Pat Mendes - Pan American Games

Was wondering, in Powerlifting , training lifts generally are close if not lower then comp lifts, yet this isn't the case in weightlifting.
Was wondering if anyone knew exactly why this was, I would presume because Oly lifting is more technical ? Yet in nearly every other sport they perform best at Events compared to training. Although we dont see what Usian Bolt has done in training

theres so many things that come into play when it comes to hitting pb's in comps

my bench is always way lower in comps than in training

could be anything

off day
body wieght drop
nerves
warm up time
time of day lifting
days leading upto comp
illness
injury

Luke - it's a totally differant way of training than powerlifting .

Say you want to hit a 200kg Squat in comp I works mathematically to do 5 x 5 with 160kg and 3 x 3 with 180kg these equate to that 200kg Squat without having to even attempt it in training .

If you want clean and jerk 200kg then the above doesn't apply or even get close . You need to hit heavy singles to get progression . I remember a time that I worked a 3 month period of getting my triples and doubles up some twenty kilos and my best single actually went down .

So all that said you will see Olympic Weightlifters attempting 90% + lifts hundreds of times a month so it's no suprising with this happening that you have an amazing day and set a P.B in your training but to equal or beat that lift with only 3 lifts under extreme pressure after weight reduction is highly unlikely .

Remember the margin for failure in a Snatch for e.g is very small ... I've seen guys fail 5 snatches in a row then go up 10kg and nail it ! A luxury you dont have in competition .

That's a nice post Mark and puts an interesting perspective on it.

Performance enhancing drugs often. Powerlifting is not always tested.

That makes little sense

So basically what your saying is "Don't listen to Mark ! Listen to me" Is it ?

No. But it is definitely a large reason in the disparity in some lifters (very likely including Pat).

We don't know what he's done in training, and most likely, neither will he. He (his coach) will know things like, his best 30m from blocks, his best flying 30m, his target times for 5 x 150m sprints with walk back recovery etc etc, but a 100m training time? To me anyway, the idea of it is ludicrous. IF he's ran faster than 9.58 in training, he wouldn't have given a s**t, his coach wouldn't have given a s**t, and no other track athlete would give a s**t if anyone bragged about such a thing.

Training times are a bit of an embarassment in that world. You just wouldn't even mention it, because you look like a t**t when you get a 5m/s headwind, have to react to a gun, have the pressure of athletes chasing you etc etc and run a second slower. Not unlike poor Pat come to think of it, but that's a bit different because as long as the weight is on the bar, and you pick it up, and most importantly, it gets recorded and put on youtube, then you undeniably did it.

As long as performance enhancing drugs are so frequently associated and focused on with related to training, competition performances and progression of weightlifting and it's participants I can't see much point in discussing the other factors involved

However whether or not pat takes crack then marks comments all stand on very level grounding and are expressed in a way which is completely understandable

I think mendes deserves some criticism but not excessive and silly non informed digs

He is a very good weightlifter and I would be a bit of a c**t if I started to slate his commitment

It's the American thing to advertise and "big up" their men, let's them... He will fully deserve his top twenty placings in London 2012

Seriously?

You're suggesting that often the only difference between performance in powerlifting and weight lifting is drug use?

There's non so blind as those who don't want to see mate. Kudos to you for still giving these things the time of day.

Hi Mark ,
Thanks for the response , Very good reasoning.

To Shaun I dont see how performance enhancing drugs can affect your training to Comp results. Even if you had been on some PED's the effect would , or surely should stay into the Comp or it defys the point of using them and taking the risk

This is what I was thinking, when I read Charlie Francis , seemed his athletes rarely done a full 100m at maximal speed.
Tom do you think that in athletics the Competition setting brings out the best performance?

I am very certain that you failed to comprehend my post.