If At First You Don't Succeed, Do Something Else

The other day I was working with Chris on snatches. I was hoping to have him set another PR, but wasn't too sure. He hadn't maxed since the last time we worked together and he had already done a workout in the morning. So I had him do a few drills with the barbell, a few doubles with lighter weight and then started working with singles.

His first few lifts: 110 / 132 / 154 / 164 / 174

Chris was steadily climbing and each attempt looked solid. I opted to load the bar to 184 (his previous PR), expecting him to hit it without issue.

His next lifts: 184-F3 / 174-F /154-F / 110-F2 /110

After missing 184 three separate times, I decided to drop the weight down and hopefully work back up. Unfortunately, Chris kept missing everything - for God's sake, he missed 110 twice! This was all a byproduct of mentally breaking down. He missed 184 a few times because of some technique errors - not finishing his extension, slow getting under the bar, etc. But then, frustration and over-thinking caused him to miss what should have been routine lifts. Ultimately, Chris's primary technical flaw was not fully committing to getting under the bar, so I moved him to some snatch balances. After slowly building up weight, he did the following:

204lbs

See, I knew anymore snatch attempts would have done more harm than good. So rather than have Chris get more upset and more mentally shaken, I opted to completely switch exercises and have him address the problem at hand. The result left him with a new snatch balance PR. Sure, he was still pissed about failing all those snatches, but he now knows he can receive 200lbs overhead.

The point I'm trying to make is that if something's not working, adjust your strategy accordingly. There's no use in beating yourself up with failed attempts - it's both physically taxing and mentally frustrating. Adapt to thrive.