Competition Idiosyncrasies:

Everyone in the world is different and unique from one another. We all have our own little quirks and idiosyncrasies that make us who we are. Weightlifter are no different. Every Weightlifter in the World has their own little routine and setup before they lift on the platform. Some are quiet and intrinsic, while others are load and vocal. We have all developed our own method and way that works for us to approach the bar in competition.

My routine starting over 25 years ago at my first big National meet back in South Africa. Up until that point I had only competed in small local and state tournaments. My name was called, I stepped up to the platform for my first snatch. I crouched down, took my grip and began to pull the bar off the ground. Right as started pulling the bar the loudest most obnoxious sound rang out through the hall. (It kind of sounded like the noise Jim Carey makes in Dumb and Dumber when they are in the truck playing the MOST ANNOYING SOUND IN THE WORLD GAME )

Needless to say, I was completely put off and missed my first attempt. I stormed off the platform and said to my coach, “WTF” was that?

It was then that I learned of the “30 second Buzzer”. At big national and International meets there is a buzzer that goes off at the 30 second mark to inform the lifter that they have 30 seconds left to lift the weight. Right then and there, I decided that I would never again be distracted by the buzzer, and that’s where my now infamous “Walk behind the platform” originated. To this day, over 25 years later, I still set up to lift the same way.

After the clock is set to 1 min and my name has been announced as the next lifter on the platform, I start walking behind the platform. 5 paces one way, 5 paces the other. I then stop and wait, standing behind the platform for the 30 second buzzer to go off before I walk on the platform. This is the routine I still do to this day.

                                            watch this for perfect example of the walk

This is not my only Quirk/Idiosyncrasy I have on the platform. I am extremely OCD about the loading of the weights. Let me explain. Olympic Bumper plates have a solid silver disk on the inside of the Bumper, and on the other side the rivets are showing.

                                                please NO, Just NO RIVETTTTTTTTS!!!!!!!

Now as long as I have been lifting I have always been taught that the ‘rivets’ are to be facing the outside, so that the lifter only sees the shinny silver side of the bumper plate. When crouching down to take your grip to lift it can be very off putting to have the weights loaded with the weights loaded rivets in, or heaven forbid they actually load the weights with one side out, and the other side in. Now for someone with OCD, this is exasperated exponentially. (ME)

So last week Ted D’Amico and myself competed in the New Jersey Outdoor Weightlifting Championships. To say I was “Out of my element” would be an understatement. Not because the meet was outdoors, or that is was over 100 degrees outside that day. No, it was for the very reasons I have mentioned above.

 

Because of the limited lifting space outdoors, there was nowhere for me to do my walk before I lift. The weights too were loaded with one side ‘in’ and the other ‘out’. I asked the announcer if they could get the weights changed, which they kindly did. However, they inexplicably changed them so that both rivets where facing in. 

                                                                       no fricken rivets

By the time my turn came to lift my head was all over the place. I had nowhere to walk, and I was eyeing those rivets out like the wart on your one friend’s forehead whom you’ve always wondered “why didn’t they just get it removed”. So inevitably I missed my first two opening attempts on the snatch.

I came back to make my third snatch, and decided to open lower in the Clean and Jerk because I new my head wasn’t in the game.

Now make no mistake, none of these are any excuse for missing lifts or getting upset over. I was never upset; I was simply out of my comfort zone. I was unable to perform my usual set up routines and it completely screwed me up. I am more than happy that I even managed to get a total on the day, let alone a medal.

18 years ago the same thing happened to me at the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia. It was the first time I had lifted on a platform with a Camera right in the center of it, staring up your fricken nostrils. I couldn’t concentrate, I lost focus and ended up Bombing out of a tournament which at the time was my biggest international to date.

Now all of that being said, here is the ironic part. Last weeks meet was probably the most memorable and challenging meet I have lifted in for over a decade. Lifting outdoors was awesome, and having my own compulsiveness put to the test, challenged me in ways on the platform that I have never experienced before. I learned more about myself as a lifter at this meet than I ever have.

Do I want to do it again next week, probably not, but I am a better lifter for having experienced it?

You are never to old to learn a thing or two about yourself. The day you stop learning, is the day you die.  And I ain't done learning yet.

Being a Coach - Reap what you Sow:

I am not a conventional coach. I am a good coach, I know how to teach, I know how to correct faults. I know how to program to ensure an athletes progression. Yes, that I am good at.

I do, however, profess to things other coaches will scoff at. Yes, I encourage my athletes to go out and enjoy themselves with their friends after a Successful Tournament. I know how much friends, and socializing means to a 21-year-old, I was there.

 

Hell, I will be the first one to buy them and all of their friends a drink. I believe success should be rewarded. No, I do not have an issue with them drinking, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their training. This is why I give them time off after a meet, to enjoy themselves. If you take the joy out of life, and try to control every aspect of someone’s life, they will be as good as lost. 

