Wow, where to begin this may end up redundant if you want to scroll to the bottom to see what this is all about, feel free. I hate putting my personal life on front street so here goes nothing.
Angelina, my 15-year-old daughter, competed in her first ever FULL POWER meet at the Women's pro-am in Cincinnati. She weighed in at (I'm a brilliant father). We had her openers set super low, my thought process was to get her an easy opener, and she'll grow confidence, small jumps on seconds and she would be rolling, she's like me when she gets in her zone on anything shes unstoppable.
That was the plan. We woke up early Friday and drove to weigh-ins in Cincinnati. The weather was wild we drove through a tornado- if you live in the midwest in the spring you know, that's just a typical day. We needed to be early so we could leave back to London by 930 for her to take her math review for a big test, needless to say, that didn't happen. So we ended up shoe shopping and eating breakfast and making our way back to relax.
6 a.m. Saturday morning we get up and get moving, Angelina is more concerned with singing the national anthem than she is with competing. I considered this a good thing; I didn't want her overthinking lifting, we all know how well that works out. We arrive, we park we walk in.
Now, I've done this a dozen times, but this is her first, and it didn't show. I can hear her humming the national anthem in preparation to sing in front a few hundred people all while warming up to squat in your first meet has to be a boatload of stress. Nevertheless, she sang, and I even had her take her opener in the warmup area so she knew 100% she could get it. It was 115 lbs shes done close to 200lbs in training, so I wasn't worried about taxing her. Being confident is a HUGE part of this. The opener hit, the second attempt hit, and she walks right up to me after the 140, and says I want to wrap up and take 175-- Without hesitation, I went and grabbed the wraps. Kneeling, while wrapping my daughter I think to myself, fuck my daughter is taking a third attempt squat in the woman's pro-am. At the moment, it was fleeting, writing this it's heavy. 175 2 white lights--in the books, let's bench.
As much as were alike, her bench is trash, so sticking to the script, I opened her super light, 60lbs, 70lbs, 80lbs 3 for 3 9 white lights. Her best "training max" was 85 lbs touch and go. I was happy that the 80 was clean and very smooth, she had more, I just wanted 80 so she could total 400lbs at her first meet.
Time to pull.
Deadlifts, since she's new and a dork, they're her favorite. I can't bag on her, especially after wanting to get wrapped up and take a big squat, she even says-- "dad I get what you mean by ten seconds of freedom" fucking onion ninjas.
I had to up her opener, to 135 because I didn't want her to pull from a deficit because of plates sizes. So she smokes the 135, but she stumbles back she was driving back on her heels hard, good, but she got reds.
I Walk up to her, and she was texting or something, and I come unglued. I told her to put the fucking phone down and focus and said to her that's why she missed--because she was more concerned with drama her girlfriend was having. She shot me a dirty look and said take the jump to 145 for her total. I explained to her that if she misses we can't go back, and if she misses again she'll bomb out. Again- "just take the damn jump" I let her know if she pulls it and secures the 400, I'll let her pull whatever she wants on her third.
Sure as shit, she smokes 145, and walks up and says "200" Fuck it let's roll. This is a 55lb jump and would bring her closer to a 500lb total than 400. So excited and emotional I couldn't get my camera to work, lucky for me dave had his going as you have seen in his post "the only video I took the whole pro-am." She walked up to the bar set up, and with perfect fucking form smoked 200 lbs for a 455lb total, she shook the judge's hands and ran to me and jump up with excitement- I looked at her and smiled and said you should have taken 210.
Angelina, you had a lot on your plate, and couldn't or even didn't want to train due to previous obligations, but you didn't back out. Hell, you still accomplished what we wanted to do with a full training cycle. We sing Adele at the top of our lungs; we rap juicy word for word, I even taught you about the rapping duke. We do car bars in Walmart parking lots; we have deep conversations about life, we've been through hell and back, shit- we even got Satan to sign a shirt.
One thing, I know is that you are a fantastic human, my best friend, my counselor, my north, my rock, my everything--never fucking change for anyone-- not a fucking thing. In such an imperfect world you are perfect. You swear way too much and chew your nails till they bleed, but you are perfection, the one thing I did right, as we say daily, life's a trip I love you Angelina, and I'm proud of EVERYTHING you do, I'd lay down in traffic for you.
Photo credit- @jessicawigginsphotography www.facebook.com/jessicawigginsphotography
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