Recently my training partner and I got our USA Weightlifting Sports Performance Coach certifications so I thought I’d share a little about the sport of weightlifting as well as the certification class itself for anyone considering it. First of all, I should say that we’ve done lots of seminars and certifications over the last few years and they’ve all been good but the truly great ones are those with the best instructors – no surprise there. Before spending good time and money on any of these, I’d suggest an email to the instructor with a few basic questions, can be about anything, just to get a feel for their level of enthusiasm for the subject and for teaching in general.
Even with both of us having our NSCA CSCS certifications, which required at least book-learning the Olympic lifts, the USAW course was incredibly valuable. I knew that weightlifting had organized meets, but didn’t realize just how active the community was other than the period around the Olympics every four years. Nor did I realize how focused the sport was on just the Olympic lifts. Participants in this sport will hit the gym for rigorous workouts all focused on improving the competition lifts. Obviously this makes total sense but most people tend to view weightlifting as a means to increase strength and endurance for another sport outside of the weight room. The variety in a competitive weightlifters typical routine at the gym is quite a bit less diverse than that for someone training for a field sport or for recreation. Their routines are incredibly focused on strength and power for just a few lifts, typically the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk. Core work? Cardio? Bah… 🙂
There’s no lack of information on these lifts so I won’t go into detail here, you can read about them in the manual for the certification class we took or you can check out one of these fine books written by the man who taught our course, Richard A Borden. I should mention that he was an AMAZING hands-on instructor and if you are considering this certification, I would highly recommend seeking him out. Also, Dan John always has great information available like this blog on Olympic Lifting. Below are some shots of the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk for those who can’t picture them…
So back to the USA Weightlifting Sports Performance Coach certification itself, it was a great combination of lecture and hands-on. I find the lectures are all a little long but some background and rationale for the teaching progressions is important before you try and do any of these lifts on your own much less teach them to someone else. The number of steps and the preciseness of body position and technique at each stage is fascinating and does take some time to get it right for sure. Most everyone I see at the gym does them wrong and by wrong I mean they are doing things that are either not as safe as they can be or not as efficient as they can be. Efficiency in everything at the gym, when you perform any exercise incorrectly you are wasting valuable time and energy by not specifically targeting the muscle that you think you are (not to mention risking injury). This holds especially true for the Olympic Lifts but if you’re at the gym and wondering why you are getting sore in places that you weren’t trying to work, it might be time to hire a personal trainer for a few sessions, it’s an investment that will pay off for the rest of your life!
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