Training Your Brain For A Competition

I coach a lot of beginner lifters that have their first meet coming up next week. I've fielded a lot of questions and eased a lot of minds about what to expect the last few days.

There have been a lot of articles written about meet prep but I haven't seen many about how to train your brain for a competition. My good friend Adrienne suggested I make a post about it so here it is!

Let's get metaphysical

Do Things You Hate

Well you weightlift so safe to say you hate yourself a little bit already. That's a joke guys. Sort of. I mean think about it: You're competing in a sport where I'm sure you've cursed the barbell more times than not. That barbell can chew you up and spit you right out if you're not ready. 

When I first started competitive lifting over a decade ago I would make myself so nervous that I threw up before every meet. Then I decided to just make myself really uncomfortable a lot in training so that on meet day I was prepared for anything that would happen.

 I don't recommend doing these things all the time but try them out from time to time. 

1. Lift around people who really annoy you on a day you have a hard session planned. Learn to block out their negative energy. 

2. Don't like lifting with people around you? Get used to it.  After all at a meet you're going to have a host of judges around you and (hopefully) a crowd. If you are about to lift and someone is standing in your eyeline, don't wait for them to move. Make your lift. Of course use your judgement on their proximal distance from you so no one dies. And if you're the guy always standing in people's eyelines no one likes you and you probably won't be missed. Again that is a total joke. No hate mail please. 

All eyes will be on you. Get used to feeling that. Photo: Tim Addison

3. Only like lifting with people around you? Take a solo session if you can. Learn to be alone with your thoughts. They will be racing on meet day. Learn how that feels. 

Welcome to your game day. Learn to stand alone. Photo: Tim Addison

4. If you always listen to music training take a day and don't listen to any. Guess how much plays when you are on a platform? Generally absolutely none. You can also listen to a genre that you despise for a set or two. If you don't listen to music try listening to some one day. In a nutshell just do the opposite of normal. 

5. Everyone and their mom just loves to wear singlets right? Get over it and wear it at least once a week. Don't put shorts or pants on over it. Don't put a shirt on over it (unless you plan to wear one under it at a meet). Get used to lifting in it and having all eyes on you while you do it. If anyone cracks a joke remind them that you're preparing for a meet and ask when they are competing in one. If that backfires show them the Leonardo DiCaprio picture. 

If you get involved in a fisticuffs match with singlet hater say this to the authorities. Disclaimer: don't get involved in a fisticuffs match. 

6. increase your heart rate and then try to lower it quickly as you approach the bar. You never know what will happen on a platform. Maybe you'll have to rush over to it (unlikely with a good coach but crazy things happen so prep for it). Maybe you'll have to follow yourself. 

Learn to breathe with purpose. I used to jump around before bench press attempts and slap myself to increase my adrenaline and try to come down before sitting down because that was my weakest lift and it made me nervous. It worked. I went 3/3 in the following meets on that lift. 

Get focused and breathe

7. Prepare for mishaps. Take the bar and the attempt as it is some days. What does that mean? Don't reset the bar if hits the squat rack on the way out. Breathe and take the attempt. Get out of your head. Bar not perfectly centered on the platform? So what. Lift it anyway without readjusting it. 

If you do have a funny mishap, Bob Saget wants to see it

Do Things You Love

Making yourself uncomfortable works wonders for your psyche but sometimes you have to do things that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside too. I recommend doing these throughout your training but especially meet week. 

1. Lift with your friends. Training can be fun. There's a time and a place to laugh during sessions too. You'll need a lot of laughter the week of your meet if you're nervous. 

Mississippi Barbell athletes training one Saturday

Coach Tyler giving real time feedback, complete with jokes, to athlete George

2. Get a sports massage or some soft tissue work done by your local licensed chiropractor. 

We use Clayton Pitts off Lakeland behind Primos at Norville Chiropractic

3. Get a manicure and/or pedicure. I don't know what the male equivalent of this would be. Get your beard trimmed?

Say this immediately after your nails are done. Draw out the "a" or it doesn't count. 

4. Take a bubble bath or Epsom salt bath. Male or female: bust out that Mr. Bubble and relax your brain. 

Have A Routine 

Routine is good. With routine comes autopilot that will kick in when you need it. 

1. Approach the bar the same way every time. On game day do the same. You'll have tunnel vision and go off that autopilot. For snatch and clean and jerk I look down at the ground and walk to the bar. I continue to look down so I don't see the sea of faces around me. I set my feet up how I always do, get my grip positioned right, and don't look up until I'm ready to pull. For my squats in powerlifting I do the same. I look at the bar on the horizon though. I get under the bar the same way every time, step out the same way, and let my body do what it does best. 

