Originally Posted by Eric3237

On the third rep (attempt), the one that you failed on, the bar comes up, stops, and almost immediately starts going down. To me, this is a sign that when you reach a sticking point you actually back off. Or in other words you don't push as hard. You should never do this. When you reach a sticking point you push as hard or harder. Your goal should be to keep accelerating that bar up just as if you were doing speed sets accept that the bar will travel much slower.

Now I could be wrong and you could have been pushing your ass off and you couldn't help the bar going down but I know that for many there instinct tells them to give up when they should be trying harder. This will help you strengthen those weak points a lot. Even if ultimately you don't get the rep. In general what you want to see with a spotter is the bar pausing in midair for a few seconds until it's apparent it's not going up and THEN they step in.