This past Saturday I, along with some of the SAPT crew, traveled down to Richmond for the USAPL Richmond Open powerlifting meet. The entire event was a blast, the energy in the room was infectious, and it was a great opportunity to support fellow competitors and network with some strength coaches in the Northern Va area. I had the privilege of coaching one of our high school athletes, Carson, through his first powerlifting meet down in Richmond. And he rocked it!!
(SAPT intern Tadashi is on the far left, and Carson is in the right-middle. Ignore the other two clowns)
Even though Carson only trained 3x/week with us leading up to the meet (and sometimes less, due to college visits and illness), he set PRs on all of his lifts, and went 9 for 9 on his attempts; something that I think can only be appreciated by those who have competed themselves and have faced the rigors of competition judging. I might also add that he shined above all of his peers with regards to exercise technique, and placed first in his age group/weight class.
Here is a brief video showcasing his 3rd attempt for each lift:
I was going to list a few of the reasons why what Carson set out to do/accomplish is so remarkable, especially considering he is still in freaking high school! Mike Robertson already wrote an EXCELLENT article over at t-nation.com on the topic, however, so I'll direct you there:
7 Reasons Everyone Should do a Powerlifting Meet
(^^^Click Me^^^)
Read the above article, and then give Carson a high five when you're done.
SAPT coach Ryan Wood also competed, and did awesome, but I'm pretty sure he's going to discuss his meet for his blog post on Thursday so I'm not going to steal his thunder now (even though I totally could.....muahahah).
On another note, I place 100% blame on Carson for causing me to split the entire backside of my favorite pair of cargo shorts. Not because his deadlift is so awesome (even though his deadlift certainly does cause many an unsuspecting victim to destroy his or her back of the pants), but because, while in the warm-up room, I was helping Carson get ready for his opening deadlift attempt, and, while leaning over like so, felt+heard a very distinct:
riiiiiiipppppp
moving from top to bottom down my shorts:
Yep. I had to then spend the entire rest of the powerlifting meet (and the remainder of my weekend in Richmond) walking around with a gaping hole in the backside of my shorts. Curse you, Carson!!!