Try not to call anyone "Surely" either

2. Routinely hit weights or attempt to hit weights that make you nervous. Feel the nerves at practice. On game day you'll know what you're capable of and it won't be as bad as you think. 

3. Time your rest between attempts and gear it towards what type of meet you are attending. Depending on the size and type of meet you may get your attempts quickly or you may be waiting for a while. Do your research and plan for both. 

If you wear this clock at a meet you will become my new best friend. Hat optional. 

4. Practice what you'll do at the meet. Know your warm ups before going into a meet. Don't wing it on that day. Have a mock meet. Eat the same foods you eat in training; if you don't you may spend all morning in the bathroom. Train around the same time as you will be lifting when you can. Time zones are killer. Adjust accordingly. I recommend getting yourself a coach to figure all of this out for you. You should just go lift. Don't even worry about the rest if you have a competent coach. 

Don't let this be you

Iron Lesson: Prepare your mind like you prepare your body for a meet and you'll be fine. Find a competent coach who has meet experience if you can. If you can't then do all the research you can and ask questions to anyone who will listen. You're competing in a meet and that's more than most people can say. Everyone loves to talk but you're the one walking the walk. Own it. 

Yes that's Albert Einstein

Words & Wounds

Anyone with an eating disorder knows that it never really goes away. Whenever you are stressed or if you see something that triggers you, the thoughts come back. The only difference is now you calm those thoughts and don't act on them. 

I've had some familiar and unwanted thoughts come back into my life. I know why they resurfaced; a cocktail of stress, old pictures, and powerlifting meet week. 

Stress

Stress is a big trigger for disordered thoughts. Most use the EDs to cope with the stress but really the ED adds even more stress. You just live in a vicious cycle until you decide to break it.

Obligatory dog picture

For the past few months I've been free of that cycle. It's been awesome. I would look at myself and just see a strong person. My shoulders and waist looked great to me. I was lifting big weight, I was happy, and I didn't cry trying on bridesmaid dresses and bathing suits. Last week I even wore human clothes three times: including dresses and heels!

You can have all the self confidence in the world and brush off what people say about your body. But sometimes, like right now, when you've heard comments about your body numerous times in the last month...eventually it gets to you. Couple that with big life stressors and you have a recipe for a meltdown.

My face when the last half of my avocado slips out my hand

Two family members told me I had "fat legs" and that I had gotten "fat". Doesn't matter I'm feeling great about myself, wearing shorts regularly in public and training, and doing what I love. That stuff stings but I let it go.

My face when people are rude 

Then I had total strangers say things to me. 

The dress alteration lady said I had "broad shoulders". 

An employee at the dress shop took my measurements, and when I told her not to tell me my sizes due to recovering from an eating disorder, said "Your waist is so tiny in comparison to the rest of you." 

A bank teller said "I couldn't have your legs. I just want to be lean and toned."

Diesel can't handle their judgment either

A passerby at a grocery store said I was "thick".

A friend told me I wasn't built for aesthetics but for "performance". 

So after I was reminded by someone else how "fat" my legs had gotten, I started to question what I was seeing in the mirror. Apparently what I was seeing wasn't as pretty as I thought it was.

Old Picture

That Molotov cocktail was ready to light my world up if I let it. Unfortunately, I let it.

I was looking for a #tbt picture or video and found some old pictures from pre-injury (summer 2013). That was when I lost it.

Thee left was pre-injury Amber. I saw this and was like "Wow. Now I can see where the 30 pounds I gained went." Nevermind the fact you were pretty much sedentary with your lower body for 10 months. Nevermind that you switched sports. Nevermind the fact you got your brain healthy. Nevermind the fact that in the left I was barely eating and my training logs read like a cry for help. Nevermind I eat healthy, with a good mind set, regularly, and perform your lifts well without pain. 

None of that mattered. All I saw was how I looked and how I looked to other people. You can't sit there and say there isn't a marked difference. If there wasn't then people wouldn't be telling me I'm fat. I've calculated my macros and I am not mentally strong enough to track my food. I sob over a banana's nutrients. So if you're reading this don't you dare send me any kind of message that I just need to clean up my diet. You can ask my roommate how much prep I do for the week. 

Then I got mad at myself. Is what I just typed a road block? The past has shown me it's not. It's real. My disordered brain can't handle tracking. I get mad that I can't handle it. Why? I'm a perfectionist.

