When you get a message from @weskitts22 saying ' I've felt great lately and hit an AR total and AR snatch on Friday! Thanks for your help!' And then see my boy Dave Spitz post this....I'm so grateful for their trust in me. 💪 Repost @cal_strength with @repostapp ・・・ Every so often in a coach's life an athlete comes along that changes you. He or she is transformative in the sense that they make you better. Not through explicit demands but through sheer appreciation for their rage to master. Coaching @weskitts22 compels me to work harder, be more creative, more organized and more accountable because I simply refuse to let him down. --- Our goal for the Pan Am Championships was to be in shape to total 391kg. That performance should be sufficient for gold and it nearly doubles his current USAW stipend. Perhaps most importantly though, it represents 1kg over Wes Barnett's American Record Total. Conditioning the body and the mind to make these attempts in one training session is difficult. Add to that the pressure of knowing you are attacking one of the most impressive records in American Weightlifting and nerves can easily be rattled. --- Last Friday marked the end of the 1st Mesocycle of our Realization Phase. Wes put away his straps two weeks ago and had been struggling to feel the bar in the Snatch. Nevertheless in a performance that validated a lot of our efforts this year, he Snatched 175kg (1kg over his American Record) and CJ'd 216kg (1kg over his current lifetime PR) to total 391kg (1kg over Wes Barnett's American Record Total). --- No matter what your opinion is of me or the Cal Strength Team, I can tell you with certainty, Wes is destined for greatness. I encourage you to sit back and enjoy watching him this Quad. I, on the other hand will be in the trenches trying to do my best to guide this incredible young man to realize his potential. The stress and pressure are very real but there isn't a day that goes by that I don't feel blessed to be on this journey with him. - Dave Spitz --- #American105 @weskitts22 #calstrength #cytostrength #weightlifting #caffeineandkilos #fitaid @cytosport @usaweightlifting @caffeineandkilos @fitaid