Last Saturday was the Copperhead Invitational Lifting Meet in Van Alstyne (same place as the May meet), and I suppose I should be happy with my gains. I started training at Spoon in early July. Comparing the meet in May total to the one last weekend, I've gained 10kg in my meet snatch and 6kg in my meet C&J. Not entirely satisfied with those numbers by themselves because I know I can snatch 52-55 and C&J 68-70 easily enough. I know my mental game was off for the meet, plus Richard was out of town and not there coaching us. In order to qualify for the American Open, I need to snatch 57-60kg and C&J 80-83kg by early December. Realistically, that's not enough time for me mentally. My fellow lifters tell me I'm plenty strong enough to do those weights, but it's my mind and attitude that keep holding me back. Am I bummed about that? No, because I haven't really left the beginner lifter phase yet with only three months' training under my belt. I believe my goals should be to keep improving and competing in local meets as often as I can so that when I compete in the Copperhead next October, I'll make the Open and Nationals easily. My job right now has been eating away at my focus and mental acuity. I am definitely working on fixing that.
