Anthony Pomponio won gold at the American Open in the Men's 85kg weight class. Here's a write up of his experience leading up to, during, and competitive pl
Dec 14, 2015 by Armen Hammer
Anthony Pomponio won gold at the American Open in the Men's 85kg weight class. Here's a write up of his experience leading up to, during, and competitive plans for after the 2015 American Open:
The American Open (AO) 2015 held in Reno, Nevada was a successful event that drew in a much larger crowd of competitors and spectators than previous years. Between the 950 entries and the 1-3 people that the competitor usually brings to the event, there had to be over 3,000 people in the building just to watch weightlifting! This really blows my mind considering the first national event I ever attended was the American Open in 2010, as a spectator. It was held in a tiny ball room at a Holiday Inn in Cincinnati, Ohio and had around 200 competitors, which I believe at the time was a record number of competitors. This year, the 85kg weight class I competed in had nearly 160 competitors all on its own, with up to a J session! It has been really amazing to watch the growth of this sport and of this event.
Leading up to AO, I had already been on a continuous training schedule since before Nationals. Only four weeks after winning Nationals in August, I competed in a World Team qualifier in China because I needed a 346-350kg total in order to earn a spot on the World Team. I had the best training of my career during those four weeks leading up to China.
I put the weight I needed on the bar, unfortunately the weights just weren’t hitting that day. I ended with 152, 156x, 156x on the snatch and 185x, 185, 190x (the 190 had received three white lights before it was later overturned by the jury) on the CJ. This overturned lift would have given me a 342kg total, although not enough to be put on the world team, would have been a personal record meet total. I ended up with a 337kg total, and my first international competition under my belt.
Upon returning from China I was pretty beat up and tired from non-stop competition mode. The first couple weeks it was a bit difficult to adapt back into training, but I showed up to do the work even though my body was hurting more everyday. A couple weeks later I was fortunate to have my really good friend Alex Master Lee return to the OTC for a pre-Worlds camp. We had a very positive training environment together, really pushing each other day-in and day-out. As we all know, Alex is a freak and he is currently the best American Weightlifter we have, so I really benefited from his presence. Then once the rest of the world team came 3 weeks before worlds the gym was on fire! Everyone was hitting huge lifts and the energy was insane.
Just to make training a little more interesting, Norik Vardanian and myself created a daily winner board and after every training session we would ask Coach Zygmunt, “ Zyg who won today?” He would then give us the name of the person he thought had the best practice that day or session. So here we have 10-15 of the best male weightlifters in the Country battling it out everyday to be crowned “The Daily Winner.” This literally lasted for four weeks until the world team left.
Looking back, pushing myself everyday during that 3-4 week span might have taken a larger toll on my body than I expected; still I ended that last Friday practice during the pre-World camp feeling confident with a 153kg snatch and a 187kg CJ, giving me a 340kg total about two weeks out from the AO. However, training started going down hill, and I mean going downhill fast. Due to a lower back injury that hurt only when I back squatted I had no option but to take out back squats five weeks before the AO. I think this played a large role in my performance in the CJ, mainly the jerk. I just didn’t have the engine that I normally do in competition to finish the lifts.
One week before the competition we usually have a very heavy day and I was supposed to go up to 156kg in snatch and 190+ in CJ, except every single lift in the Snatch, starting with 100kg, felt like a deadlift from the floor. I ended up only making 140kg Snatch and I didn’t even CJ. At this point, I already knew my body needed a break but after this session I questioned myself if I was even ready to compete.
The Monday before AO Zygmunt was back in town from Worlds and we ended up having a decent Monday session making 137kg in the Snatch and 175kg in the CJ, however I could still feel something being off with my strength. So Zygmunt basically gave me the rest of the week almost off, only going up to 80% on Wednesday for a few singles, which actually felt great. So at this point I figured I would have a decent meet, just not the best as far as feeling strong goes. I kept telling myself “ you are strong, you are ready.” Because I know from being an athlete my whole life is that it’s “80 percent mental and 40 percent physical” (Little Giants). I knew if I could keep the mindset of knowing I was ready, that I would be ready.
So the day of my session, my snatch warm-up went awesome leading up to my opener I took bar, bar, bar, 60, 60, 80, 80, 100, 100, 115, 115, 125, 125, 135, 140, 145; all very crisp and easy. I’m sure most of you are thinking that’s a ton of warm-ups; there is reasoning behind it. I take a very long time to warm up and with a very tight left shoulder I need extra attempts in order to feel completely loose.
Anthony Pomponio Snatches 150kg/330lb At The 2015 American Open
I opened with a pretty conservative 150kg (considering I did 152 in china as an opener), it went great, so we bumped up to 155kg, which was a competition PR. As you can see from the video I was pretty fired up after that lift.
I know now that I need to keep my composure a little more in order to be ready for the 3rd attempt, because I missed my last attempt at 157kg; it was just a tad forward.
Going into the CJ I was pretty pumped and happy with how the snatches went. In my head I was thinking man I feel great today I’m thinking possible 185,191,19--- for the Clean and Jerks, but they didn’t go as planned! The warm-ups were terrible starting with a 170kg press out, then a miss at 177kg. So we bumped my opener down to 182kg and then ended up opening up at 181kg.
Anthony Pomponio Clean & Jerks 181kg/398lb At The 2015 American Open
Unfortunately, that was the only one I successfully completed, so I ended the day with 336kg total which was good enough for first place overall by 14kg difference between first and second. However, this total was 3kg under my meet PR that I made at Nationals, so I was pretty unsatisfied with my performance.
I was disappointed in myself but with the bad there comes some good. The good being my Snatch attempts, which never have felt better, and the bad being the shape I was in for my CJ. The best thing I can take away from this is to be aware, during every training session, of how my body feels and don’t try to out do myself, especially in training because in the end training numbers mean nothing!!!! Competition is all that matters so why waste your self out during training if you cannot perform on the platform when it matters.
As far as my future plans in weightlifting go, I am really looking forward to the next few weeks of easy-fun training then kicking into high gear early next year for Pan-Am qualifier, which will be held at Junior Nationals in Philadelphia February 18th. I expect myself to have a much better overall performance. I don’t like to shoot numbers out there but I expect to be around my best numbers that I know I am capable of. As of right now I am ranked 6th on the Pan-Am team standings. One of my long-time goals I’ve had is to make it onto a Pan-Am or World team, and I’m more determined than ever to realize these dreams. I also want to continue to chip away at some personal bests during meets, to close in on some American record attempts in the future.
Lastly I would like to thank everyone for following this journey that I started in October 2010; its been a fun and wild ride that I promise will just get better. Thank you to my girlfriend Charlotte for her encouragement and for relocating from beautiful California to Colorado Springs last year to help pursue my journey. Thanks to all my sponsors for providing me with the support I need to be a successful high-level athlete, Juggernaut, Carr Cellular Fitness, Kilos not Lbs, and to Athlete Performance Solutions and Virus Intl. for always keeping me in the freshest gear out there. Special thank you to Sean Waxman for his tremendous competition help, and to my coaches Nick Frasca and Coach Zygmunt who push me to be the best athlete I can be.
