I can't believe how time flies by! I've been coaching Olympic Weightlifting for about five years now and involved in the sport for thirteen years - many of those year were before lifting was "cool" and CrossFit was a big thing. In the past year, I decided to get more serious about own personal weightlifting and goals. To do that involved a couple things: (1) finding my own coach, (2) dialing in my nutrition, (3) getting a more serious routine to dedicate to my own lifting.
Picking a coach was an easy decision for me. After working with Victor Gallego last summer at University World Games I knew he would be a great coach for me and shares a similar overall philosophy for weightlifting and training. Here are some of the lessons I took away from being coached so far! None of them are earth shattering but they are all good reminders for everyone.Quality Before Quantity and IntensityI would much rather see a perfect single or double then an ugly triple or 4 rep. A perfect single at 90% will have much more carryover to competition maxes then an ugly triple with the athlete running all over the platform to save the last two.The Importance of Minimizing MissesIn competition you perform like you do in training. If you miss frequently in training - you will likely be inconsistent in competition as well. Training is preparation - weights need to be selected and adjusted so the athlete rarely misses!Working on Weaknesses Before being coached I did a lot of above knee block snatches - which I feel are very good exercise for most athletes. But I was capable of doing 3-5reps at 90%+ weights. While my snatches from hang were challenging at 75% weights. So of course Victor had me working hang and pause at knee variations much more frequently then block snatches. This was obvious but I feel no matter how good of coach you are for other people, if you try to coach yourself you are going to gravitate to your strengths and away from your weaknesses to some degree.More WarmupsParticularly on snatch its very beneficial to have more warmups to help teach and ingrain proper technique.
