This picture is from the Butch Curry Classic hosted by Charlie Zamora and Micha Zamora. Butch Curry was an Olympian from 1980 and is currently the President of The Pacific Weightlifting Association and has been for a long time. Unfortunately Butch had a stroke a few days before the meet and was not in condition to attend this meet that honors him. As of the time of the meet Butch was and is in stable condition. Butch has attended and help run almost every meet the PWA is in involved in. Butch has seen all my great meets and all my not so good meets and I’m still to write about it. Weightlifting is a tough sport and I really love it because of it’s level of difficulty and it’s graceful beauty of a near perfect lift.
This meet made me ask hard questions about myself and the way I train. I choose to take myself through a few very intense conditioning workouts the weeks and months leading up to the meet. which I questioned before I even did them. Now I can answer those questions. I did the conditioners because I personally needed to push myself to the limit. It’s no secret I go hard in everything I do, hard work pays off is what I believe in. Well I pushed my body to the limit and a little bit mentally. My body took a beating and left me with a negative taste of discomfort for not trusting my instinct about preparing for The Butch Curry Classic, I also had a few things that life served up to me outside the gym and I gave into the situation mentally and gave myself a mental break by selling myself the idea that my life outside the affected my mental game. Even on game day or the “meet”, I had outside issues to confront, which I let interfere with me performing the lifts on that day. I had actually decided to not lift based on my mental state, hours before weigh ins. My focus was off just enough to have a slight dip in my confidence. Confidence that was based on me handling my situation off the platform or simply put life stuff. So this is what I call “reverse confidence”. It means that I utilize my outside of the gym life to build my confidence for my weightlifting, if that makes sense. So think of it this way I have goals outside of the gym as well as in the gym, I.E. snatching 120kg and clean and jerking 150kg. Another way to look at it. When I first started lifting at the age of thirteen it gave me confidence in myself in other areas of my life. So now when I train towards my goals I remove roads blocks one by one and continue my journey and training lets me know whether or not I’m in alignment with myself both mentally and physically. I have to be in alignment to compete with myself on a daily basis. I also choose to not give MYSELF any excuses on why I did poorly at my last competition other than I choose not to tap into my razor sharp focus, in an attempt to give myself leeway or let myself down nicely. This meet was a test that I realized now actually has made me better. i still showed up to the gym continued on my journey of improving my competition lifts and my personal development. Once I decided that I would not let my out of my goal i kept practicing and practicing and practicing until I got into the process of what I was doing. Being so focused on how I can be better and get better that the results didn’t matter just my approach and my inner drive to do the best i can for this lift right now. STAYING FOCUSED keeps me from numbing my mind and body, by thinking about how can I lift THIS and questioning my training, I slow my body and reaction times down. When doubt come into my mind I’ve stopped competing. Winnners always stay positive no matter what. We enjoy just lifting weights, so the process never gets dull. This meet was a reminder of the power of positivity and working the process and giving myself no excuses to not succeed By throwing myself back into hard work and actually focusing on maintaining a “let’s just get better mindset” got me back into touch with my mind and body working together. If I focus so much on the outcome I lose touch with process of what really takes, which is Desire, Dedication, commitment, discipline, determination and perseverance are all done on a daily basis, we must not only read them and contemplate what they mean, but we must also live them everyday no matter what, it’s just like practicing anything in life, the more we practice and the better we get the more we internalize and feel the words come through us whether We realize it or not.
STRENGTH SESSIONS 