With years of experience in the sport of powerlifting—as both a competitor and coach—Steve Goggins has seen a lot of meets. He has been on the platform as a competitor for countless meets, and has attended even more as a training partner, handler, or coach. This means that if you can impressive Steve, if you can make him say positive things about your powerlifting meet, then you are doing something right.
In this video, Steve Goggins discusses the CETC US Open, held April 15 and 16. Steve attended the meet to handle several lifters. He begins the video by giving a recap of the performance of the lifters he was affiliated with. The guys' lifting day was impressive but fell short of anyone achieving a 600 Wilks score. Maliek had an opportunity to win but was unable to perform as well as possible, going only four for nine on the day. Despite failing to reach his own expectations, Maliek had an impressive day.
Chakera Holcomb, one of Steve's Goggins Force lifters, had a fantastic day, and finished with a 562-pound squat, 347-pound bench press, 562-pound deadlift, and 1471-pound total at 181 pounds. Steve discusses some of the things Chakera did well in the meet, as well as his game plan moving forward to help her solve some issues that may have held her back. He also mentions DJ, her husband, who has been phenomenal listening to Steve's coaching and using cues to help build up himself and Chakera. In time, Steve expects that Chakera will be competing for pound-for-pound best in the entire world.
Steve then turns his attention to the meet itself and how it was run. He points to the judging and the organization of the meet as the high points. The judging was very consistent throughout the day, and both within and throughout the flights the judging remained the same. Steve acknowledges that no lifter is going to like every call, and the audience is not always going to see what the judge sees, but that at the end of the day, the judges did a fantastic job.
In addition to how well run the meet was, the payout was one of the biggest in the sport and Steve expects to return next year.
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