Weightlifting
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Building a Winning Culture: Setting Team and Coaching Benchmarks in Weightlifting
The Importance of Benchmarks in Coaching and Team Motivation
Last Saturday, I attended Emmy Vargas’ OctoBAR competition at Barbarian Barbell in Van Nuys. I arrived early, so I had a chance to check out the gym's layout. I was pleased to find that Emmy had posted three whiteboards that listed the names of every lifter in her gym, along with their best lifts. Emmy had spent the early years of her lifting career at my PHAT Elvis Weightlifting Club, so she knew the importance of providing incentives that would maintain enthusiasm among the team. Incentives are beneficial for lifters, but I feel they are important for coaches' psyches as well. They provide benchmarks by which progress can be revealed and evaluated.
The most obvious incentive is a team trophy, and a trophy case filled with team awards can go a long way toward setting the tone of the gym. During my days as an active weightlifting coach, I always kept a notebook of records and ranking lists. Whenever I had enough wall space, these documents would get posted and refreshed after the competition.
Record Lists: Tracking Progress Across All Levels
I always kept record lists for the LWC (now WSO), the state, and the nation. They included lists for both genders and all age groups. Any lifters who thought they had a chance to break a record were encouraged to go on that quest, and in many cases, they were reinforced by their teammates, who relished the opportunity to claim membership on the same team as a record holder.
Ranking Lists: Powerful Tools for Motivation
Ranking lists can be compelling. New lifters who see their names far down the list are enthusiastic about moving up. Encouragement from me, my assistants, and teammates would maintain the enthusiasm. The nature of weightlifting is always to know where you rank. This is especially encouraging for the psychological types attracted to the sport. The newer lifters may not make it to the top of their list, but they could make the top 5. Every lifter can find an incentive in the ranking lists except for number 1 — unless number 1 is fearful of being overtaken by number 2.
Competition Results: Measuring Success and Identifying Weaknesses
After every competition, the coach needs to review the numbers differently from the competitors. The percentage of successful attempts can reveal strengths and weaknesses in the preparation process. The ratio of the heaviest snatches to the heaviest clean & jerks is another indicator of sound programming. The amount of progress from the previous meet to the latest meet is another good indicator of the soundness of the programming. These indicators can be evaluated for both individuals and the team as a whole.
I’ve always called the weights for my lifters since most lifters, especially inexperienced ones, don’t understand how the psychic ambiance of a competition affects performance. If a lifter has a low success rate, I know that I need to either adjust my expectations or the performance capabilities of the lifters.
The Ultimate Coaching Goal: Consistency and Continuous Improvement
The overriding goal and expectation for every meet for every lifter is six for six and three PRs. Most of the time, this doesn’t happen, and thus the coach’s job is to figure out why it doesn’t and what to correct for the next competition.
So every lifter should have a number of incentives to keep him or her showing up regularly for training in order to improve. And every coach has a variety of reasons to consistently re-examine his or her approach and determine what needs to be done to keep on improving.
