Hmmm…I don’t know what you have a handle on, but the thing I see shorted most often at this point is meet-day planning…
Do you know what you are going to eat/drink? Will you have to bring it with you? When will you buy it? Will you need a cooler? Is there a McDonalds handy?
I’m a fan of meat and carbs, a lot of people like baby-food (really!). Don’t forget lots to drink. Pedialyte if you are cutting a lot of weight (Which I wouldn’t recommend). Gatorade, juice, water, and coffee are my beverages of choice. Celebratory or conciliatory single malt to follow the meet.
Have you got a bag to carry all your gear in? Do you have a pen to write your attempts with? Have you written your initials on all of your gear? Stuff does get lost at meets, and usually all you need is to be able to identify it afterwards when the cleanup folks find it.
Do you know when you are planning to warm up? Wrap up?
I usually warm up when the flight before me starts there second attempts, and wrap up when I am in the hole. Settle out what weights you are going to do for your warm-up now too…Be careful about doing too many odd weights (First I do 117lbs, then 244, then 301…)…you may only have 45s and 25s available in the warmup area, so have a plan for that.
Do you have someone to run your numbers to the head table? If not; where are you going to keep the attempt cards and pen so that you can get the next attempt in within a minute as is the rule in most feds?
Hmmm…As soon as they give you the attempt cards at the weigh-in, sign them all, so all you have to do is fill in the weight and hand them off.
There are some good checklists/howtos on the net, they’re probably worth the time to look up…
A little pre-planning can go a long way to settling yourself out and letting you focus on the lifts and not the chaos around them.
Last but not least don’t lose sight of the main point in all of the details: Lift big, Have fun!