“The biggest enemy of a person is
himself.”
Huo Yuanji, Fearless
I write
this post the eve before the biggest meet of my career. Tomorrow I will step out on to the platform
for my last chance to post the highest total of my career and move on to the
2013 Collegiate National Weightlifting Championships in Johnson City,
Tennessee. This is my last shot to do
something that I have wanted to do for over an entire year. It’s fitting that the one place I want to get
to; is the first place that I started.
In February of 2012 my coach Michael “Mike” Bledsoe and fellow teammates
Alex Maclin, and Michael “Little Mike” Lexnar all traveled to Johnson City to
compete in our first ever weightlifting meet.
I was nervous, excited, and scared all rolled into one. These were
unknown feelings to me. I had played football for over twelve years prior to
coming into Olympic Weightlifting; however, at the moment my stomach and heart
would tell you otherwise. I was lucky to have my girlfriend (now my wife) there
for support. She was amazing; she looked
on with a smile and cheered louder than anyone else that was there. This is
something that hasn't changed yet even today.
The meet
went by with minor hiccups; I opened up at sixty kilograms on Snatch, and
ninety kilograms on Clean and Jerk. I made all of my Snatch attempts and missed
my first opening Clean and Jerk but made it up on my second attempt ending with
one hundred kilograms for my third. My final total of the meet ended up around
170 kilograms. This placed me in second place overall in my weight class. My
teammates did a little bit better than me; both Alex and Little Mike had placed
first in their weight classes and both had qualified for their respective
Nationals. However, a sense of accomplishment rushed over me. I had never felt this happy about myself in a
really long time. No amount of bowl games trophies or in state rivalry wins
could match this feeling. I had put in the work, I had performed, and I had
won. Of course, great coaching was paramount throughout all this.
From
that meet on my number one goal was to get better at Olympic Weightlifting. I
began to follow Mike’s programming and coaching more. I dropped weight to leave
the ninety four kilogram weight division and got into the eighty five kilogram
weight division. I increased my training
frequency from three days a week to five days a week. The months following my
visit to Johnson City got hard. My
second meet didn’t go very well for me. I was barely able to post a total at
it. Work was getting rougher and rougher as it grew closer and closer to the
end of the school year. I knew that
teaching was not what I wanted to do in life so trying to find a new job was
frustrating. On top of that I got engaged to my girlfriend, worked full time as
an intern to The University of Memphis Strength and Conditioning staff, began
my graduate school online with Georgia Southern University and was still
training five days a week. I fought the demon headed dragon called injury multiple
times throughout the summer months. I found a new job, got laid off, and found
another in under a month. However, the
whole time this happened. The whole time I was in pain; both mental and
physical. I always had family, teammates, and weightlifting.
In the
fall we started introducing more lifts that would fix our weak points; we also received
a new but old teammate as well; Amber Strain returned to our team. The team
began to grow bigger and bigger, people began to ask us for advice and
coaching. Even our coach came back to
lifting and started posting totals again. Things were going well life was going
well. I got married on October 6th
2012 to my lovely wife Dorothy M. Stuart.
As is
life however, things did start to slow down in training. Personal records began
to slip; loss of body weight lack of sleep, and juggling too many things began
to affect me. In one month, my Snatch
max had gone up ten kilograms and had dropped fifteen kilograms. In one month,
my Clean max had dropped ten kilograms and had gone up fifteen kilograms. My
Jerk and Squats were a whole different story.
My third
meet go as well for me as I would have liked. I had issue at the start of the
meet with my Snatching technique; which carried over to my attempts. I did however; post a new personal record on
my Clean and Jerk with one hundred and ten kilograms. Christmas came and went
my chances to qualify for Collegiate Nationals were coming to an end. Frustrations
were cast aside by new Personal records in the gym (ninety kilogram Snatch
twice in a week).
In January,
we tried an in-house meet to qualify our team members; my mind got the best of
me. I went one for three on Snatch and Clean and Jerk. I posted the lowest
total I had since my first meet in Johnson City. Amber, Alex, and one of our newest
members Austin Moncivaez all were qualified. We focused our minds and hearts
for one last time on one last meet at The Arnold Weightlifting Championships.
My goal had now become a team goal Alex, Amber, and myself had all finally
decide that this year was the year we all would go together to the Collegiate Nationals.
Every day we helped remind each other of our goal. Through bad workouts and missed
lifts to personal records the team was together. The Arnold came and went, we
all posted individual personal records (including myself). However, I did not
post what I needed to qualify. Tomorrow will be my last and final chance.
To come
full circle and put things in perspective I will open up tomorrow at or around
eighty five kilograms on Snatch, and one hundred and five kilograms on Clean
and Jerk. That is thirty five kilograms
more on Snatch, and fifteen kilograms more on Clean and Jerk than what I opened
with in Johnson City. I will also weigh in around one hundred and eight five
pounds which is twenty two pounds less than what I was a year ago.
Throughout
all of this year I have always had family, teammates, and weightlifting. It is
because of them I lift tomorrow as fast, strong, and powerful as I can. This goal
is no longer my goal. This goal is for
everyone; everyone who ever doubted me; everyone who ever believed in me; for
everyone who ever helped me.
