Meet Recap - Jackson Shackleford, USAPL Northeast Regionals 6/9/2024

Eric Andrews
Jun 17, 2024
9 min read

Weigh-In, Goals and Performance

The time has come. I will not beat around the bush or make excuses or anything like that in this recap, I want to be as transparent as possible. Jack and I did not have the meet either of us expected to say the least & the final total on the day didn’t reflect all the hard work we put into training the last 8 weeks. Personal records were attempted, but the strength was just not there on the day. However, I am extremely proud of Jack for getting to the meet, taking a big swing on all 9 attempts, staying calm and collected during the day, and he came out the other side a more mature lifter, and us a stronger team together.

Our goals for this meet were simple - go for some PRs to add to the total, have some fun, and get the experience of competing at a bigger meet. I knew it was going to be a battle for these PRs but training had gone pretty well and thought we could put together small chips to each lift for this meet. Jack had just competed in March at Maine States hitting 620kg, which was a 32.5kg PR from his meet in November. So to put this in context, Jack has been in some sort of meet prep since August of 2023. From Maine States to Regionals was 9 weeks. Now look, competing is fun, getting stronger and hitting singles and PRs are fun, no one is going to deny that, but I think there is definitely a reason why even the most seasoned competitor veterans are doing meets twice a year at the absolute most. All this to say, Jack was definitely beat up after Maine states. Then jumping back into programming right back into meet prep for the biggest meet of his career, was definitely daunting. Training was going well but we were certainly met with some road bumps. A few weeks we couldn’t do a 70% squat without severe knee pain. We backed off where we needed to, and pushed on the days we felt strong, but the fatigue continued to climb as we got closer and closer to meet. At times I know Jack wanted to give up, and I was worried about what meet day would look like. But we were 3 weeks out, things were actually looking really good, 227.5kg on squat was hit with good speed, 325 on bench with a comp pause and more in the tank, things honestly were looking good and our confidence was going back up. We were locked in and ready to hit these on the platform and potentially more!

Next up for just a little bit of fun & added stress was weigh-ins. Jack typically walks around hovering right at the 100kg mark, usually not off by much. Last meet he weighed in at 99.5kg, sweet. However with the intensity we’ve been lifting at, we were trying to keep up with nutrition as much as possible as well to stay fueled for workouts. Jack eats pretty healthy I would say and knows how to count macros, good balance of foods, so typically not worried. However, I got the “we might have a problem” text on Wednesday morning (4 days before the meet) that he was weighing about 225 in the morning. So now we needed to shed 5 pounds in 4 days, where we elected to do a mini-water cut. Jack asked me how much water he needs to be drinking and we had a little back and forth and it basically came down to…a lot and starting right now. So over the next few days, water intake increased, focused on getting way more steps in as some active recovery, and crossed our fingers. Obviously this is not the traditional water load/cut or gut cut protocol since we only had a couple days to plan and was not an exact science. But lo and behold, meet day comes around and Jack weighs in at 99.4kg. Sensational.

Let’s get to the lifting.

Squat

The game plan for the day was to hit the 227.5 kg/501 lb milestone squat on the platform, and more if it was there. The way this moved in training, I was pretty confident we would be able to do that at a minimum on the platform. As I go through the rest of this write up, I want to be as transparent as possible with what was going through my head as a coach & handler on the day and where I think I personally let Jack down & made the wrong calls. Jack will tell you that he just didn’t have the strength on the day, which could be possibly a little true, but I am also certain, these were not my best calls I’ve made. I think the training highlights and bright lights of meet day blinded me a bit into thinking that those numbers were our only option and anything else was out of the question. I think this will make more sense as I go into more details.

So we are warming up for squats. We have 5 planned warmups. What I didn’t take into account was the rules briefing, which started at 2:30pm and we were in flight A and lifting started at 3:00pm. Credit to the refs who got through the rules as fast as they could, giving us from 2:45pm, about 15 minutes to complete our warmups. Jack was about the middle of the flight, giving us a little more time but not much because the flight was very small with only 7 lifters in it. We did take two warmups before the rules started so we had 3 warmups to go. I think this is why it’s important to note how long you take in the gym in between attempts as well, because 15 minutes seems like a long time! However if you take 10 minutes in between squat working sets…well then you might be in for a bad time when you get put into a situation like this. (I too am in this camp too often and need to get better about that. #hiimtheproblemitsme) So warmups did go OK but by our last warmup at 200kg, I think Jack was sweating. I did my best timing things so that warmups would be about the same rest time as we would get between attempts. We stuck with our opener of 215kg and honestly it moved really well! Not as well as it had in training, but better than 200kg moved in the warm-up room. So I think - okay game on! Let’s load it, 12.5kg jump for the second right to 227.5kg as we planned and then can make the jump to whatever is next after that. However…that’s about when the wheels (and plates!) started to fall off. I keep Jack focused, tell him this is what we are here to do, this is the one and to get after it. Jack goes out for his second attempt and has a pretty forceful unrack (totally fine) and walks it out. When he is settling the weight after his last step and taking his breath one side of plates start to slide quite a bit but thankfully the back spotter (shoutout Dave, incredible spot the whole day) caught it and we got it back into the rack safely. They fixed it and tightened everything but the clock was still going…I knew in my head that it would be reset and he had plenty of time to regroup but I think in the moment, a lot was going on and Jack rushed to get back in there and try again. If you know Jack, you know he lifts with a lot of intensity. I say that to say, unracking and walking out your one rep max takes a lot of effort in itself. Jack does go for it but misses the squat coming out of the hole, hips shoot back and chest collapses forward, that was not going up.

