Meet Attempt Selection Strategies - Keep emotions out of it

What do you consider having a successful meet? Is it going 9 for 9? Is it adding pounds to your total? Is it winning your weight class or best lifter? All of those things happening have a direct correlation with how well you are able to pick your attempts throughout the day. If you stay in this sport long enough, you are going to miss lifts. Unless you want to be a career sandbagger who leaves pounds on the platform every meet. You should always WANT to go 9 for 9 but the priority should be squeezing every last gram you possibly can out of the day.

Learning how to navigate through selecting attempts is a skill like everything else in powerlifting but it’s not one that’s inherently difficult. No matter if you have a coach, training partner, or friend handling you, you should always feel competent enough to be able to make your own calls because you can’t always count on someone else to do it for you.   

I see it at every meet, whether im competing, handling, or sitting at the scorers table with my polo on, lifters (and coaches) let their emotions get the best of them rather than taking a strategic approach when selecting attempts. If you develop a meet day plan, select realistic openers, and remain flexible you are much more likely finishing at or near a 9 for 9 day with a PR total than going 4 for 9 or bombing out. Small mistakes compound and can derail the day you’ve worked your ass for very quickly.  

Create A Plan

Creating the meet day plan is not something that’s done the day before the meet. For me, and for the lifters I coach, this is something that starts to take shape at around 5 to 6 weeks out. At that point we are just beginning to peak into the meet and from there we can start to get a REALISTIC view of where your strength is at. A lot of times lifters get married to a hitting a specific number on a lift that might just be out of the realm of possibility. This is the point of a prep is when you begin to confirm or deny that possibility. For most, you are not going to be getting inherently stronger in the last 5 weeks of a meet prep. In fact, this is where you’re going to feel the worst and most beat up, it’s called fatigue, and that’s normal. 

Every single rep you take from this point forward is data for the plan. Record everything, take note of how it felt, take note of the warmups you did prior to, this will all make meet day much less overwhelming. There are a bunch of templates out there for selecting attempts at a meet based off of percentage ranges of a 1RM but for someone like me who doesn’t like to peak to a true 1RM or have my lifters get to that point in training I think those can be a bit flawed. The data you get from the last 3-4 weeks of a meet is really where you can develop your attempt selection plan. 

The Warm Up Room

A plan is not only in place for attempt selection but warmups as well. This data we talked about above comes into play here. There’s no reason to warm up any differently on meet day than you normally warm up before a training session. The only difference is timing everything correctly to where you have a seamless transition from last warm up to opener. This is where having a coach or even a friend there to help you is beneficial, not necessary, but definitely helpful. You take the same exact weight jumps you’ve taken in training in the warm up room, nothing changes. 

Ideally you want to take the least amount of warm ups possible to preserve as much energy as possible. This means after your first and second warm up, EXECUTE SINGLES. There is absolutely no need to be doing doubles and triples that look like an RPE 9 in the warm up room (these are things I actually see). Lastly, don’t take your fucking opener in the warm up room, I don’t know why this is a thing, but sometimes it is, and it makes me want to scream. 

Openers

The opener, in my opinion, is the most important lift of the meet, especially with squats. Confidence can make or break a meet for some lifters and there’s no worse feeling than heading out for your first squat, unracking it, and realizing “Oh fuck, this is heavy.” An opener should be a weight you could hit for a double or even a triple. You could hit it on your worst day, sick, hungover, drunk, whatever. It should be a no doubt guarantee every single time. You can squat it to depth, endure a 3 second press command, and hold it in your hands at lockout for an eternity on deadlift.  

An opener is there to get you on the board, calm your nerves, and put you in a position to add kilos for two more attempts. Unless you’ve been away from the platform for a considerable period of time an opener should not be a PR, even a second attempt more times often than not isn’t a PR, that’s what a third attempt is for. If for some reason you miss your opener (or any attempt for that matter), whether its on a technical issue or not, RETAKE THE SAME WEIGHT. Again, something I see all too often is emotions clouding lifters judgment and before they know it they have bombed out of the meet.  

Seconds and Thirds

This is where the total starts to begin to take shape. When creating our plan, a good method for seconds and thirds is to create a range for each. The range goes from moderate to aggressive. In a perfect world, were in a place to take the aggressive jump both times, but not always the case.

 So for example, let’s say our opening squat was 500 lbs, it moved well, like an RPE 8, just as planned. We have our second attempt range set from 515 (moderate) to 530 (aggressive). We take a more aggressive jump to 525 lbs, this moved like an RPE 9. Still have some gas in the tank. Our current PR is 530 and our third attempt range was set at 530(moderate) to 550(aggressive). We take a jump right in the middle to 540, hit it, but we didn’t have much left in the tank at all. This would be nearly a perfect scenario, we opened light, took our aggressive jump to our second, and then were still in position to beat our current PR on the third attempt. 

These ranges are things we establish during the peak, they are part of our data. They’re not based on the numbers you WANT, they’re based on numbers you’re REALISTICALLY CAPABLE OF.  If our first jump is on the bigger side you lessen the chance of leaving a ton of weight off your total. I always say that if you’re going to miss an attempt, miss small. If you take a relatively small jump from a second to a third because you don’t have a ton left, and you miss, your total doesn’t take a massive hit. The goal should always be to create a path for you to be in position to hit your PR or goal number on your third attempt. While you might not always hit that third at least you gave yourself an opportunity. Don’t blow your load on your opener or second, be strategic and smart. 

Be Flexible

All this planning is great for establishing guidelines but you need to keep in mind that sometimes plans go to shit. You can get sick, you can suffer an injury, you may have had a bad weight cut or refeed, the list can go on. You have to go into every meet with the mindset of taking what the day gives you. Every number you wanted to hit in your head might not be there and that’s okay. Don’t ruin your day from being stubborn and unwilling to be flexible.  

Like I’ve said multiple times, emotions run high during a meet, don’t let your emotions pick your attempts. Emotions will take away from your flexibility. This is why sometimes its beneficial to have your coach or even just a training partner to be your voice of reason at the scorers table. These people will be watching you with an objective eye and are in a better position to make less emotional attempt decisions for you. When I handle my lifters at meets I don’t even want them at the scorers table in between attempts. Their goal is to just focus on execution.  

Make the most of it

At the end of the day, you have 9 opportunities during a meet to build your total. You paid good money to come out and give your best effort 9 times. Get the most out of every attempt. I tell people that if you take the average cost of a meet, lets say $150, and divide that up among 9 attempts, and you’re paying roughly $16 for each attempt. Get your moneys worth. Use your training data to develop a plan that makes sense for you, open light to give yourself room to make realistic and strategic jumps, and be open to adjust the plan if need be. Don’t let your emotions make decisions that take away from your ability to have the best meet possible.