A couple days ago I drove from Santa Cruz, CA to Oregon City, OR to train with my coach Jon North and his team. It was about a 10 hour drive total, which is easily worth it for the opportunity to train with one of the best the US has ever seen. Jon has a brand new team up here in Oregon, a lot of young lifters with potential, and he lives streams every training session on YouNow.com.
Jon came down to do a seminar near me in NorCal at CrossFit Suisun City this past weekend and he stayed with me. While we were talking the night he came down he let me know that a lifter named Ben had moved to Oregon City to be on his team, and he told me Ben had a 133kg snatch, which is 3kg above my current best, and that he was a 85kg/94kg lifter.
The second he told me that I changed my plans for the trip, instead of getting there Thursday night to train, I was getting there Wednesday night.
I currently train with Ian Wilson and David Garcia, who are without a doubt two of the top 5 lifters in the US right now. Training with them has been one of the best learning experiences of my life. The day to day things I pick up from training with them are invaluable. However, they're so god damned better than me, sometimes it's hard to push myself. When I'm fighting for a 155kg+ clean and jerk, it's not necessarily motivating to watch David power snatch it, but I digress.
The reason I changed my plans to get up there sooner was because I wanted to beat Ben. I wanted to beat Ben, in his gym, in front of his team, on his live stream. I honestly was hoping Ben would be a dick, I seriously was. I wanted to show up and talk some shit and go head to head with him. Turns out Ben is a great guy, but that doesn't change the fact that the first day I got there, we battled. Ben beat me by 5kg on the snatch, and I beat him by 5kg on the clean and jerk. The next day we went head to head again, adding 1kg after the other made a lift, and that's the atmosphere I strive in.
Battling head to head against one lifter is the most motivational atmosphere I could ask for. Weightlifting is an extremely ego driven sport, and watching a lifter walk up to a bar after I make a heavy lift and add those little white .5kg plates to each side just sits wrong with me, it makes me feel uncomfortable. I feel sick until I get the chance to add that 1kg to what he hit and smoke it. And that's what you do, you go back and forth until someone cant lift the bar, until their mind or their body quits.
The value of a battle can only be measured in weight lifted. When you train solo, or in a team without any lifters near your total, only then can you understand how important a battle is. 1kg turns into two, two into three, and it keeps going until you and your combatant have both made personal records.
Find someone who lifts just a little more than you, battle, and win.
