…sorry.

2 good things from it:

1) I set a new bench pb of 47.5kg with a stop. Not huge in the grand scheme of things, but I’ve been stuck on 45kg for more than a year.

2) I think I have my strategy for making weight nailed down. 71.1kg on the day, without really trying.

But. I’m trying to think about why I wasn’t given the 110kg deadlift opener, and I failed 120kg twice when I’ve done it in the gym.

1) I failed the 110kg for hitching, and I have known for a little while that I’ve developed a hitch in my deadlift. I actually have a pretty good idea of where this hitch comes from: learning Olympic lifting. I’ve spent so long nailing the double knee bend you do in the snatch, that it’s carried over into my deadlift. Fuck.

I don’t deadlift very often in the gym (my coach prefers to train me “around the lift”), but I think I need to start deadlifting (light) more often to knock that hitch out of my technique. Plus maybe I need to stop snatching, for a while at least.

2) I think I failed the 120kg because of my grip. In the competition we were using one of the least-knurled bars in the gym, but when I’m deadlifting in training I always pick out a Texas bar or a Russian bar, both of which are spiky as fuck. I know I’ve always had issues with my grip on my right hand, but I thought I’d nailed it. I now think that was just the effect of using a vicious bar.

I need to start practising things like static bar holds with a ‘slippery’ bar. I love the Texas bar, but I think for now, we have to go our separate ways. After all, I have NO idea what bar they will have at the British (please let it be a Texas bar)