Coaching powerlifters on meet day has come to be one of my favorite things in the world. I take tremendous pride in watching my lifters lay it all on the line, channeling months (or even years) of effort into one single day. The drama, the attempt selection strategy, and ultimately, the satisfaction once the meet is done – all these feelings leave me with a high that I can’t seem to match until the next meet.
The training leading up to the meet clearly has the biggest impact on the result of the meet. I’ve heard many accomplished coaches and lifters say, “You get the meet that you train for.” However, I’ve come to believe that game-day strategy is a close second to training in terms of determining a lifter’s success or lack thereof. I’ve seen plenty of strong lifters squander away their meet due to poor attempt selection, haphazard warm-ups and lack of fatigue management.
As I write this, we’ve got a handful of first-time powerlifters about 8 weeks out from their first competition. While the bulk of our physical and mental energy goes into training, we’ve been slow-dripping the must-know information about the meet itself. This article will serve as a guide to intelligent attempt selection. Whether you’re a complete rookie or a seasoned veteran, these tips should help you call for the right weight on the bar in any situation.
Set Goals for Each Lift and Work Backward
Attempt selections should focus on getting you to your goals for your third attempts on the squat, bench press and deadlift. Hopefully you set goals long before the meet and worked diligently toward them. Make sure they’re reasonable and realistic.
If you’re a novice, it can be difficult to know exactly what you’re capable of, and in my opinion, it doesn’t really matter for your first meet. Just go in, lift, and get the competitive experience. Who cares if you undershoot and leave plenty of pounds on the platform? There will be more meets.
On the other hand, if you’ve been powerlifting for any appreciable amount of time, you know how much work and time it takes to set even the smallest PRs. Don’t expect to add 20-plus pounds to each lift if you’ve been at this for a long time (and still compete on a regular basis).
Once your goals are set, work backward from your third attempts. What second attempt leaves you comfortable at taking a shot at your final attempt? And then how light do you need to open to make a reasonable jump to your second?
What’s Your Goal Total?
At some point, your goal total (the sum of your best squat, bench and deadlift) will take precedence over your individual lifts. This is often the case when trying to qualify for national- or international-level meets, or to win your weight class.
If this is the case, you’ll have to plan ahead and map out attempts in order to hit your goal total. More often than not, this comes down to the deadlift because it’s the final lift of the meet. Consider what you’ll have to deadlift if you hit all your squat and bench attempts, and also what you’ll need to pull if you miss any of your prior attempts.
Pick Based on Percentage or RPE
There are no hard-and-fast rules for attempt selection. However, many coaches like to use either percentages (of your goal third attempt) or RPE (based on lifts from the most recent training block). Both these strategies have some utility depending on the lifter.
Percentage-based attempt selection is pretty simple: pick your goal third attempts, then choose your opener and second attempt as a percentage of your third attempt. For example:
| Moderate approach | Conservative approach | Aggressive approach |
| 1st attempt: 92% | 1st attempt: 90% | 1st attempt: 95% |
| 2nd attempt: 97% | 2nd attempt: 95% | 2nd attempt: 97% |
| 3rd attempt: 100% | 3rd attempt: 100% | 3rd attempt: 100% |
As you can see, you can be more or less aggressive with attempt selection based on what type of lifter you are and which lift you’re performing. For example, many lifters are less aggressive with squat attempts because it’s the first lift and nerves often affect their squat opener. Many lifters are more aggressive with bench press because the weight on the bar is usually far less than it is on squat or deadlift, necessitating attempts that are clustered closer together.
I’ll often pick a lifter’s attempts based on singles at certain RPEs that they achieved during their final training block leading up to a meet. Because we tend to do competition-lift singles throughout most of the training year, I can feel confident that their numbers are reasonably predictable and reliable. Similarly, we can break this up into moderate, conservative and aggressive approaches:
| Moderate approach | Conservative approach | Aggressive approach |
| 1st attempt: 8 RPE | 1st attempt: 7 RPE | 1st attempt: 9 RPE |
| 2nd attempt: 9 RPE | 2nd attempt: 8.5 RPE | 2nd attempt: 9.5 RPE |
| 3rd attempt: 10 RPE | 3rd attempt: 10 RPE | 3rd attempt: 10 RPE |
Account for Fatigue
As I alluded to at the beginning, far too often I see lifters overestimating their abilities on meet day because they don’t account for how goddamn tiring a powerlifting meet is. Sure, you may have hit certain numbers in the gym under ideal conditions: only doing one competition lift that day, plenty of rest and sleep leading up to that training session, familiar environment and equipment, and zero outside pressure from judges, fellow competitors or the crowd. Game day is a different animal.
You have to take into consideration how taxing it is to max out on all three lifts in the same day. Also, the downtime between lifts can be draining – all the sitting around with time to get in your own head and dwell on the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s tough to pull a max deadlift when you’ve been at the venue for 8-10 hours already. Hell, I’ve done a meet where I did my squat opener at 11 am and didn’t pull my third deadlift until 1 am (NOT a typo).
It can be tempting to assume you can beat your in-the-gym lifts at the meet, and hopefully you do. But remember, everything is harder at the meet when you factor in the fatigue associated with competing.
Does Competition Increase or Decrease Your Performance?
Many people assume that the excitement and adrenaline at the meet will help bump up their strength. However, I’ve found that the heat of battle does NOT increase everyone’s performance. Some people (myself included, unfortunately) struggle to match their in-the-gym performances at a meet due to the performance anxiety that comes with competing.
There’s nothing shameful about having performance anxiety. Most high-level athletes experience it at least to some degree. You can train yourself to overcome it by using positive self-talk, visualization and other mental training tools. But when picking your attempts, you have to be honest with yourself about how competition affects your performance.
If the thought of competing sends butterflies swirling around your stomach, perhaps consider a more conservative attempt selection, aiming to set small PRs rather than blowing your previous numbers out of the water.
What Do You Do If You Miss?
You hate to think anything but positive, but you have to consider the possibility that you might miss an attempt. What do you do then? It helps to have a backup plan just in case things don’t go your way.
In most situations, it’s best to repeat the same weight if you miss an attempt. Usually, openers are missed not on strength but on technicalities: not squatting deep enough, missing a rack command, butt coming off the bench, etc. One might think that if your opener is light enough, it makes sense to go up in weight anyway and just fix the technical error you made. Occasionally, I’ll call for a heavier second attempt if this happens to my lifter, but typically for my newer and/or more casual lifters, we’ll repeat the same weight because the risk of bombing out is too high (bombing out refers to missing all three of your attempts for a single lift, in which case you’re disqualified from the meet).
If you have to repeat an attempt due to a miss, that obviously throws a wrench in your planned third attempt and perhaps your goal total as well. Consider mapping out a backup plan with third attempts that fall somewhere between your planned second and third attempts to try to salvage as much weight as possible, but understand it will probably mean making a bigger jump between attempts that you normally would.
Have Someone in Your Corner
These suggestions are largely aimed toward lifters making their own attempt selections on meet day. Clearly, I value the profession of coaching and fully believe in the importance of having someone there to make (somewhat) unbiased decisions for the lifter. It can be extremely difficult to think clearly when you’re competing, especially when you have to decide on your next attempt within 60 seconds of lifting something really, really heavy.
The most successful lifters I’ve ever coached have trusted me wholeheartedly to make attempt selections, but have also given me their honest input and taken the time to gameplan with me ahead of time. Collaboration between coach and lifter is crucial on so many fronts, attempt selection being no different.