[COACHES CORNER
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EMBRACING CHANGE AND GROWTH OVER THE QUAD
Coaches reflect on the past and look towards the future.
With Rio behind us and a fresh quad in full swing, USA Weightlifting spoke to a few of our experienced coaches to get their per- spectives on the last four years and what’s coming ahead.
AMBER SHEPPARD Sheppard has involved in the fitness in- dustry for a decade and a half and has been coaching weightlifting for four years. She coaches at Mississippi Barbell, the first official USA Weightlifting club in the state.
MIKE GATTONE Gattone has been coaching for over 25 years; he coaches at Forza Weightlift- ing Club, located in the A3 Performance Center in Grayslake, IL, a northern sub- urb of Chicago.
MATT FOREMAN Foreman has been coaching for over 25 years; he had his first paid coaching position when he was just 19 years old. He is currently the head coach at Core CrossFit in Phoenix, AZ, where he has run an Olympic weightlifting program since 2013.
What are some of the changes that you’ve seen in the last several years of the sport?
SHEPPARD: Aside from the very obvi- ous massive influx of athletes at all levels of competition, the leadership under Phil Andrews has been electrifying. I know that sounds a little cliché but seeing him on the ground at every turn, in the trench- es with us, really helps tremendously with our growth. For Mississippi Barbell, he was one of our first advocates getting us on a conference call when we started the club, offering guidance and helping us along our journey.
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GATTONE: Most definitely the biggest change I have seen is in the sheer number of members in our National Governing Body, and interest in our sport. It’s wonderful. I love the acceptance and visibility; it’s great for all of us.
FOREMAN: Olympic Weightlifting has ex- ploded in the last 10 years, with the biggest growth taking place within the last quad. Olympic Weightlifting gyms used to be dif- ficult to find. Now, they’re everywhere. Peo- ple in the barbell world talk about snatching more than they talk about bench pressing. It’s tough to really grasp the idea of how much the sport has grown unless you’ve been in it for 20 to 30 years, like myself and many others from the older generations. This is the most exciting time in weightlift- ing history.
What are your thoughts on the intersection of CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting?
GATTONE: The rise of CrossFit and the use of weightlifting movements for func- tional exercise has been a huge catalyst to the growth of my team, and I’m sure the sport in general. For example, around two years ago, the owner of A3 Performance Center asked if I’d be willing to start a pro- gram. We started with five people, and now in just that short time, we have hit 40 — many being former CrossFit partici- pants. The rise has also lead to increased availability of equipment and facilities to train for weightlifting. I remember when I was first in the sport in the 1980s, there was basically one place to train in the en- tire Chicago area, and it was over an hour from my home. This was typical in all the large metro areas. Now an athlete can train in almost any CrossFit box, and even many commercial gyms have platforms and bumper plates.
FOREMAN: All of the growth I just de- scribed
has been almost completely
caused by CrossFit. I know there are plen- ty of grumpy weightlifting people in this country who don’t like to admit this, but they’re kidding themselves. CrossFit is one of the best things that’s ever happened to Olympic Weightlifting because it did what nobody else was able to do for decade — make the Olympic lifts part of mainstream gym culture.
What are some of the misperceptions around the sport that you commonly witness?
SHEPPARD: We hear a lot of parents scared to put their kids in the program for fear of them getting hurt. We have to ex- plain that we will never do anything to hurt the child; we have progressions, program- ming and techniques designed specifically for our youth athletes. Another local gym, The Fieldhouse Sports Performance Cen- ter, shares our values for youth lifting so we work closely with them to help change the attitudes of parents in our community to- ward the Olympic lifts. It also doesn’t hurt we have cute little six year old’s [who are] cleaning with beautiful form and smiles on their faces.
GATTONE: Well, many of the former misperceptions are fading away now that doing things like full squats are seen as normal. In the day, most people thought our type of training was dangerous. I still run into some folks that think weightlifting is dangerous, especially for young kids, but of course we know this is wrong. Also, just this morning I was answering a question from a female about lifting and she was stating the old misperception that weight- lifting might make her bulky, so that one is still out there too.
By Anna Resman
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