In my head I heard another recent comment someone told me: "Just exercise more." First of all that is the WORST thing to tell someone whose former ED manifested in exercise bulimia. Second of all I DO exercise. Our sessions are grueling and I see gains from them. I tried to run again but it hurt my back and did more harm than good to my brain. Spin triggers me like you wouldn't believe and is horrible on my back. So I started adding rowing to my warm ups; I can't lean all the way back due to my back but I do what I can. I can't tell you how many people I see get injured or lose hope and just fall off the face of the earth. But I don't. I didn't.

Instead I get constantly reminded of what I used to look like. From others but even worse from myself.

Powerlifting Meet

Powerlifting triggers me way more than weightlifting. I think it's because I had done it longer and there are more weight classes to have to fit into it. I started when I was a bright eyed bushy tailed high school kid and I remember making my mom cook just soup the week of a meet. Regardless if I needed to drop weight or not. I always wanted to be the smallest girl in my class (DISCLAIMER THAT IS NOT WHAT YOU SHOULD STRIVE TO DO: check out my Athletes & Eating Disordered blog here: 

http://ironlessons.blogspot.com/2014/06/athletes-and-eating-disorders.html )

Dead eyed, bushy tailed Amber

This meet is especially hard on my brain because it's my first full one back. I bombed that bench press meet for a variety of reasons in February. I have the added pressure of people expecting me to get my records back. And I can't help but think back on the numbers I hit 30 pounds lighter and feel like I've gotten weaker. The meet is 6.5 hours away too and we all know my car is on her last leg; frustrated with myself and the situation at the moment.

Last full meet; July 2013

I've had a hard time getting an appetite with the stress and these thoughts. But I have been eating. Usually training forces me to eat but I haven't wanted to even train. I still go though because if I don't the negative thoughts win. 

 I need to get out of my head and clear out expectations. At the end of the day, you affect the outcome of your life. I eeven went back and re-read my old blog Choose Your Thoughts (http://ironlessons.blogspot.com/2014/07/choose-your-thoughts.html ).

Iron Lesson: Don't live in the past. Delete or hide old pictures of yourself just like you do for exes. Find your self-worth in thinking you are beautiful and try not to let other negative views impact your own body image. Watch the words you use to describe others; they matter more than you can know. In the immortal ways of Taylor Swift, "Haters gonna hate (x3)....Shake it off, shake  shake shake it off!"

http://instagram.com/p/sdKRVLw1WX/ (<<<< My Shake It Off Dance gem>>>>)

Book Review: Daniel Camargo's Cues & Corrections

“Knees out.”

“Chest up.”

“Heels.”

Sound familiar? If you've been involved in weightlifting or even CrossFit for any amount of time it's safe to say you've heard these cues. Anyone can spit them out at an athlete. A cue may not seem like rocket science but there are a lot of factors that go into why a coach is saying it, when he is saying it, and how it is being said so that the athlete can benefit the most from it.  

What Makes This Worth Buying?

No one is better at cueing athletes than Danny Camargo. The 24 year USAW veteran and CrossFit coach’s first and Catalyst Athletics’ most recent published volume  Cues & Corrections brings the lost art form of cueing to the masses in one concise manual. It’s unique  in that it introduces progressions but focuses almost exclusively  on cues and corrections for each individual lift. It bridges the gap left by a majority of weightlifting coaching manuals in that it gives the reader practical knowledge and allows them to implement what they’ve learned immediately. 

Camargo's 24 years worth of USAW athlete and coaching jackets

But make no mistake: Cues & Corrections is not just a cut and dry rehash of things you have read before. You may have seen progressions or heard of some of the cues or corrections  because it's hard to reinvent the wheel on movements that have been around longer than you've been alive. However Camargo brings a fresh perspective on how to teach the lifts and get cues across to athlete's by sprinkling in his own war stories and anecdotes that  help coaches relate to their athletes. As an American record holding weightlifter, international weightlifting coach, and CrossFit affiliate owner and Regionals coach, Camargo has plenty of experiences with athletes of all abilities to share with the reader. 

Progressions

The reader is first introduced to Camargo’s Progression series for the snatch, clean and jerk. By separating the lifts into their own section he is able to deliver progressions in a concise and comprehensive format anyone can  grasp. In doing so Camargo allows the reader to properly comprehend and soak up each movement on their own without being rushed through the volume. This seemingly trivial separation is critical because it makes referencing back to the manual easier.  For example while some of the snatch and clean errors and cues may be similar, each is given their own section with just as much as detail as the other (along with nuisances). 