I think that’s what makes me a good coach, that I have been in the position I put my athletes in. Not only that, I still prescribe to my own programming. You see I am still a Lifter. A Master lifter, fair enough, but I am still a lifter at heart. I still want to win medals, break records, bring back the Gold. I have lost none of the motivation that made me a successful lifter in my youth, even now that I am almost 40. On the Contrary, I think I am more motivated, driven and dedicated now than I was at 21.

 

I am also a big proponent of being able to preach what you sow. Who am I to have the right to tell an athlete what to do? If I can’t, and don’t still practice it myself. That’s why I follow my own programming that I prescribe to my athletes. I don’t want to hear how they feel; I want to know how they feel. I know when they are tired, because I am tired. I know when they are sore from a workout, because I am sore from the same workout.

I will never be a coach who simply tells an athlete what to do without being able to show them how to do it. Is my technique perfect? Not by a long shot. But I can at least show them what I am expecting of them. Are there great coaches out there whom have never competed in, nor been successful in the sport they coach? Sure there are.

It’s not just about being able to show them that I still lift. It is about showing them I am still passionate about my sport. I love lifting more than anything in this world. I still believe I can and will have much more success as a lifter. Yes, again as a Master. I have to compare myself to my contemporaries.

That being said, I CAN and WILL Qualify for the 2016 US Open in Florida. Not the Masters, the OPEN division. I want to compete against the best in this country one more time. One more time to show them that even being double their age, I am still doing what I love. I will be one of the oldest, if not the oldest competitor at the US OPEN.

It’s that passion I hope to impasse on them. The passion to never quite. To never cop out and run away from life just because it is difficult. Don’t make the same mistake’s that I did. Life is difficult, life is hard. Don’t give up.

I might have been a rather average if not mediocre International Weightlifter when I was younger. Yet I do believe I have the capability to be an even better athlete as a Master Lifter, I believe it to my core. I believe I can break world records, and I will.

 

I thought the culmination of my career as an athlete was between 21 and 30. That was nothing but a bug smear on the windshield of my life. I have barely begun to accomplish what I intend to accomplishing in my life. I saw the end of my career as an athlete, as the end of me accomplishing anything in life. How wrong I was.

I was young. I was arrogant. I was ignorant to the world. I didn’t know anything else. I didn’t love anything else, I was lost, for a long time.

I am back now, and I don’t intend on going anywhere for then next 40 to Life. What lies ahead I don’t know, but I can’t wait for it.

BRING IT!!!!

Full Circle: From Lifter to Coach

Today I embark on a new Journey. I am heading to the USA National Weightlifting Championships, NOT as an Athlete, but as a Coach.

I have been to many National Championships in my home land, South Africa. I have been to several National Masters Championships in the United States as an Athlete. This is the first time I will be attending National Championships for the sole purpose of being a Coach, and I couldn’t be happier or more excited.

I keep thinking I am going to be nervous about being around all the top level Athletes and Coaches, but the truth is I am not. I look at some of the names of the coaches that will be backstage when I will be there with my athlete and its easy to be mortified. National Coach, Smalcerz. Drechsler, McCauley, Fleming, Cohen and Greg Everett. These are the top coaches in the Country.  I have Greg's book at home, I idealize these coaches. The National coach Smalcerz will be backstage, along with some of the most well know and accomplished coaches in the USA. I am Honored to be in their presence. I am looking forward to introducing myself to them as a coach for the first time. The first time, I believe, for many years to come.

 

Most of these top level coaches have many decades of experience in the coaching game. I will be the newbie in the group, without a doubt. I am OK about that. I am still very young in coaching circles. Even though I have over 25 years’ experience as a lifter, I have only been coaching for just over 3 years now.

Of course none of this would have happened without the amazingly talented lifter Ted D’Amico.

Since Ted has been training with me he has surpassed and superseded even my greatest expectations of him. I am already so proud of him, and yet this is only the beginning of the journey. You see this years National Championships wasn’t even on our radar a few months back. We had always planned on, and focused our attention this year on Ted’s performance at the National University Championships later in the year in September. He just accelerated and blew away every periodization schedule I had him on. Which has lead him to competing at the National Championships in Salt Lake City this Week.

Seeing as though I have always told Ted what the plan is, and what the goal is, we are not expecting any records on Friday. He will be there at the National Championships, lifting in the “A” Session as a 21-year-old man to gain experience of top flight competition. Experience that will be invaluable to him in the future.

We are both young in our respective positions as a Coach, and a lifter. I know how talented Ted is. He has more talent and potential than I ever had as a lifter. I know that with a few years of hard work he can achieve anything he puts his mind to. I know that with many years of hard work, I can be attending the National Championships with an entire team of successful athletes.

These are our respective dreams. I do not have one doubt in my mind that we both shall attain the greatest heights in our respective roles, as a Coach, and an Athlete.

Today the journey begins for both of us.