01/10/2025
MD Strength Slam Down Recap » Taylor Tha, Nelson Dawber & Gabriel Koh
I had the pleasure of coaching 3 of my athletes on the weekend at . It was one of the most organised meet, and definitely a great first sanctioned competition for 2 of my athletes to be apart of. Thank you to all the refs & volunteers who made this possible 🙏🏼
Taylor Tha .thaa . 🥇 9/9, 340kg
Squat: 115kg
Bench: 62.5kg
Deadlift: 162.5kg
This marks Taylor’s first sanctioned competition. Immediately as we started prep, she strained her left adductor. This inhibited Taylor’s ability to squat to depth. In order to still get some stimulus, we had to switch her secondary day to pin squats (just above where she gets pain), while pulling back on volume and intensity on her primary day in order to avoid aggravating her starting. Ironically, she doesn’t get any pain in her adductor during sumo deadlifts at all. With the help of , we formed a plan to keep her adductor under control, and made sure she’s warming up well prior to her squat sessions. This worked out really well on the day as she had ZERO pain in her adductor, and still had a bit more room to push her third attempt for squat. Taylor also managed an all time PB for bench and deadlift on the day - with plenty of room to push her top end strength. Really exciting and impressive first meet for Taylor, and I’m keen to see how far we can progress from here!
Nelson Dawber . 9/9, 465kg
Squat: 172.5kg
Bench: 112.5kg
Deadlift: 180kg
This was also Nelson’s first sanctioned comp, so our priority was to get 9/9 on the day. Before starting our comp prep, Nelson wanted to experiment with sumo as conventional is usually quite taxing for him, leaving him sore and fatigue for days. This did take away from his squat numbers, so we spent a lot of time trying to nail down his technique for sumo. As sumo is quite technical, Nelson was able to be quite efficient in his ex*****on in a short amount of time. Really keen to see how far we can take his deadlift with more time to practice.
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