The movements are  technical but Camargo easily explains them in a way that only a life-long veteran of the sport could. His description of the mid hang power snatch rivals any other explanation and progression I have seen to date. 

Camargo being interviewed for Catalyst Athletics/Greg Everett documentary American Weightlifting

Cues & Corrections 

Unlike other books which stop at progressions, Camargo takes his volume one step further. He arms his readers with detailed corrective exercises and cues but  also tells the reader why these exercises and cues are being used. He informs coaches about potential structural imbalances and fixes. It’s refreshing that Camargo doesn't BS his reader; some errors are caused by more than one issue and he doesn't shy away from that . The book helps coaches understand that, spot multiple errors at once, and utilize a singular cue that will fix all the errors at once (and in due time). Some of the most helpful portions of the Correction section were those errors that very rarely get addressed in detail publicly:  athletes on their toes during the dip and drive, bars crashing during a clean, missing lifts behind, and the infamous donkey kicking so many new athletes love to the do. For me one of the most useful sections in the entire book was the in depth analysis of the split jerk, something you don't see separated often, and creating cues from things your own athletes say. 

Camargo has years of experience with cueing and correcting large and small groups of athletes 

Technology & Visuals

While Camargo has a knack for easily conveying complex movements through text he doesn't forget that our craft is visual. Throughout the book there are photographs and comparisons of progressions as well as errors. Many sections have side by side comparisons of errors and corrections so coaches can easily spot the deficiency. One of the most memorable parts of the book was Camargo’s photographic illustration of the nuisanced differences in the clean rack position and jerk rack position; to date I have yet to see a better comparison that gets the point across. It's the subtle differences that make or break an effective coach. 

Camargo embraces technology by linking YouTube video clips into his volume so people can see not only how the progressions work but how fast the drills and transitions he recommends are to be performed. It’s easy to picture how fast an athlete should move out of the hole in a squat drill meant for speed but it’s not as easy to picture the speed from a press. Without the video accompanying the text, some coaches may not be able to implement the drills and corrections properly. Like the book, the videos are short enough for a coach to watch quickly but long enough to get the point of the movement across; this makes it easy for a coach to relay the information back to his athlete. Don’t worry the YouTube links are easily accessible from the hard copy and directly linked in the e-book version. 

Adaptability

What's even better about this volume is that it is adaptable to the coach. While Camargo offers suggestions and cues he finds best, he makes sure to note that some of the best coaching cues are the ones that come from the mouth of your own athletes. The cues Camargo lists do work: I’ve seen him use them in competition and sure enough, his athletes perform well and make  lifts they may have just missed by listening to one of his precise cues. But you can tell it's because they have spent time together and he knows his athletes very well. 

Camargo coaching his athlete Mattie Rogers at the same World event where he meet coached Crossfit Games competitor Lauren Fisher 

Cues & Corrections is not a magic cure for poor movement because it takes a coach’s eye and communication skills to fix them. However the book does a tremendous job in  arming coaches with the proper tools to spot and correct athletes’ errors; in doing so Camargo is helping shape the futures of up and coming weightlifting coaches. 

With the CrossFit influx of coaches this volume couldn't come at a better time. These Beginner and Intermediate coaches who may not have been exposed to the Olympic lifts before, or at least not in detail, now have a resource that cuts out all of the fluff and long winded explanations so that they can get quickly get their athletes moving better. With a quick flip of the page they can assess an athlete’s flaw and verbally communicate the fix as quick and efficiently as possible. I benefited from the manual so much so that I’ve already implemented some of the corrections and cues into my own coaching arsenal and have informed my assistant coaching staff to do the same. 

Camargo mentoring Mississippi Barbell coaches at a recent National event

Contact Info:

To purchase a hard copy or Kindle version of Cues & Corrections please visit Amazon. The book will be released October 15th. Direct link: http://www.amazon.com/Olympic-Weightlifting-Corrections-Daniel-Camargo-ebook/dp/B00NX9Z9IS/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412624537&sr=1-1&keywords=Daniel+Camargo

Camargo's website has more videos and resources for coaches of all levels

To learn more about Danny, his weightlifting seminars, and CrossFit Altamonte in Florida, please follow him @camargo_oly and @olyconcepts on social media, visit FACEBOOK.com/olyconcepts and check out his schedule at olyconcepts.com.

To learn more about Mississippi Barbell please follow us @ms_barbell on Instagram and check our program and nonprofit out at msbarbell.com.