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.