the beauty of throwing weight around

one week since i started serious oly training and i am loving it. time to knuckle down and learn (hopefully master someday) the finer details behind the snatch and the c+j. enough of that premature-arm-pulling-before-your-legs-reach-full-extension kind of shit that i am so wont to do when trying to do "grace" for time. that kind of half-assed technique might be enough to get me through "grace" or "isabel" with a halfway decent time but won't serve me well when it comes to moving some legitimate weight. time to get serious about it. olympic weightlifting is so different from the other sports i've done in the past. canoeing, dragon boating, rowing, running... they're all races. a race against your opponents, always a race to see who can run out the clock first. strategy's important. but the thing about strategy in that context is that you never know what game day's going to be like. for instance how out of nowhere we thought we were going to capsize while leading by a comfortable margin in sdba k2 500m final. just like how that huge wave crashed against the side of our dragon boat and with its passing swept away any hopes we had of medalling in sdba dboat 2004 finals. in those sports you have to be reactive, you need to prepare for the unknown, you have to take every race as it comes.

but oly lifting is different. you're in total control. you have full discretion over how you want to approach the bar, how you want to set yourself up for the snatch or the c+j, when you decide to initiate the lift by pushing against the ground. and no one can thwart that. well, no one but yourself. the lifts, when done right, are like poetry in motion. once you start, you've got to follow through. there's no time to think once you've begun the lift, when you decide to replicate what you've rehearsed in the gym, time and time again. either you make it or you don't - there's no halfway mark here. you don't get consolation points for a missed lift. it's a beautiful sport. the technical precision is enthralling. flexibility, power, strength, speed, explosiveness all coming together in harmonious synchronicity.