Beginning weightlifting

At the beginning! I had never even seen weightlifting on the T.V I wasn’t really aware of the sport at all. I had grown up in the world of gymnastics and not really had time for much else. I began chasing a different career choice at Durham University, this being a Strength and Conditioning coach. Unknown to myself I would have to learn the technique of weightlifting, to demonstrate for athlete’s over many sports. I began learning the techniques of weightlifting, snatch and clean and jerk with a stick and then a 5kg training bar. I didn’t even dream of competing, as learning was hard enough. I began to add some weights onto the barbell as my confidence grew (2.5kg), this took some time as I was only practicing with my fellow students around twice a week. All I knew at this point was that I was quite enjoying the new challenge in my life, nothing was expected from me apart from the fact I came from gymnastics, so I should be flexible enough to perform the movements. I was having fun learning and I was actually interested in trying to get better, the only sport that had ever captured my heart was gymnastics, so it felt like I had a sport again which filled me with excitement.

I will never forget the first time I placed a 20kg barbell on my back! It felt horrible. I remember thinking “how on earth do people put weights on this thing as well?” I can’t remember how I managed to put weights on, but it happened and the only time I ever have that feeling now is for a new PB attempt.

So for a good 8-9 months aged 25 I began playing weightlifting. I had no set program I was just following the guidance of team Durham S & C coaches. I would say they gave me a very good start to my career and ensured that I learnt without picking up any nasty, bad habits. There are plenty of people learning weightlifting now a days who don’t get quite as good a start as I had. That is probably where my passion comes from to help develop the weightlifters in our country.

I still remember thinking of a thousand coaching points when trying to move correctly and I still remember all the falls I had and still have now trying to get it right. I actually won the award at the end of the academic year for the best falls in our class! So I would say learning how to fall is actually a good thing so you can save yourself.

Considering I was a gymnast I remember those feelings of not being able to achieve the correct positions due to flexibility and one day I spent a whole hour foam rolling and stretching in the gym.

In my next blog I will be explaining how first pull confused the hell out of me and how things suddenly clicked and made sense, with the understanding of how to bend my elbows up and back for the snatch, instead of the bar looping around.