Meet planner
What should you open with, how big should the jumps be, and when do you take each warm-up in the back room? Type your best snatch — and your clean & jerk, if you are doing both — and this page answers all three: an opener, second and third, a warm-up ladder to the opener with the moment to take each set, and the total they add up to. It runs in this tab — nothing is sent anywhere.
How the opener is chosen
The opener is a weight you make three times out of three in training — around 88–93% of your best. It is not there to impress anybody: a made opener puts a total on the board, and three missed openers end the meet. The third is at your best or just over it, and the second sits between. With the standard style an 80 kg best opens on 90%, goes to 96% and finishes on 101%.
| Style | Opener | Second | Third | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 88% | 94% | 100% | A first meet, or making the total matters more than a number: an opener well inside what you make every week, and a third at your best rather than over it. |
| Standard | 90% | 96% | 101% | The usual shape: open with a weight you make 3/3 in training, and finish a kilo or so over your best if the first two move well. |
| Aggressive | 93% | 98% | 103% | A lifter who has been meeting their best in training and needs a number on the day: a heavier opener and a third that asks for a few kilos more. |
The percentages are conventional coaching margins, reasoned from practice rather than measured here; adjust them to how training has gone.
Why the jumps shrink
Each attempt is heavier and you are more tired, so the second jump is never bigger than the first. A few kilos from opener to second, fewer from second to third. The planner keeps each attempt at least a kilo over the last — the rules require it — and moves the second up if rounding would make the last jump the bigger one.
Attempts out, and the clock
In the back room nobody counts minutes; they count attempts. “Three out” means three lifts are taken before your name is called. Once called you have one minute to start the lift, so an attempt out is about1 minute. Take your last warm-up around3 out, and work back from there. Ask the marshal or watch the board — lifters change their weights, and when somebody follows themselves the count stalls for two minutes.
After a miss
If the miss was technical and the weight moved, repeat it. If it was close and slow, repeat it. Only take the planned jump after a make — or a small one, a kilo or two, after a miss you are sure was a mistake rather than the weight. A third that chases a missed second is how a lifter leaves with no total.
Snatch
| Attempt | Load | Of best |
|---|
Back room, to the opener
| Load | Reps | Take it |
|---|
Clean & jerk
| Attempt | Load | Of best |
|---|
Back room, to the opener
| Load | Reps | Take it |
|---|
| Planned total | |
|---|---|
| Sinclair total |
“Take it at N out” means when N attempts are left before your name is called — about 1 minute each, since a called lifter has a minute to start the lift. The last warm-up is 3 out and each set before it 3 earlier: a back-room convention, and the count runs slow when lifters follow themselves or change their weights. Attempts are in whole kilograms, because that is what a meet loads and each attempt must be at least 1 kg over the last; in pounds you get the kilos to declare and what they come to. The warm-ups are rounded down to 2.5 kg (5 lb), never below the empty bar.
Find what is capping your snatch →
The planner opens with your snatch filled in. Add your power snatch, overhead squat or back squat — a lift you have not tested is left out rather than guessed.
Planning a whole squad?
Paste the team sheet into the squad page: every lifter's row and printed slip links to their own meet plan, carrying their numbers and never their name.
Embed this calculator
Writing a program, or running a club site? Paste this into your page and your readers get the calculator with a link back here for the rest. It carries whatever numbers are in the form above, so type yours first to embed it filled in. Coaching a squad? Read the whole team sheet at once, with a link for each lifter.