5 Lessons from WRPF Nationals

Last weekend saw eight lifters represent team Bonvec Strength at the 2023 WRPF North American Championship in Las Vegas. It’s the most lifters we’ve had at a single national-level meet. By and large, our lifters did incredibly well, securing a handful national records, state records and podium placings. We experienced our fair share of challenges and speed bumps, both in preparation for nationals and at the event itself, but I’m proud of our lifters for their effort and tenacity. 

I asked each of our lifters to share one important lesson they learned and I got some fantastic, insightful answers. Here are five big takeaways from this year’s nationals.

Mental Preparation is Crucial

I’ve long been a believer in the importance of deliberately training the mental side of powerlifting. It began with my high school athletic director Brian Cain, who’s become one of the world’s top mental preparation coaches. I had a volatile temper as a young baseball player, and Brian was exactly the mentor I needed to help me learn to deal with failure, control my emotions, and ultimately go on to have a meaningful college baseball career. I’ve been able to extrapolate those teachings to powerlifting, another sport where controlling the controllables is paramount. 

This year’s nationals marked the first time I required my lifters to train their mental acumen. We had weekly meetings that involved reading assignments, visualization and developing routines to bolster our ability to perform at our best when it means the most. It was largely well received and I’ll certainly build upon this year’s curriculum in the future.

I felt immense pride watching our lifters going through their pre-lift routines: breathing exercises, eyes-closed visualization, positive self-talk and more. One lifter had this to say:

“I did a ton of mental preparation – I can’t overstate the value of visualizing your day on the platform and mentally preparing yourself for any challenge that comes your way. I had to work hard to overcome my negative self-talk and I was inhaling The Obstacle Is the Way and Courage Is Calling [by Stoicism expert Ryan Holiday] like it was my job. I think this translated well to the platform.”

Set Mini Meet Day Goals

All our lifters set goals for this meet, including big, lofty personal records. However, we also worked on setting process goals during prep – smaller goals and checkpoints that would let our lifters know they were on the right track. These included daily nutrition targets, sleep habits, mobility work and more. Somewhat by accident, this led many of our lifters to set mini goals for the meet itself. 

For example, a lifter may have a goal of hitting an elite total or certain DOTS score. Big goals like these are often a reach, and if one thing doesn’t go according to plan, that goal might be unattainable. However, along the way, the lifter might be able to hit a small goal that still makes the day feel like a win: a total PR, getting all white lights on a troublesome lift, etc.

One of my lifters had an incredibly challenging meet prep with many obstacles outside her control. This led us to opt for the goal of going 9-for-9 rather than shooting for big PRs. She got a few PRs anyway, but the mini-goal of staying more conservative helped us stay focused:

“We had a couple of decision points during weight selection for second/third attempts. We had to make a call to go for something ‘safer’ or swing for the fences; I shared with Tony some time ago that I really wanted to go 9-for-9 at this meet and so we went with the safer number (particularly on my squat). In retrospect, I think I would have made the heavier attempt BUT my goal was to hit every lift so I am happy with our decision and I’m not wasting my energy second-guessing it!”

Powerlifting goals don’t have to be all-or-nothing. There are dozens of ways to measure progress as a powerlifter, so get creative with your goals beyond just hitting PRs across the board, because the longer you’re in this sport, the less realistic that becomes.

Prep with Attempt Selection in Mind

There are no hard-and-fast rules about how to pick attempts. However, more so than ever before, I structured our lifters’ training to get them comfortable with taking the weight jumps they’d need to on meet day. 

If we knew a lifter would need to cluster their attempts close together, such as on the bench press, we did a lot of climbing singles separated by 2.5 to 5 kg. Or perhaps a lifter knows they’re only good for one max effort deadlift, so we got them used to opening lighter and taking bigger jumps. 

For example, one of our lifters missed his squat opener on depth. He took the same weight on his second attempt and nailed it. In the past, this would have left us far short of his squat goal. However, he’d gotten used to taking big jumps in training, so we simply skipped his second attempt, chose a third attempt weight similar to our original plan, and he still walked away with a 10kg PR. 

Avoid Sunk Cost Fallacy

“Trust the process” is a powerful mantra… until it isn’t. Powerlifting is the ultimate endeavor of delayed gratification, but sometimes you can just tell that something isn’t going to work. Sunk cost fallacy is a behavior where someone refuses to abandon a failing approach because they’ve put significant time and energy into it, like a captain going down with their burning ship rather than jumping in a lifeboat. 

I’ve learned to pivot hard and fast if the current approach isn’t working for a lifter, even if it feels too close to the meet to make a drastic change. For example, one of our lifters switched to low bar squats from high bar squats this prep. The weights were steadily increasing until she got hit with a one-two punch: she struggled to hit depth with low bar, and a minor shoulder injury turned into a big one that derailed her bench training too. So four weeks out from the meet, we went back to high bar squats, opted for high-frequency, low-intensity squatting to regroove her squat patterns, aggressively rehabbed her shoulder, and for the first time in her powerlifting career, she went 3-for-3 on squats with 9 white lights and a 2.5kg PR. 

I was nervous to not only change her squat technique so close to nationals, but also to stray from my comfort zone of assigning heavy singles before a meet. But when she said something to the tune of “I’m not going all the way to Vegas to bomb out on squats,” I knew what we had to do. This comes down to trust between the coach and athlete, as well as courage on the athlete’s part to advocate for themselves:

“You build trust by communicating openly, and I think I did a good job to convey how I was feeling. I wasn’t afraid to take a measured risk to change something that I felt wasn’t working for me. So, we changed my training approach on squat and bench during meet prep because I was stuck and needed a Hail Mary to change my trajectory. I trusted the process, we collaborated on my meet attempts, and Tony had my full trust to get the final say.”

Have Fun

Our lifters who had the most fun on meet day performed the best by far. One might think that performing well leads to having more fun, and I would have agreed.  But it’s undeniable that our lifters who were loose and relaxed were able to reach their highest potential. Here’s what our lifters had to say:

“I realized that the environment and mindset you’re in plays as big of a role as your strength, especially on game day. For me, my comfort zone was being around people I love and having fun. I looked for those moments during the meet – whether it was firing myself up while watching [my teammates] crush it during my flight, or just chatting to people that gave good vibes.”

And:

“The other takeaway I had was having fun – the day of the meet was a vibe. I had my playlist going that a lot of you helped curate (thanks!) and I just looked at the wall or floor and had a silent disco. I didn’t watch anyone on my platform lift (love being blissfully unaware of my surroundings) and I was only focused on my next lift, literally playing it over and over in my head. There are a lot of sounds and visuals that can be distracting, and I found that if I can disassociate with the external environment, I can better focus on executing the plan. And, having [my teammate] backstage and getting to goof around with her kept the day feeling low stress, loose and fun. These types of competitions can feel stressful, but if you can find a way to see it for what it is (just lifting heavy circles), you’ll probably perform better than if you let the moment get too big.”

Lessons Learned

Experience is the best teacher. You learn to become a great lifter by putting yourself out there and competing. Nothing you read in a book or watch on YouTube can prepare you for the ups and downs of competing on the national stage. I know our lifters will perform even better at next year’s nationals by implementing the wisdom gained at this year’s event.