Your Guide to A Powerlifting Meet Day
With athletes ranging in experience levels, we still find athletes at all levels can be plagued by meet-day jitters. This is an all-inclusive guide on how to best navigate a meet day!
How to Choose a Powerlifting Coach
Powerlifting is a sport that you can easily enter into and be self-coached. It is no secret though - having a coach is heavily encouraged (and I promise that’s not just because I am in the coaching world). A coach can often make or break your feelings on the sport. Powerlifting is no exception to that. This is why in a world full of easily accessible coaches, it is important to know how to find the right one. So how exactly do you go about making sure a coach is right for you?
How to Establish a Competition Schedule
I was introduced to my first meet via my first coach. I mentioned that I wanted to do a meet – and she came back with the suggestion of doing a seminar meet in Chicago. From then on, finding meets solely consisted of me looking at the USAPL Calendar and finding meets in Ohio, Michigan, or Illinois. Not much planning on my part, other than making sure I could feasibly get to the location of the meet and that it made sense in my life. After many years in the sport, I’ve observed many others perform similarly – find a meet that is local, makes sense with training, and sign up. As I’ve entered the coaching world, I’ve realized just how much more should go into these decisions.
Powerlifting Game Day Strategy: Sheffield Example
There are a million factors into making sure all nine lifts go perfectly on meet day. Powerlifters can try as hard as they can to get every little detail right. But they are only human and when it comes down to it, meet day is just one day. A day where lifters who worship consistency are often thrown out of their element in one way or another. But I mean a perfect meet day is what makes a winner. Right?
Balancing Training and Travel
As a powerlifter, when you aren’t lifting what do you love to do? Personally, one of my favorite aspects of life is traveling. I love to experience new foods, beautiful locations, and rich cultures whenever I can. It is no secret though. Planning times to go to the gym and get a workout in can add a whole new level of stress to the itinerary. Especially if you are traveling to an unfamiliar area. Sometimes there may be a meet on the horizon and the need to train is simply unavoidable. Other times lifting ends up going on the back burner to free up more time to enjoy the traveling experience. Both things are completely okay and depend on the timing and the lifter.