we can seize Irish weighlifting by the scruff of the neck and snap it overhead so that it looks from a higher and more advantageous perspective. We can do it.
Showing posts with label Thought. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thought. Show all posts
Saturday 27 February 2010
Thursday 11 February 2010
Thursday's treatise: an article on why I am a weightlifter
I have been thinking about what Olympic weightlifting can offer a person and why we, as individuals, train and compete in this sport. Each person has different motivations and aspirations, but I believe—or hope!—that sometimes a group of people, regardless of nationality, can experience similar passions, trials and tribulations. Here is a brief portrait of why I view Olympic weightlifting as my path to fulfilment.
Weightlifting appeals to my underlying personality. My parents raised me as a lifelong learner and in the twenty months since I gave up rugby to train with the barbell instead, my inner perspective has, and still, continues to evolve. Weightlifting forces me to look at myself as I really am and how I want to be. Do I want the sublime athleticism of Kolecki? The ruthless efficiency of Kakishvilli? The brute power and showmanship of Dimas? No. I want to be myself. The beauty of this journey is that I am continuously discovering what exactly I want to be, and more importantly, what I am. This differentiation is vital for anyone who seeks to progress, adapt and evolve on any front.
Our sport requires a mix of brutal honesty and romantic ambition. These two traits are seemingly at odds, but I feel that they actually fortify and strengthen each other. Without ambition, there can be no will to improve. Without honesty, there can be no method to improve. I think we all know that when genuine will power and thoughtfully structured planning are combined, totals tend to soar. Things tend to change. You need to believe that your body is capable of far more than it is currently achieving in strength, speed, power, skill and flexibility. Can your ability to focus on the task at hand improve with dedicated practise? Can you change how you respond to external and internal pressure? You need to believe that your body and your mind are capable of adapting to the stresses placed upon it. I need to believe this. One without the other is a flagrant waste of potential, but this essential belief is there in all of us, if...we dare to expose it.
Are we ashamed of our romantic ambition? Do we really think we are good enough to go looking for the total of our dreams? This requires genuine testicular fortitude—metaphorical for the fairer sex!—which cannot be faked. Time and actions reveal all. Courage matched with ambition can become a potent tool. What I believe makes this tool accurate, is brutal honesty. You need it. Your training partners need it for themselves and as a group. Your coach, if, like me you are lucky enough to have one, must have the courage to question his or her methods. Do you have the belief in yourself to hit a raw nerve and go for the jugular; can you look at yourself in the mirror and work on what frustrates you about your lifting? This is where honesty and, what it hopefully leads to, planning, comes in.
Planning, whether it is short, medium or long term, is needed. Specific planning for you, the lifter, can only be optimal when one’s strengths and weaknesses are critically analysed. This is why your coach needs to be as self aware as you are, because he or she may have to examine their traditional beliefs about technique and how to construct a program. It is not enough to try new exercises or different repetition and set ranges. Getting stronger is not enough. How a movement is felt and understood both physically and intellectually has to change; coaching cues may need to evolve; how you use mental imagery before and during a lift may need to be coloured in differently. Your entire understanding—and initially, your comfort—of each lift may need to change. Most of us are amateur lifters who lift for love. We do not have professional coaches and our lives are not tailored around workouts. We need more than the elite to progress. This requires self belief and faith, which can only be rewarded with an improved total when there is a plan that is intelligently structured. Can you picture breaking down your body and mind to build yourself stronger? Then roll on the romantic ambition and brutal honesty.
These are traits that I want and need to develop and weightlifting helps me do so. For the last nineteen months I have chosen weightlifting as one of the main avenues in which I can improve myself in body and mind; in strength and health; in my maturing as a man. Before this game was called strength training, it was called physical culture. Culture implies development and progress: this is why I love the sport of Olympic weightlifting.
Weightlifting appeals to my underlying personality. My parents raised me as a lifelong learner and in the twenty months since I gave up rugby to train with the barbell instead, my inner perspective has, and still, continues to evolve. Weightlifting forces me to look at myself as I really am and how I want to be. Do I want the sublime athleticism of Kolecki? The ruthless efficiency of Kakishvilli? The brute power and showmanship of Dimas? No. I want to be myself. The beauty of this journey is that I am continuously discovering what exactly I want to be, and more importantly, what I am. This differentiation is vital for anyone who seeks to progress, adapt and evolve on any front.
