4 Things you should do if you do not have a coach.

4 Things you should do if you do not have a coach.

There are more people in this world who train and practise Olympic weightlifting without a coach then people who do, and it’s completely normal as there are so many resources out there such as videos, books, articles etc to help them in their learning, so here’re 4 things that people like you (if you train on your own) should look out for and consider doing it:

1. Do the things that you HATE and do more of that.

The reason is simple, if you hate something, or you hate certain movements, chances are you are bad at those movements and you know it.

For instance, Some people absolutely hate the Clean Lats High Pull simply because the narrow grip pull make them feel extremely uncomfortable, the restricted shoulder flexibility and elbow mobility, the bad coordination, the uncontrollable moving wrists and the list goes on, and they stopped doing it as they feel the movement is awkward and it does too little help to their cleans, however people don’t know that this particular movement is one the most helpful exercise to help you get a MUCH better clean.

Do something that you hate, or most people hate, then you will achieve what most people can’t achieve.

2. Slow down on all your movements.

Slow down literally means slowing down on the way you lift, feel the weight, feel your quads, feel your ankles, feel your CG (Centre of Gravity). This is very common for lifters who are training without any coach, they tend to rush, rush for the numbers, the reps, the sets and the weight they target for the day, and some even rush on their rest time, so what happen if you rush, you got injured, EASILY.

The next time you approach a lift, try slowing it down and focus on getting the angles and positions right before adding speed in the equation, feel each reps, each sets on each weight, ask yourself if your current rep is better then the previous one, ask yourself which one is the best rep after each set, weightlifting is a mind game, not just about moving the muscles.

3. Simplified your own programs.

When it comes to programming, there is definitely no ”one size fits all’’, that’s the reason why I spend a significant amount of time designing a program specifically for each individual and sometimes is like solving geometry, there are so many surfaces that needs to be considered and I do take more time than other coaches just to create one tailored program, my students know this well.

So if you’re training on your own and you do not have the idea on how to design and implement the exact exercise combination you need, then just make things simple, you will go far with certain degree of complexity, but you also won’t go wrong if you choose simplicity. If you’re training for your snatch, then just simplified as: snatch balance – snatch high pulls – Snatch Pull from ground, you will realize the program movements go from top to bottom, from higher position to lower position, logic.

Don’t confuse yourself, there are many advanced movements that you may or may not heard of or even know how to do, and there are always something needs to be done before such exercise and after to get the best out of it, so do consult a coach and this brings us to the next point.

4. Find a coach if you really want to improve.

Lu Xiao Jun, Liao Hui, Tian Tao, Lionel Messi, Lebron James, Tiger woods, Kelly Slater, Lin Dan, all sounds familiar to you? they’re the sacred elites in their respective sport and what is in common amongst them? They all have a coach, or coaches to look after them, to plan things for them, if you think you will be better off training on your own, just look at them, look at how they still listen to their coaches even though they are already one of the best in the world.

Coaches have the ability to see what goes wrong, what needs to be changed, what needs to be avoided and what needs to be strengthened, and they see things very differently from the way you see yourself.

They can help you, they can save you and they can dig out your potential and present it right in front of you.

Peace 🙂