My WDFPF World Championships Experience

[Hazzard]

Prior to competing at this competition, I hadn’t done so outside of the comfort of my home turf in Bournemouth, where I went to university. The time I spent in Scotland both lifting and with friends and family certainly wont be one that I forget soon and, despite it being an exhausting weekend that has left me both physically and mentally drained, I can’t help but say that I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This has been my first year competing in powerlifting and primarily concentrating on the big three lifts it involves (squat, bench press and deadlift) and am therefore very proud to have taken this opportunity to represent England at the WDFPF World Powerlifting Championships in Glasgow. To say it was a day of highs and lows would be cliched, but not particularly inaccurate. It commenced at 7am in the morning with a nice and early wake up and drive to the venue, following a restless sleep. The nerves has initiated the night before and weren’t relenting throughout the morning. Neverthless: it was game time.

My friend and training partner, Julian, and I arrived at Scotstoun stadium, a new £14 million venue that has been chosen to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and were thoroughly impressed by what we saw: it was spacious, both in regards to the lifting area and the warm-up room, and it looked professional. A good start. With 126 competitors billed to compete on the Saturday alone we knew it would be a long day, which ultimately began with having to queue just to get weighed in. Upon stepping on the scales I came out at a hefty 119.6kg, which is rather a lot of kilograms. Having said that, I knew I was nowhere near the 125kg boundary so just spent the prior week or so munching my way through whatever I could find in order to pack on a few bonus pounds.

Weigh in was followed by kit check, which was followed by choosing a rack height for the squat. And then the relaxing, sitting, supporting and eating commenced. This started badly with a half hour delay to the start of the lifting and after sitting and watching the lifters do their thing it gradually began to sink in that Julian and I weren’t going to start lifting until well into the afternoon. I’m not sure of the exact time, but I posted a Tweet saying that I had finished squatting at 6pm. This ridiculously long weight did not a happy Pete make, and whilst I don’t wish to make excuses, I would bet on it having at least some detrimental effect on my performance.

Which was nothing compared to what Julian went through. The morning flights of lifters had been posted on the wall and upon this occurring they were given half an hour to warm up. Because one of the flights had been split into two due to the sheer number of lifters, we were unaware of whether or not Julian’s flight would have the same done to it and so had no real idea as to when he should be warming up. To cut a story short, his warm up abruptly ended with us being told he had to be on the platform in about five minutes. He jumped from a 140kg squat, to a 180kg squat to the 205kg opener on the platform. Which he promptly failed. The sheer ridiculousness of the situation and utter lack of organisation in regards to informing the lifters almost cost him the competition. However, with our guidance and support, he went back out and smashed the 205.

But anyway, just over 600 words in and I worry this might drag, so allow me to continue my own story. Upon Julian’s flight nearing completion I started to warm-up for the squat and surprisingly my nerves had started to dissipate. Usually, however, by this time I’m so focused on lifting that nervousness simply doesn’t occur to me any more. Smashed through the warm-up and finished with a solid 207.5kg, spotted and judged by some of the other lifters I was sharing a rack with. It was then time to lift.

The 220 opener was utterly destroyed, both in depth and confidence and I felt good going into my second lift. I had decided the night before to play it safe and hit 227.5, the same I had to grind out a few weeks ago and despite my adrenaline and desire to lift more it was almost as difficult. Still, that was 500lbs in the bag with the first lift and considering my apprehension with opening with 220 and anything that came after it given the rather unsuccessful last few weeks of squatting I was reasonably pleased. I went for the 232.5, but nothing really came of it. Definitely need to work on tapering the weight and reps for a meet so I peak at the right time.