Our sport requires a mix of brutal honesty and romantic ambition. These two traits are seemingly at odds, but I feel that they actually fortify and strengthen each other. Without ambition, there can be no will to improve. Without honesty, there can be no method to improve. I think we all know that when genuine will power and thoughtfully structured planning are combined, totals tend to soar. Things tend to change. You need to believe that your body is capable of far more than it is currently achieving in strength, speed, power, skill and flexibility. Can your ability to focus on the task at hand improve with dedicated practise? Can you change how you respond to external and internal pressure? You need to believe that your body and your mind are capable of adapting to the stresses placed upon it. I need to believe this. One without the other is a flagrant waste of potential, but this essential belief is there in all of us, if...we dare to expose it.
Are we ashamed of our romantic ambition? Do we really think we are good enough to go looking for the total of our dreams? This requires genuine testicular fortitude—metaphorical for the fairer sex!—which cannot be faked. Time and actions reveal all. Courage matched with ambition can become a potent tool. What I believe makes this tool accurate, is brutal honesty. You need it. Your training partners need it for themselves and as a group. Your coach, if, like me you are lucky enough to have one, must have the courage to question his or her methods. Do you have the belief in yourself to hit a raw nerve and go for the jugular; can you look at yourself in the mirror and work on what frustrates you about your lifting? This is where honesty and, what it hopefully leads to, planning, comes in.
Planning, whether it is short, medium or long term, is needed. Specific planning for you, the lifter, can only be optimal when one’s strengths and weaknesses are critically analysed. This is why your coach needs to be as self aware as you are, because he or she may have to examine their traditional beliefs about technique and how to construct a program. It is not enough to try new exercises or different repetition and set ranges. Getting stronger is not enough. How a movement is felt and understood both physically and intellectually has to change; coaching cues may need to evolve; how you use mental imagery before and during a lift may need to be coloured in differently. Your entire understanding—and initially, your comfort—of each lift may need to change. Most of us are amateur lifters who lift for love. We do not have professional coaches and our lives are not tailored around workouts. We need more than the elite to progress. This requires self belief and faith, which can only be rewarded with an improved total when there is a plan that is intelligently structured. Can you picture breaking down your body and mind to build yourself stronger? Then roll on the romantic ambition and brutal honesty.
These are traits that I want and need to develop and weightlifting helps me do so. For the last nineteen months I have chosen weightlifting as one of the main avenues in which I can improve myself in body and mind; in strength and health; in my maturing as a man. Before this game was called strength training, it was called physical culture. Culture implies development and progress: this is why I love the sport of Olympic weightlifting.
Monday 19 January 2009
A bit more clarification
I had a wonderful massage tonight that focused on my hip flexors, glute meds, IT bands, calves, hamstrings and quads. Everything feels looser now and hopefully my hips will not be as tight as they usually are, particularly the right one.
On a different note, I am a 94kg lifter and am 1.86m tall. Here are my best lifts to date:
Snatch--106 (In competition)
Clean and Jerk--131 in competition and 135 in training
Back Squat--170--fully ass to grass and without belt
Front Squat--150--as above
My coach, the honourable Harry Leech, has been increasing my lifting volume in the following ways: we have added a fifth session per week; we are squatting after most sessions now; we are simply doing more sets with slightly less intensity. It will take my CNS a while to adapt to the higher workload--my muscles on the other hand are used to getting bludgeoned to death as a rugby player and training fanatic over the years.
If you don't realise it I am based in Dublin, Ireland. There is a competition in the University of Limerick on the 7th of February and I am to get 108 in the Snatch and 135 in the Clean and Jerk. I know I can get these and that I am not overstretching myself. We will be training through the competition so that we can focus on the Senior Irish Weightlifting Championships on in the end of April, so that is the end goal at the moment.
After reading Cathal's post, I am going to try and focus on technique more in the warm up and when visualising outside the gym. This should allow for more focus and speed in the lifts themselves. Anyone that has any thoughts on this topic, please post.
I posted a video of Konstantinov, here is one from Sagir from 2004 when he won his gold medal. This looks like pure power, speed and athleticism rather than the technically sounder snatch of the former. Any thoughts?
On a different note, I am a 94kg lifter and am 1.86m tall. Here are my best lifts to date:
Snatch--106 (In competition)
Clean and Jerk--131 in competition and 135 in training
Back Squat--170--fully ass to grass and without belt
Front Squat--150--as above
My coach, the honourable Harry Leech, has been increasing my lifting volume in the following ways: we have added a fifth session per week; we are squatting after most sessions now; we are simply doing more sets with slightly less intensity. It will take my CNS a while to adapt to the higher workload--my muscles on the other hand are used to getting bludgeoned to death as a rugby player and training fanatic over the years.
If you don't realise it I am based in Dublin, Ireland. There is a competition in the University of Limerick on the 7th of February and I am to get 108 in the Snatch and 135 in the Clean and Jerk. I know I can get these and that I am not overstretching myself. We will be training through the competition so that we can focus on the Senior Irish Weightlifting Championships on in the end of April, so that is the end goal at the moment.
