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Meet Recap: Sean competed at the USAPL Texas Strength Classic, finishing 8/9 on the day with an 1818lb. total! This included a 628lb. squat, 463lb. bench, and a 727lb. that moved almost like it was a 2nd attempt (CLICK HERE)! Now, unlike my normal meet recaps I do, I am going to take a bit of a different direction. I am not sure I can say anything about Sean everyone already doesn’t know, so instead I’ll give some background into the coaching decisions on the day from my end for each lift. For Sean’s full breakdown, make sure to check out his YouTube video he put out this week if you haven’t already (CLICK HERE)!
Squat: We came in fairly confident with a plan to go 290kg on the 3rd attempt. Unfortunately on the day squat just was not peaked as well, and that’s on me. Without getting too long winded, in hindsight and seeing how he felt on the day, we pulled back a bit too much and Sean peaked a little soon. We have a decent amount of changes we already planned to make, but the good thing is this was great data to help make the necessary adjustments come Raw Nationals to bring his best squat yet. One goal that was accomplished though was setting a standard of depth. 9 for 9 on white lights on squats with 2 national refs and 1 IPF ref. With Sean’s goals in June, we must make lifts, and I am very confident we’ve found the technique and standard with squat to make sure the only variable that we have to worry about is strength.
Bench: Sean was a clipped j-hook away from the narrative of this meet being very different. Bench felt very strong on the day, so with the AR total record in mind, we made a decently aggressive attempt and went up to 218.5 on the 3rd. In hindsight now knowing how strong deadlift ended up being, the better call on my end would have been 216. But due to how squat felt, we both were a bit worried that deadlift might not have peaked as well either. There was some chatter of long pauses, but honestly I thought they were pretty fair. Strength was there for 218.5, but you can see in the video as it came up the right side just barely clipped the j-hook and the bar windmilled away and lost it from there. With Sean’s bench being so technical, there are always added variables at play come meet day. And it’s by far the hardest to peak. So while the numbers don’t indicate it, we were both fairly happy with strength on the day, especially on a non-fat pad, and redemption will be had in June.
Deadlift: As mentioned, we were a bit worried deadlift may follow suit of squat, but that definitely wasn’t the case. There was a small part that debated going 341kg for the AR deadlift and total, but that time will come. The goal in this meet was to not fully empty the tank and get a real good idea of what we need to do leading into June. And if that meant hitting the AR total, awesome. But with bench and squat not going perfectly as planned, we didn’t want to make an emotional decision and walk away from the meet empty handed. Part of that is establishing a pattern of made lifts, and I really wanted Sean to walk away from deadlift feeling confident, going 3/3, and knowing we had plenty more there when the time comes. And the other part was to leave a little question mark of what is that top end.
Division: Open
Weight Class: 83kg
Squat: 628lbs.
Bench: 463lbs.
Deadlift: 727lbs.
Total: 1818lbs.
Coach: Steve
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