Meet Recap - Jackson Shackleford, USAPL Maine State Championship 3/23/2024

Eric Andrews
Apr 4, 2024
4 min read

Weigh-In’s, Goals & Performance

Jack weighed in at 99.5kg/219lbs coming in perfectly just under the 100kg weight class mark. No huge weight, water, gut or any type of cut needed for this meet which is great. This is Jack’s fourth meet and second meet with High Tide.

Jack’s best total was 587.5kg from our last meet in November and since then we’ve made a lot of improvements on squat and bench so we were looking to capitalize on those during this meet. We had our eyes set on the 227.5kg milestone squat and at least 142.5kg on bench. As far as deadlifts go, we had been struggling a bit to push intensity during training so we were unsure where we would end up on meet day. Squats taking the spotlight in the past training blocks was great as we were pushing hard for a 500lb squat, but that definitely impacted training performance of deadlifts. However, as you’ll see that didn’t stop us from hitting a huge deadlift at the end of the day!

Squat

Squats went off without a hitch - opening at a comfortable 207.5kg which is 2.5kg above his best meet squat. We did elect to take a smaller jump of 7.5kg to his second attempt as we noticed he wasn’t getting the start command very quickly due to his knees being soft on the un-rack. 215kg was a comfortable weight we have hit in training and did set us up for a good jump on the third. We put in 225kg just short of the goal of 227.5kg. Reason for this was that based on how 222.5kg moved in training just a couple weeks prior, I wanted to secure the 3/3 on squat and save energy that we definitely would need for deadlifts. Ended up smoking this for a 20kg squat PR, I believe he could have hit 2.5kg or even 5kg more on the day but we’ll be saving that for Regionals!

Bench

Bench press training has also been going very well for Jack, hitting 142.5kg - the notorious 3 plate bench in training two weeks prior to the meet. We’ve worked a lot on balancing low bar training and keeping his elbows healthy as this had been a problem in the past. Trusting the taper, we went into the meet confident. Opening at 132.5kg, no issues. We elected to make the 10kg jump based on Jack’s feedback of “I’m feeling incredible” so loading 142.5kg for the second giving us some hopeful room for the third. On the second attempt we noticed the press command was a bit longer than we expected so we ended up making a smaller jump to 145kg on the third. It was a fight but secured it for a 7.5kg bench PR.

Deadlift

Oh deadlifts...the finale. We were 6/6 going into the last lifts of the day and knew we had a huge total PR if we played it smart. We opened at a weight Jack has hit for reps, 225kg. We took the middle jump of 12.5kg to 237.5kg which moved well, better than I think I expected at this point. At this point a critical decision needed to be made:

Do we take the conservative jump to 245kg to tie his meet PR deadlift and walk away securely 9/9 and a total PR but miss out on a deadlift PR?
Do we take a small chip for 247.5kg, a 2.5kg deadlift PR and a 10kg jump?
Or...do we send it for the 12.5kg jump and try for 250kg?

Well, we took the 12.5kg jump. Jack told me that he was confident he could hit this and was really looking to cap off the day with a big win. Now I'll be honest with you all...I was nervous. To reiterate, the most we have deadlifted in this last meet prep was 225kg. This would be 25kg heavier than anything we've done in training and a 10kg PR. Deadlift training was also not going particularly well just due to the fact of how much we were pushing on squats (something we will address in future blocks, to be continued). So needless to say, I trusted Jack's instinct as I know he's a fighter and when he wants something, he goes 200% after it. Here's the iconic pull:

Incredible pull to end the day. I still cannot believe this, a feat of strength from Shack I will not soon forget.

Future Plans

To recap, Jack went 9/9 not missing a lift. Securing a 620kg total for a PR of 32.5kg and improving his DOTS to 382.45 by 19 points as well. The future is bright for Jack! We are currently prepping for USAPL Northeast Regionals in June, the same weekend as his high school graduation! Our plans for this prep are:

Refine our balance of deadlifts and squat progression and intensity
Continue to push bench, I am confident we can continue to add kilos to the total with this lift, hitting 315 in competition is just the beginning!
Overall, continue to grow. Just because we are back in meet prep doesn't mean we are skipping accessories. Summer (bulking season) is right around the corner, so we hammer on.

We only have 9 weeks left to prep for this, and it's going to be a race to the finish. It's been a blast working with Jack so far, as one of my first clients I appreciate the trust he's put in me but also the growth we have done together and I am very excited about what the future holds. #TheRisingTide