After reading Cathal's post, I am going to try and focus on technique more in the warm up and when visualising outside the gym. This should allow for more focus and speed in the lifts themselves. Anyone that has any thoughts on this topic, please post.
I posted a video of Konstantinov, here is one from Sagir from 2004 when he won his gold medal. This looks like pure power, speed and athleticism rather than the technically sounder snatch of the former. Any thoughts?
Sunday 18 January 2009
Training over the last two days
On Friday I had one of those days were I was tired from a week of teaching, coaching and training, so I knew when I was walking over to the platform I was going to simply lift and keep my mouth shut unlike usual. I had also determined that I would avoid analysing my technique at all and I would simply lift as fast as I could. Here is the session I did:
Jerk Technique with the bar--I work on my jerk at the start and end of each session because it needs all the help it can get.
Overhead Squats--4x3
Drop Snatch--1x3@bar, 40, 50
Snatch--1x2@60, 70 1x1@75, 80, 85, 89, 92, 94x6--This is the first time I have gotten all six attempts in a row with a weight over 90. I avoided the paralysis by analysis trap that it is all to easy to fall into.
Clean and Jerk--1x3@40, 60 1x1@80, 90, 100, 110, 116x3--Again, I got all my lifts and they were relatively fast. Because I was tired they were not as technically perfect as I would have liked, but c'est la vie. I did not miss a single lift all night and I was very happy with this.
Ab vacuums--4x30 on/off
Raised Knee to Chest--3x20
On Saturday, I had an early session and I was fatigued from my week and it was one of those sessions that you really have to push yourself to get through it. Nothing was fast or sharp, but it had to be done regardless.
Jerk Skill work with bar
Power Clean and Jerk--1x3@40, 50
Overhead Squats--4x3
Drop Snatch--1x3@bar, 40, 50, 1x1@60--Even these were slow.
Hang Power Snatch--1x3@60, 65, 70, 75x3--These got better as they went on.
Jerk From Rack--1x3@60, 60 1x2@70 1x1@80, 90, 100, 105--This was rough despite how light it was, so I went back to 100 for 3 more singles. Not today I am afraid.
Back Squats--1x3@60, 60,80, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140x3
Ab vacuums--4x30 on/off
Knees to chest--3x20
So, the main question that Friday's session raised was this: is it better to avoid all thought when lifting--a book worth reading is Zen in the Art of Archery-- or is it better to think of whatever facet of technique you are working on? Or, is it more worthwhile to analyse technique in the earlier, lighter lifts and then abandon thought once the weight starts to mount? The approach of not thinking about technique worked for me on Friday, but it this the way forward?
Jerk Technique with the bar--I work on my jerk at the start and end of each session because it needs all the help it can get.
Overhead Squats--4x3
Drop Snatch--1x3@bar, 40, 50
Snatch--1x2@60, 70 1x1@75, 80, 85, 89, 92, 94x6--This is the first time I have gotten all six attempts in a row with a weight over 90. I avoided the paralysis by analysis trap that it is all to easy to fall into.
Clean and Jerk--1x3@40, 60 1x1@80, 90, 100, 110, 116x3--Again, I got all my lifts and they were relatively fast. Because I was tired they were not as technically perfect as I would have liked, but c'est la vie. I did not miss a single lift all night and I was very happy with this.
Ab vacuums--4x30 on/off
Raised Knee to Chest--3x20
On Saturday, I had an early session and I was fatigued from my week and it was one of those sessions that you really have to push yourself to get through it. Nothing was fast or sharp, but it had to be done regardless.
Jerk Skill work with bar
Power Clean and Jerk--1x3@40, 50
Overhead Squats--4x3
Drop Snatch--1x3@bar, 40, 50, 1x1@60--Even these were slow.
Hang Power Snatch--1x3@60, 65, 70, 75x3--These got better as they went on.
Jerk From Rack--1x3@60, 60 1x2@70 1x1@80, 90, 100, 105--This was rough despite how light it was, so I went back to 100 for 3 more singles. Not today I am afraid.
Back Squats--1x3@60, 60,80, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140x3
Ab vacuums--4x30 on/off
Knees to chest--3x20
So, the main question that Friday's session raised was this: is it better to avoid all thought when lifting--a book worth reading is Zen in the Art of Archery-- or is it better to think of whatever facet of technique you are working on? Or, is it more worthwhile to analyse technique in the earlier, lighter lifts and then abandon thought once the weight starts to mount? The approach of not thinking about technique worked for me on Friday, but it this the way forward?
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