Little background:
- I've been lifting for 6 years now, but all of it except the last 4 months or so was Westside-inspired powerlifting style. My S&C coach here at Uni trains us using an oly-style program, and I've taken to it kinda well. Yesterday he asked me to lift for our school club team in April for the OWA scholastic meet.

Since I've only been "o-lifting" for a couple months now my current numbers are fairly pathetic (85kg snatch and 105 c&j @ 124kgs). Any one here who's competed before, what should I expect the day of? tips and tricks? I never thought I'd do Oly lifting and have no idea what to expect.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Chris

Just some things off the top of my head:
1. Make sure you know your weight- nothing more frustrating than scrambling to lose a few kilos right before the meet or having to compete in an upper class

2. When declaring your opening attempts, be conservative. Choose weights you've hit easily consistently in training. If you're feeling good during warmups you can always change your openers higher, but you can't lower them if warmups aren't going well or you're having a bad day

3. Your coach should guide you through the warmups so you know when to start, reps/weight, etc.

4. Relax and don't rush yourself or let nerves affect your technique

5. Have fun and go for some PR's

Thanks man, I don't think I'll have to worry too much about weight. I'd need to drop 20 kilos to make the next lower weight class. Though i'm wondering if dropping a bit of weight to improve my coefficient would be worth while?

All of the above advice is good. You'll spend most of your time standing around waiting. Have a hoodie and sweat pants and some food to snack on.

Don't worry about the numbers. You have to do contest number 1 before you do contest number 2. Get it out of the way.

Everybody cheers for everybody else, regardless of what team/club they are from.
The real competition is the BAR.

You'll learn alot. Read the rules of lifting. Beginners usually screw-up on little technical stuff (press outs, not showing control, elbow hitting knee in the clean, etc.)

Have fun and good luck.

TNT