Originally Posted by
Bestafter60
Ok, I can report my experiences at my first meet as related to your questions:
I was nervous as hell listening to the meet instructions, which began at about 9:15. After that 5 of us were in the locker room changing, when one guy mentioned this was his first meet. The rest of us said "same here", which created immediate relief and created *a shared sense of comeraderie that persisted throughout the day. I'll estimate 30-40% of us were first-timers.
At 64, a bit younger than you, I was the oldest guy in the meet, but not by a wide margin. There was a guy 61 years old, if I remember correctly, who was just huge, and looked like he could dominate the meet, despite a host of "crazy strong" 20-40 year olds. He, amazingly, missed 3 squat attempts and "bombed out" (was disqualified from further competition). I watched him complete the lifts, but the referees saw flaws in his form that disqualified the lifts.
That happened to me, too, earlier in the day. Lifts were scheduled in order from lowest to highest attempt weight and I was kinda low/middle. I heeded good advice and set my first lift low. It was my very first competition lift. Grabbed the bar, squatted and stood up very easily, then turned and saw two red lights. A FAIL! I did not go deep enough. Then in my upset state I neglected to give the judges a revised weight for my second lift. So I was surprised when I raised the bar off the racks and it weighs 30 lbs more! But I was still in my comfort zone at 280lbs, went 2" deeper than necessary and paused just to be sure, and lifted the weight without difficulty. Emotionally at that point I wanted to kick ass and go for a PR but opted for a conservative 300, which I successfully completed.*
Had another fail on my 3rd Press attempt of 165, despite pressing and holding the weight overhead. There was a slight stop/restart in upward progress, a disqualifier, which caused me to miss a PR.*
These were instructive misses. I'm attending the Seminar in June to see that they never happen again. And they kind of relaxed me for the rest of the meet.
For Deadlift, I made the first attempt but had a grossly wide grip. Upon successful completion, Rip said, "see Coach Reynolds before your next lift". Matt was kind enough to correct my grip and offer other tips. I completed the next two lifts and set a PR of 385lbs easily thanks in part to the advice.
Then two new buddies, Steve and Dave, in my age range blew me away and Deadlifted about 440 or 450 and reset my goals and my belief in what is possible. Then I watched a much stronger 40 yesr old named Craig deadlift about 450 with ease, talk to Matt, and set a new PR above 500lbs next time up. Then the crazy strong guys finished up in the 600's. There were about a dozen women competing. I was impressed by the amount some were lifting, and their amazing determination. They were great to watch.
There was geat cameraderie throughout the day and most guys talked about coming back in the Fall.
AParillo, to sum up, go for it, I think you'll enjoy the experience!