Olympic Weightlifting is hard. It is a brutally hard sport. I think it’s safe to say we have more bad training days than good. There are so many factors involved in this sport and these lifts that it is just too easy for things to go wrong. In order to make lifts, everything has to go right. Your strength has to be up, your timing has to be right, your pull has to be right, your catch has to be right, your speed has to be there, your mobility has to be there, your core has to be there. If any one of these elements is not firing right, chances are you are going to miss lifts.
You can be feeling very strong, but your timing is off. You will miss lifts. Your timing can be right, but you are sluggish and slow. You will miss lifts. Your strength can be up, your speed can be on, your timing can be right, but your core gets loose at the bottom. You will miss lifts.
Bottom line, in this sport, you are going to miss lifts. ESPECIALLY as a beginner. If you are not missing lifts, then you are not training hard enough. This is the beauty of this sport. It’s the challenge. It’s the idea that you have to train your body to fire on all cylinders each time you step up to the bar. It doesn’t happen easily. It doesn’t happen quickly. It takes months upon months, and thousands of repetitions to teach your body to be consistent. To be in the right place, at the right time, every time you pick up the bar.
Then, AFTER being consistent and dedicated to your training, a magical thing happens. Those lifts that you were missing over and over again, are now lifts that you are warming up with. Lifts that you are doing complexes with. Lifts that you are doing on your light days. Then you start to notice that you are no longer missing as many lifts on a regular basis. Far too many people give up way too early and never get to experience this. They experience the beginner’s high, when PRs come more frequently. Then the first plateaus come, and they experience only the frustration, without sticking it out to see the fruits of their labor. You have to stick with it. Trust your programming. Put in your dues, and you will see the payout.
Dan Rose
USAW National Coach, Harrisburg Weightlifting Club