We have to regroup & stay focused. I try to think of all the positive and encouraging things to say at this moment. We can’t change what happened and can’t drop the weight so we need to go back out there and give it our all. Focus is on driving chest up out of the hole and getting his hips under him so we can use his legs and I think we can do it. He tells me his back is already pretty sore but, like I said, nothing to do about it now. In stride, Jack goes out to attempt 227.5kg again and unfortunately narrowly misses it. He gets it further than last time but the strength was not quite there today. This is definitely where I think the call could have been better…I thought 215kg moved well and we could chip the PR and more, as he hit 225kg at the last meet. I think based on the water cut, how the warm ups moved, how Jack was feeling emotionally and physically, should have been bigger indicators to me to adjust the jump and build a better total on the day. Looking back, I think 220kg-225kg would have been a better call to build the total. We were chasing the PR and missed, but it was a lesson learned.

Bench

I had a lot to say for squats, so I’ll try and keep the next two a little shorter. So now for bench which I was also very optimistic about! Training was going well and we were consistently hitting good sessions without much hiccups. Warm ups went just fine, again with 5 planned jumps and taking 120kg for a last warm up. All moved well, good pauses and we were ready to rock. Jack’s first and second attempts were phenomenal, the best I have seen 132.5kg and 142.5kg move respectively. Again knowing how 325 moved in training I was confident that 150kg/330lbs would be a great last attempt for a 5kg PR, get the momentum rolling into deadlifts and get the energy up. But unfortunately 150kg was just not there on the day, it was an RPE11 with a misgroove. Jack missed about two inches off his chest, elbows flared and just lost positioning. Reflecting on this, I do think it was there on the day but being only the second time Jack has come close to this weight, mistakes happen. I’m confident the strength is there on this - but if I were to go back and change anything, I would have taken 145kg on the second to tie his PR and maybe that 2.5kg would have given us a better indicator on how the 3rd would move. But overall I am happy with the attempt and it showed us what we need to tackle in the offseason (getting huge triceps).

Deadlift

Last but certainly not least, the deadlift. Deadlift training is definitely an area as a coach I am still learning the most about. I would say I am confident with bench, second with squat and least confident with deadlifts. Just food for thought, always thinking about areas to learn and grow. Anyways, training had gone pretty well! Jack hit a 507lb double about six weeks out and then a very smooth 518 single two weeks out. With these in mind, these lifts were heavier than what we had done in the past for peaking so I was anticipating a solid deadlift day. Jack can also grind out a deadlift like no other - his last pull at Maine states is something I think about a lot! 250kg on that day was insane. So today at regionals, I thought chipping that would be solid progress in just 9 weeks so the goal was 252.5-255kg at most. We knew the jumps we needed to take to get us there so we were off. At this point we knew the total PR wouldn’t be there on the day, we were giving the day our all and it just didn’t pan out, so on deadlifts we said no reason to change the plan, just stick to it and swing for the fences. Warmups went fine, working up to a 210kg last attempt. Opening at 227.5kg and this moved just as expected, no issues for the opener. Jack and I were talking after the attempt and decided to just stick to the plan and try and pull for the PR on the third attempt. We went to 240kg on his second attempt and it moved pretty well all things considered! After this attempt Jack did say his back was a bit fatigued, but did want to try for a third pull. He told me “just make the call” and we put in 252.5kg to try and end the day with a final PR. Jack goes out to give it his best shot and it does break the floor but he didn’t have it in him to continue that grind today, puts it down and lives to fight another day. A humble wave to friends and family and the day was over for us.

Closing Thoughts & The Future

To wrap up, I need to say thank you to Jack and really just how proud I am of him for getting through the day. Thank you for trusting me with your programming, coaching, gameday handling and everything in between. Jack has not only matured as a lifter but as a person from when we started to now. A 5/9, 597.5kg day on paper looks rough. But this is just one piece of the puzzle, everything needs to be looked at in context. Yes it is down 20kg from March, but it is still 10kg up from November. I think if Jack from 6 months ago with these results would not be handling this as graciously as Jack is today, and for that I am incredibly proud. We know that we need to take some time off to recuperate, live life outside of training for a bit, have some fun, and then come back stronger than ever. Jack’s goals remain the same, get bigger & stronger, look ahead to the future, and keep his head up being proud of all his accomplishments along the way. I don’t think Jack or I know what his next meet will be right now, but I have a pretty good feeling that the next one will be a big one to watch. You know what they say, after the earthquake…comes the tsunami. #TheRisingTide