Jo Jordan
Believe it or not, my first meet was unequipped in 1997. The meet was put on by Orange County Government here in Orlando for its employees and was unsanctioned. I had to get a training routine off the internet since I was pretty much clueless when it came to powerlifting. I ended up using a routine that was from Chris Confessore and I’m sure I screwed it up in one form or another. On top of that, I was training at a commercial gym and they frowned upon deadlifting, squatting heavy and using chalk, so I was asked to “keep it down” or to “put the weights down easier” numerous times. I did what I could.
The day of the meet I showed up not really knowing all of the rules and was briefed on them before it all started like we normally are, but still was clueless about some things. My first squat attempt I walked up to the bar and wrapped a towel around it like everyone did at the gym I trained at and did my attempt without anyone saying a word to me about it. I proceeded to do it on my next two attempts too. Still no one said a thing. When it came time to bench I had these square rubber cut-outs the size of your hand that I'd use when benching, so I used them on all of my attempts and still no one said a thing. I used them while deadlifting too and still nothing. I guess they all knew I was a newbie and had no clue, so figured what the hell and just let me have fun, which I did…a load of it. Someone did finally say something to me after the meet and I felt like a complete jackass, but he was nice about it, told me I did a good job and directed me to a couple of websites to help with the learning process.
I do remember while at the meet I saw guys putting on squat suits and bench shirts and wondering what the hell was wrong with them and why were they putting on such a thing. I laughed at one guy that had about four guys surrounding him trying to get his bench shirt on him and over his head. Little did I know that I’d be that guy years later…a gear whore and loving it.
For those of you wondering I went 460, 310 and 460 for a huge total of 1230 at 220 pounds. Good times!
Josh McMillan
In the winter of 1993 (Freshman year of High School, 16 yrs old) I entered my first bench meet at Motrose, MI High School. I went in at a bodyweight of 175-180, 181 pound class. There were about another 9-10 in my weight class.
- I opened up at 240 pounds, good lift
- Second attempt 260 lbs, good lift
- 275 pounds for a PR, and good lift
I ended up winning my weight class, and from there on, I was addicted to the sport of powerlifting, and everyother sport became second to it.
Scott Yard
My first meet...
I remember everything!
I remember every little thing, as if it happened only yesterday.
I was barely seventeen, and I once killed a boy with a Fender guitar
Oops, wrong story! (That was for all you closet Meatloaf fans out there!)
All kidding aside, I do remember every little thing as if it happened only yesterday. I was 17, but there was no guitar. I didn’t kill a boy either, but my Standard Blast shirt did kill my arm pits. The year was 2000 and the meet was the APA Worlds in Lancaster, PA. I was a bench-only whore and didn’t even know it. I had trained about every day. I benched every fifth day and I had already bought three blast shirts and worn them out. I kept my meet shirt in the box because as everyone knew, these shirts were basically “one and done” after the first workout. I competed in the 220 weight class. I shit 18 times that morning, and by the time my flight was up all I could think about was how chapped my ass was. I didn’t know what “nerves” meant until then.
I opened with 400 pounds. I had done this multiple times raw and thought it would be a good opener. I bring the bar down, beat the press command, lock it out and rack it. I jumped up beaming with pride only to see three reds on the lights and heard, “That’s why we have rules folks!” blasted over the speakers. It turned out I beat every damn rule there was. Well I didn’t raise my ass but hell, back then my legs were so short it couldn’t anatomically be done. Unscathed by my 400 pound miss, I jumped to 430 and flat out missed it two times. That was also the first, but not last time, I heard the word BOMB.
So here I am, my ass is on fire and I’m out of the meet. Needless to say I was pissed, but I was also hooked and planning my next meet cycle on the way home. I ended up doing two more meets that year and bombed out of them as well. It wasn’t until my fourth meet almost a year later that I finally got a lift in. Luckily it was 460 at 220 for a new teenage national record that time.
Gotta love the first time! Now that I think about it, I've had a lot of shitty "first times."
Charles Bailey
Well let's see, my first meet was in Daytona Beach at Sea Breeze Elementary (AAPF Sothern States). The meet took place, Octobter 2002, and my weight at the time was around 235 pounds. I had no idea what to expect from my first meet. The one thing I can remember is how much fun I had. I remember thinking how much better this was than when I was bodybuilding.
This is how green I was at the time. On my first squat attempt, I wrapped my leg with my slip-ons still on. When I got to the monolift, I was informed that this was not allowed and the clock was running. So, I removed the knee wraps and slip-ons and did it without the wraps. I think I squatted 585/677/683 pounds.
The benchpress didn't go any smoother I was not aware I needed a singlet to perform the benchpress. My only solution was to use my squatsuit which was super tight. I was only able to bench 405,440 compared to my raw @ the time of 460 figure.
Now you'd think after that, I would've figured most of this out, but no there's more. In the deadlift, I noticed the white stuff on everyone's legs and it looked like a good idea. What do I do? I went over to the chalkbox and proceded to chalk the front of my thighs. The funny thing here is no one said anything to me. I went on to pull 650, 677 and missed 705 probably because of the chalk.
I was part of a three-man team and we ended up winning the team trophy that day.
I would rate this if I had to as probably my best meet expierience ever.