Competitions - Part 6

Stash Top Tips for Competition – Misc.

Remember – in competition… you’re not training.

You’re warming up to lift maximal weights on someone else’s schedule. Doubles and Triples are ok on the first few lifts to get loosened up. But once plates start going on the bar, singles are your best friend. Don’t tire yourself out in warmup.

Don’t get caught with your pants down. Messing around with70kg whilst your name is being called for 100kg out on the platform… probably won’t go to well. Likewise, hitting 95kg 3 times and waiting another 10min to do 100kg on the platform, also, far from optimal.

As an athlete, having a coach with you in competition will make the whole warmup process far simpler and less stressful. You delegate all responsibility to someone you trust and crack on with your job. Lifting the Weights.

Rules – in order of importance/ relevance.

Not all will apply, and your coach will likely have explained these already.

•  Make sure your feet are in line and hold your lifts overhead until you receive a down signal. You need to demonstrate control, dropping your lift early, no matter how good a lift it was. Will begiven a ‘No-Lift’.
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• Lock your lifts out overhead. The bar must reach its final locked-out position in one fluid movement. The press-out rule (i.e. pressing the bar into final lockout) is something TO’s are very hot on. If you think you may have pressed out a lift, celebrate anyway. ‘Sell’ the lift to the TO’s. They might be doubting whether it was a press or not, don’t give them any indication you too think it was a press out.
  
• Don’t drop the weight behind your head (unless you’ve missed the weight). All weights, once given the ‘down’ signal, must be dropped in front of you and guided down to (at minimum) shoulder height with the arms. Don’t let go at the top.
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• You have 60 seconds to start your lift once your name is called and the bar is loaded. Aim to be ready at the point when your name is called, it will leave you plenty of time to approach the bar. Other than some in-house low-budget local comps, there will be a clock for you to see how much time is remaining. There will also be a 30 second buzzer to alert you to the remaining time.
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• Don’t swear. This is bad form and especially rude if there’s children around. Set a good example, you’re an ambassador for the sport. Save the ‘F*k yeah’ for the garage gym. A good lift can be overturned if you swear. Similarly, throwing a tantrum if you miss a lift.. makes you look like a bell-end.
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• No part of your body can touch the platform except your feet. And DO NOT touch the barbell with your shoe. That’s an instant ‘No-Lift’ before you even start.
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• If your elbows touch your knee in the clean. That’s also a ‘no-lift’. Drop the bar, save the energy for the next attempt. Elbows touching knees is dangerous for your wrists, don’t do it.
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• Once you stand up the clean, you have one attempt at a jerk. You can re-arrange your hands on the bar from clean grip to a slightly wider jerk grip, but you only have one attempt at a jerk drive. Once the knees bend and start driving the bar upwards, that’s it. You’re also not allowed to oscillate the bar i.e. get the bar rocking/bending before going for the jerk - that's cheating.
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• The bar moves up. And once the bar has passed the knees, the clock stops and the lift starts. If the bar passes the knee and moves back down. You guessed it ‘No-Lift’.

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Kitting up for your first competition

At open (BWL - Tier 3) events, you don’t need a singlet.
You can wear tight fitting clothing instead, so long as the elbows are visible to the TO’s - they don’t have to be naked, neutral-coloured tight-fitting tops such as the Nike-pro (not-sponsored) range are now allowed. You are now allowed to wear leggings also, there no longer needs to be a gap between your knee support and your singlet.

You might want a singlet either way - in order to look the part - especially ifyou plan on entering more than one competition. But don’t stress for your 1event. Singlets are only required at tier 2 upwards.

Knee supports – knee sleeves or knee wraps are ok. Any standard support you’ll find on the market, neoprene, Chinese-style or any wrap is ok. Check out our guide to knee supports for more info on these. If you haven’t seen anyone else at the gym or any other lifters on Instagram use what you plan to wear...it might not be allowed.

Wrist supports – Standard Velcro, leather or other wrist supports are ok. We prefer to use boxing wraps cut down to approximately 1.5m length as these are a) very cheap and b) can be wrapped to preferred tightness. Important thing to note is only 1 support can be used. You can’t tape up your wrist and then put a support on top. You might get told to remove one on your way to the platform. If using wraps, don’t have them too far down your forearm. Again, TO’s might ask you to re-wrap them.

Thumb tape – Thumb tape such at the Stash Hookgrip tape, is incredibly handy to protect your thumbs. The thumb is put under huge pressure during the hook-grip, and pulling straps are not allowed in competition. Tape helps relieve some of that burden, also helping with grip. If you don’t use tape in training.. don’t use it in competition. Similarly, use a good quality tape. Yes, the home-bargains stuff might be cheap and cheerful. But how many times has it slid off your thumb mid-way through a session. Imagine if that was a PB snatch on the competition platform. No bueno. If you use tape. Good tape is worth its weight in gold.

Belts – Velcro, leather whatever. Belts are allowed so long as they’re no wider than 12cm. We have had belts measured in warm-up before now. Velcro ones with incredibly wide lumber (lower back) support panels are not allowed, powerlifting belts might get questioned – or get in the way of the bar.

Lifting shoes – Not required by competition rules. But if you’re a weightlifter. You’re probably wearing ‘lifters’. Check out our guide to weightlifting shoes for the why’s and how’s.

That’s all the kit we can think of really. Let us know if we've missed something. Everything else is personal preference and depends on what you need. The important thing to note is that when competing, don’t do anything new. Treat it as you would any other day in the gym.

If you don’t use it in training - don't start using it in competition.

Don’t start spraying deep-heat all over your back and knees. Don’t start popping ibuprofen and chasing it with 2 cans of energy drink (when you usually train with no stimulants, maybe a coffee), don't try out a new 'lucky' pair of lifters or eat a 12 pack of doughnuts after weight-in.

As with anything weightlifting, control the controllable to give you the most consistency possible.

Competition is unfamiliar as it is. Don’t throw a new pair of extra tight knee sleeves into the mix.

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