Feeling confident, I was ready to hit the bench press. Warming up was a bit of a pain, as all the benches in the warm up area were foldable, so I found it hard to set myself comfortably on them. Also, the platform and my shoes didn’t mix and I was slipping all over the place. Nonetheless, with the help of Julian’s friend and training partner from back home spotting me, I zipped through the warm-up and finished with an easy 132.5kg, ready to hit the platform. And it started reasonably well. The 145 was a touch harder than it should’ve been, but I put this down to a slightly dodgy load by my newly found spotter. Not really his fault as he’d never had to spot me on the bench before and so synergy between us was fairly limited so I was confident going into the 155. Which I missed. And then again. Which I also missed. This was the most frustrating part of the day as I should’ve nailed the 155 and gone onto the 160. I guess it was a combination of a long pause at the bottom and exhaustion that caused me to fail – it was past 7pm by this point!

I wasn’t feeling too great heading into the deadlift. My lower back was tight, so I Deep Heat-ed the hell out of it, and I was feeling groggy. Too much sitting around and boredom do not make for a great pre-comp experience. Still, it was deadlift time and I warmed up to 220kg and headed to the platform. My opener was a safe 230kg, which felt lighter and easier than usual. Strange, considering how I physically felt. Confident, I decided to go for 242.5kg for my second lift, setting a 2.5kg competition PB. Nailed it with ease. Then came the final lift, so I went for 250kg, a quarter of a ton, to make it sound better. Came flying up. If I was doing this in the gym I definitely would’ve gone for 260 and destroyed it. But despite this, the lifting was over. Done. Finito. After months of training, preparation, tension and stress, I had finally competed at the world championships in my first season of powerlifting.

With the 622.5kg total I hadn’t quite achieved what I wanted to. Missing that bench put a massive dent into my total and was the main cause of my somewhat disappointing result. Regardless of whether or not I achieved my targets I still wouldn’t have become junior world champion as the guy that did destroyed my PBs and hammered the squat world record up to 250kg! **** sake. Still, it was an awesome day all round, despite some dodgy refereeing, lack of lights (they were holding up pieces of red and white paper – at the world championships!), and horrendous organisation, I had a great time and will always appreciate all the support I got throughout the process.

Bring on 2012.

Forgot to take my mate's video camera, but should hopefully have some pictures up in the next couple of days or so. Oh, and I got a medal!


BIG EDIT: Stole some pictures from my friend's Facebook album and thought I'd put some of them up here, sorry for the quality, but here you go:

The venue and lifting platforms:



227.5kg squat, looks rather unimpressive when using 50kg plates (the green ones):



Bench press:



Deadlift:



And the night out on Sunday:

[Fazc]

Nice write up, and awesome job! Very pleased for you.

[5kgLifter]

Great write-up Hazzard! Considering some of the things that you mention (lifting late, foldable benches, different spotter...etc), circumstances which do affect performance on the day, I think you rocked it!!

[LtL]

Nice write up and a great job. 2012 will be big for Team TNT!

LtL

[big_swede]

Good stuff Haz! Congrats buddy

[Mr.Silverback]

Beautiful Hazz

[Hazzard]

Originally Posted by Mr.Silverback

Beautiful Hazz

Thank you buddy.

Originally Posted by Fazc

Nice write up, and awesome job! Very pleased for you.

Thank you mate, glad you enjoyed it. We'll have a great year in 2012 - lots of MaB medals!

Originally Posted by 5kgLifter

Great write-up Hazzard! Considering some of the things that you mention (lifting late, foldable benches, different spotter...etc), circumstances which do affect performance on the day, I think you rocked it!!

Thank you Babs, even with the circumstances I still should've nailed that bench. Still, onwards and upwards!

Originally Posted by LtL

Nice write up and a great job. 2012 will be big for Team TNT!

LtL

Thank you buddy, couldn't have done it without you. By Q2 next year: 250 squat, 170+ bench, 280 deadlift. BIG.

Originally Posted by big_swede

Good stuff Haz! Congrats buddy

Thank you very much my Swedish friend!

[bruteforce]

Great read Hazz. Congratulations on your meet and medal!

[tank]

nice write-up. thanks for sharing your experience and great work bro.

[markievicz]

great write up Pete and thanks for sharing

looking forward to seeing you smash it in 2012!!