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.

Its Official: We are USA Weightlifting Club #7041:

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Crossfit Hoboken Barbell Club is now an Official USA Weightlifting Registered club. We are Club number 7041 in New Jersey.

  

We are now the only official USA Weightlifting club in Hoboken that offers full time coaching and support to our athletes. Congratulations to the following club representatives:

Club President: Ryan Erasmus

Club Coach: Dallas Quano

Club Secretary: Britta Winans

  

Under the auspices of USA Weightlifting we can now register and Compete as team CF Hoboken Barbell Club. We can now run and host both coaching and referee clinics as well as our very own USAW Competitions. As a registered Club we are now also covered under USAW General Liability insurance.

  

When I started coaching at Crossfit Hoboken I dreamed of a time when we would have a full Official lifting team; that time is now. We will now train together, and compete together as a team. There will be many medals, championships and Team Trophies to come for CF Hoboken Barbell Club in the future.

Congratulations and thank you to all those who have worked so hard to make this a reality. I am so very proud of everything we have, and will achieve as a team.

Well Done All. 

Coach Ryan

Three Years to a World Title: Keep Setting Goals

3 years ago I decided to start competing again in Olympic weightlifting. It had been almost a decade since I last represented my country internationally. Straight from the onset I set myself the goal of winning a World Championship Title. Last week I did just that by taking the Gold medal at the 2015 World Masters Cup. 3 years might seem like a long time but that is a normal training cycle for many athletes. Most top athletes will train in 4 year cycles along with the Olympic Games.

I believed when I started training again that I was capable of winning the World Masters. I trained and set my goals accordingly to reach that goal. It started out with a few local meets. Then moved on to the U.S. Open Masters Championships, and finally the World Championships.

Set your own goals well in advance, 3, 4 years down the line. Pick a tournament or competition you want to take part in, the US Open, World Champs, or Crossfit Games and set your sights on achieving it. I see too many athletes in the gym looking for that quick fix that is going to put 50 lbs on each of their lifts. The only thing that puts 50 lbs on your lifts is years of practice and dedication.

Start by making a list of the next 5 years of your life. After four years write in the goal you want to achieve. Now work your way back. Start with the National meets you want to attend each year. Then look at local meets roughly three months apart leading up to those events. That's it; there you have your plan. Now you can focus on your periodization between each.

Now that I have a World Gold medal, I have my sights set on the 2017 World Masters Games in New Zealand. I don’t just want to win the Gold; I want the Gold and the World Record. That is my goal, that is what I am training for, and that is what I intend on achieving.

I Can, I will, Watch me.

Cutting Weight: The perils of cutting weight for competition.

Over the past weekend 5 members of the Crossfit Hoboken Barbell Club Competed in the Larry Mintz Memorial Weightlifting Tournament in Garden City Long Island. Of those 5, 4 athletes including myself had to cut weight in order to make our weight categories. We all made weight on the day, but had very different performances.

Like any sport that has bodyweight categories, Weightlifters try and cut weight in order to lift in a lifter bodyweight category. We do this to achieve a podium position, a lighter qualifying total, or to maximize our power to weight ratio. In lifting its simple, the lighter you are, and the heavier you lift, the better you are. Athletes employ a number of ways to lose the weight. Dieting, cutting carbs, sugars and sodium from your diet. Hot baths, Running with Plastic Bags over your body, chewing gum and spitting, and of course the tried and tested sauna. However, losing weight before competition comes with its own perils and complications. One’s which I am all too familiar with.

Unlike Boxing or UFC, Weightlifters have to weigh in two hours before they compete. This gives them very little time to try and eat and rehydrate after the weight cutting. Take boxers for example, they weigh a full 24 hours before they fight. Take the recent Mayweather Pacquiao fight. The debacle they called the fight of the century.  Both lifters weighed in at around 145lbs (66kg) the day before the fight. If you think they still weighed in the 140’s when they got in the ring you are gravely mistaken. I am thinking more like 155/160 lbs when they actually fought.  How you say, let me explain.

