Full Circle: American Open Recap

Here’s the irony of this blog post. 365 days ago I wrote my first blog. It was after snatching 117 and clean and jerking 142 for my very first National medal. That American open Gold medal. I write this blog, a year later, having bombed both snatch and clean and jerk for the first time in my life and getting dead last at this year’s American Open.

That’s a hard pill to swallow and I could list a number of excuses for why this happened but the truth of the matter is the blame sits squarely on my shoulders. However that is not to discredit Mike Szela and Dutch Lowy.

Mike might as well had a business suit on today. You could tell he had his tie tied tight and was suited up ready to go to work. Even his warm-ups his lifts were pristine, consistent, and spot on. This added insult my injury as I always try to be that type of lifter. Hats off to Mike for showing a packed house what great weightlifting looks like.

On that same note, it’s always fun watching a training partner succeed. I loved watching Dutch Lowy step on the platform yesterday and take silver in his first National medal. Dutch stepped to the plate in a big way snatching 115 with ease and the judges credited him with 142. It’s always exciting for me to see a guy in the trenches with me on a regular basis get the credit he deserves for all the hard work he put in. Congrats Dutch!

All that aside my misses at 118 and 120 were inexcusable and 100% because I was focused on something besides weightlifting yesterday. The clean and jerks were just more of the same. However, there is a lot to be learned from failure. In a year that I would sum up as unusually successful and in many ways life-altering, it always burns to taste this kind of failure. This kind of failure sits deep in your heart and stays with you for a long time and it’s burning more and more as I write this. It’s never a good thing to bomb. It’s much worse when you bomb in front of everyone who loves and supports you.

That being said two lessons I walked away with tonight are simple. First, weightlifting meets are business trips. I’m not there to be entertained or to entertain anyone. I’m there to put as much weight as possible from the floor to over my head. I think I got caught up too much yesterday in the experience and was not focused enough on the task at hand. This is a huge lesson for me as I had never experienced that kind of crowd support in my entire weightlifting career and need to walk away having learned how to manage that. The second thing I learned from failure yesterday is how it can impact an athlete. You have one of two choices when faced with this kind of failure. Quit, give up, and let it defeat you. Or pin that failure on your wall in front of your squat rack and remember that every day in the gym is a day to redeem that failure. Failure can be either defeating or motivating. I choose motivating. This American Open may be the meet that pushes my training in a way that I’ve never experienced or thought doable. Failure is not ever pleasant but it can always be good.

Thank you to everyone who came out to support me last night and everyone who watched online and yelled at the computer screen for me. I know that I likely disappointed you but also know that all of you are super supportive and faithful to continue support me. Thanks again. Love y’all!

365 days out…