Every human has a state of mind as I do and you do. State of mind is an asset that we humans use every day without realising it. So how does state of mind become a big part of a lifter’s life and career, during their training and competition? I am going to explain the concept of this felling and state of mind to you.  Do you ever get that when you are in a good mood usually your training is better or let’s say feels better and you won’t get tired. Is all about controlling your feelings as much as we control our body in certain movement let’s say squat, you have done 9 reps and you feeling so tired and worn out, your legs are shaking and blood rushing into them the bar feels so heavy but something inside you allows you to do another rep, it is your feelings that makes last rep a successful lift.
So many days you go to training session and days after day you lift over and over same weight same technique. So the day of the competition comes and your body is prepared but is your mind prepared. So many lifters look at the day of competition as a fighting day or challenge day, that’s one way of looking at it, how about looking at it in a way that no one else has, a unique way. How it is a world champions are able to perform in their best in the last lift on the world records? What do they have that the 2nd place lifter doesn’t have? They both weight the same they both have the same power. So it comes down to the thoughts of the champion.

I am sure most of coaches have done this to their students now and then, is a matter of 1 kilogram in most cases. Lifter X is always able to snatch 80kg but he never was able to lift 81kg. So while the X lifter wasn’t looking his coach makes the bar heavier and  makes it 81kg coach asks him to do another lift on the same bar, it is funny that 95% of cases those lifters were able to perform a successful lift on 81kg weight. You see the lifter has set his mind he is able to lift that bar and is light for him so without any questions and complications he is able to perform it. Let’s take you inside his mind and see what really is going on.
1st lifter won’t be looking at the bar because as much as lifter thought allows he/she to know he/she has just lifted that bar without a problem.
2nd he/she approaches the bar and gets to the position, nothing in the environment has changed, (people, physical state of the room).
3rd the muscle memory of the lifter body will allows them to perform almost exactly the same technique he/she done on the last lift.
Once the lift was done the coaches will ask the lifter how it felt, the reply would be the same as he got on the 80kg weight. Our mind is always questioning and challenging, once our mind is uncertain about something such as 81Kg starts to react towards it, such as extra sweat, higher heart beat, distractions and tries to not concentrate on that object so there we have a nervous lifter would not be able to perform even one that small change.

Psychology of an individual during everyday life is very connected to the training of the lifter. As we have young, mature, older, male and female lifters, so it will be very different lifestyles for each person. A young male lifter has a way different view towards Olympic lifting to mature female lifters. Some lifters might see Olympic lifting only as a hobby and some do see it as career and a total lifestyle. As I was told by many hobby lifters, weightlifting is a way of easing up the everyday stress by concentration to doing the lifts rather than thinking of their everyday problems. But it is totally different view for those lifters who take apart in this sport as a serious career, in many cases even a bad lift causes a great stress on these lifters minds. However every lifter desires to have no external stress during their training time.

Many articles and things have been said by many lifters that work for them, but it all comes down to one major solution, which is to be able to forget or ignore those everyday problems.
forgetting your everyday problems is almost impossible to do, a event of a day is a input in your brain, brain also works as hard drive of your body so it saves everything, such a problem becomes a puzzle that your mind tries hard to solve it without your own awareness and till is not solved it would be going away, but you could control the way it works such as replacing the event by inputting a new date in to it, so the old event would be temporarily ignored till the new event to be solved. So why not putting relevant thoughts in your mind that allows you to improve your training also helps you to concentrate more. The best idea is the second you about to enter the gym or getting ready for your training start thinking about your lifts, your technique, your speed or anything that is relevant to Olympic lifting, keep your mind occupy by that thoughts and every lifts you do cause they are the new events that your mind working hard to analyse it. This kind of thought will help you to become more and more concentrated. There is no such a thing as not thinking, your brain is always working is always thinking even when you sleep.