On Sunday morning I competed at a weight of 135.7 lbs (61.7kg). 24 hours later, after plenty of food and re hydration, I weighed 147.2 (66.9kg) that’s an increase of 12 lbs by the next day. The reason for this was that for the entire week before the competition I had been dieting and using the sauna in order to lose the weight. So in the space of 7 days I had lost, and gained 12 lbs (6kg). That’s a lot of weight for a little guy to cut. Too much in fact.

After feeling good with my Snatches, and posting a New Competition record of 95kg (210lbs), I bombed on all three of my attempts in the Clean and Jerk. (Bombed is a weightlifting term for missed all attempts @NSA) I felt pretty good before I snatched, and was elated at my Snatch record, but when it came time to Clean I had nothing left in the tank. I was physically drained and dehydrated. I had no strength left in me. The weight I was attempting 109kg (240lbs) is a warm up weight for me in the gym, but on Sunday it felt like a 305lbs (140kg) front Squat. Others on the team suffered a similar fate, having difficulty with weights that they easily make in the gym.

So what’s the moral of the story you ask. Cutting too much weight, to quickly will drastically affect your performance. You would think I have learned my lesson from passed experiences. At the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia I had to cut similar weight to get into the 62kg division. I bombed on all my clean and Jerks, when I was hoping for a medal. At last year’s World Masters Championships in Denmark I cut weight to 62kg and lifted significantly under my Personal records. Thankfully I at least got one Clean and Jerk for a Silver Medal.  How I miss the days when I first started competing in Weightlifting when there was the 64kg division. That is my ideal weight. But alas, no more (Thanks to the introduction of female lifters, and the lowering of the number of men’s bodyweight divisions)

From here on out I have one of two choices to make. Gain weight and be a fully fledged 69kg lifter. That would entail a few months or Creatine and Protein in order to get myself in the 70’s kg (152lbs). Or stay where I am 66kg (147lbs), and drop weight over a longer period of time than just a week. For now I am just going to let my bodyweight do what it wants for a month and then decide.

Congratulations again to the team from Crossfit Hoboken on your performance on Sunday.

Ryan Erasmus “Coach” – DNF (still got a PR 95kg Snatch)

Chad Michael – 4^th place men’s 85kg division 214kg Total

Dallas Quano – 2^nd Place Trophy men’s 85 kg division 245kg Total

Madalyn Rodriquez – 2^nd place trophy woman’s 53kg division 132kg Total

Britta Winans – 2^nd place trophy woman’s 63kg division 131kg Total

Competition Fallout: A necessary Evil

By now those of you whom recently competed in the Lost Battalion Hall Classic Weightlifting Tournament have come to realize something. There is a downside to Competition. That is the Post competition fallout.  Do not despair; this is a normal part of periodization and a necessary evil.

For most athletes the two weeks after a major Competition or meet are hell. Their bodies are tired, and their minds are like that of a Walker on the Walking Dead. Every training session feels like the hardest yet, and technique seems to be something long forgotten. Weights that were a warm up two weeks ago are suddenly challenging.  This is called competition Fallout, and we all go through it. It’s kind of like the fallout after studying for weeks before a final exam. Your body and mind are shot.

Fear not, this will not last forever, usually about two weeks. It is a natural consequence of your body and mind preparing itself for competition. Once that competition is complete, things start to shut down.  This is an extremely challenging time for any athlete, and a very important one. It is important to not lose focus, and drop off on your training. I have seen many athletes take to much time off after competition and return worse for wears. Yes, you are not going to be at your best. Yes, you are going to go through a slump for a week or two. But it is the training and dedication you show during these times, which will benefit you the most in the long run.

During this time technique training should be kept at a minimal while focusing more on the heaver lifting, Squats, Overhead Squats, Max Jerks etc. Take your mind out of training and simply lift. In a few weeks everything will fall back into place and you will be stronger for it. It’s fighting through the tough sessions like these that show an athlete’s true character.

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For two weeks after Competition keep it simple: 

Eat, Sleep, Lift, and Repeat. Don’t think. Just lift!