I am two weeks out from a 100% RAW full meet and I have an idea on my openers but looking for a little input. My goals are a 440 squat 360 bench and 560 deadlift. I am thinking of opening 405 squat, 320 bench, and 495 dead.
open with what you can triple, second attempt tie your PR, third attempt try a new PR. Thats what I have done in the two meets I have done.Probably someone with more experience can answer you better.
I think this depends a lot on your experience competing. I generally open at about 92% of my previous bests, go to 97% or 98% on a second and then go for a small pr on a third. If I’ve had a really good training cycle, I may take a pr attempt on my second, which usually means I push my opener up a bit.
whatever you do, make sure you open with something you know you can hit so you don’t bomb.
[quote]unstable wrote:
whatever you do, make sure you open with something you know you can hit so you don’t bomb.[/quote]
It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish …
Given that it’s your first meet, I would open up even lighter than this. I’ll just be honest here though – I don’t have a whole lot of experience here as I just did my first meet in March.
My goals were 450 / 350 / 600 and I opened up 360 / 295 / 520. A lot of people told me that your openers will set the tone for the rest of the day. Being your first meet, you don’t know how you’re going to react to being on the platform. Personally, my adrenaline was pumping so hard I don’t remember anything about my first 2 squat attempts. You also don’t know how little things like the height of the bench or the length of the bar is going to throw you off.
How sure are you that you can hit depth with 405?
I have found that 87.5% of your estimated third is a good opener, 95% of it is a good second, and then of course 100% is a good third. This is assuming you have a realistic shot at the third attempt, don’t expect to lift another 100 lbs just because you are in a meet. So that would put you at
Squat - 385, 420, 440
Bench - 315, 340-345, 360
Dead - 490, 530, 560 - if you are worried about energy on deads you can 82.5%, 92.5%, and then 100%
I really like 100% Raw and lift with them all the time. I actually had a lifter do almost your exact planned squats in a recent meet, I am attaching a link so you can see the form and commands, etc. This was a USAPL meet so it allowed knee sleeves but it is basically the same thing. Of course make sure you can do a nice long pause on the bench and all of that good stuff. If you have other questions let me know, good luck with it (this meet was this lifter’s first full meet as well). Your numbers are pretty good for raw so you should do just fine if they are realistic.
If that link doesn’t work search on tube for:
Elliott - Squats - 380, 420, 446 - 2011-02-26 USAPL Raw Competition
Good Luck! It will be a blast!
The opener should be something you know you can hit, regardless of the situation. Last meet I opened at 735 on squat and my goal was 800. It was something I had done a double with.
I always pick something I can take lower than required and still blast up, just to make sure I get a lift in.
I would open lighter than you are planning. Especially on bench and squat. Also remember you may be tired by the time deadlifts come around, so be conservative with your plans on it and feel it out.
[quote]BigSkwatta wrote:
Last meet I opened at 735 on squat and my goal was 800. [/quote]
So I guess I shouldn’t be looking for you to give up your moniker any time soon.