T Nation

Kids in Weightlifting

Olympic Lifting
#1

Get your kids in Olympic weightlifting! The sport needs kids starting
as early as 7 or 8! The sport of weightlifting needs to have kids
start at a younger age, preparing them early so they can be ready to
make an Olympic team and start winning Gold medals for the USA! The younger our athletes start the stronger, more efficient and more experienced
they will be when they get in there prime.

Its a shame how
weightlifting is not a varsity sport. Why is not? Why is throwing a
medal ball as far as you can a college sport and a varsity sport but
not weightlifting? Why can you get a full ride to college for golf, a
non Olympic sport but not weightlifting? Its bullshit. I would have
never played football or soccer if I could join the weightlifting team
in middle school or high school. Its sad how these kids don’t have the
option to enjoy the great sport of weightlifting.

The kids I coach
love it, and they always ask me, â??hey coach Jon, can I get a
scholarship weightliftingâ??? I say no you cant, and then most of them
leave the sport and play a sport that they can get there college payed
for , and I don’t blame them! Did you know that weightlifting use to
be apart of track and field. What happend? I am getting pissed just
talking about it, good by.

#2

[quote]JonNorth2012 wrote:
What happend? … [/quote]

…i don’t know… ask coach Pendlay.

#3

I wish I had weightlifting offered when I went to high school. I only started because it is part of training for bobsleigh and I love it. I hated going to the gym before I started doing cleans and squats. Now I hate missing a day or if I have a bad day in the gym or if I hurt myself and it means I have to change my workout.

I did a session out in Vancouver at a high school when I foreran at the Olympics. Their coach was awesome, he loves lifting and loves getting kids into lifting. But listening to him talk it sounds like a lot of coaches are the reason weight lifting. They don’t respect it and don’t push their kids to it. Also a lot of kids don’t respect coaches anymore.

All I know is when I have the room and money I intend on having my own gym at my house and want my kids to start learning early, even if they don’t want to go to the Olympics for it, being able to properly lift heavy weight is useful in so many other facets of life too.

#4

Most kids don’t have what it takes…

But it’s a dam shame there aren’t more scholarships for kids that want to do weightlifting…

Bro started 4yrs ago when he was 11, he’s 15 now.

Grew about 4inches in the past 12months.

His best in trainig is 68. He has very good recovery from his lifts and session to session.

Saturday he went heavy
67 for 3 singles
63 for 5 singles got 5 out of 6

Front Squat 100kg also.

Koing

#5

first off, koing, your brother’s a beast!

and i honestly think i should’ve started weightlifting when i was younger, instead of at 16.

i think most kids have what it takes, as they’re really competitive.

the greatest benefit from oly weightlifting would be that high school football players would actually do full squats instead of 1/8 squats. my high school’s record is 515 lbs, and seeing it would make professional powerlifters cry!

#6

[quote]Koing wrote:.
Koing[/quote]

Nice… yes…
Nice…! yesss…!
NICE>>! YESSSS>>!

Lol, your brothers looking good

#7

[quote]deadliftgoal500 wrote:
first off, koing, your brother’s a beast!

and i honestly think i should’ve started weightlifting when i was younger, instead of at 16.

i think most kids have what it takes, as they’re really competitive.

the greatest benefit from oly weightlifting would be that high school football players would actually do full squats instead of 1/8 squats. my high school’s record is 515 lbs, and seeing it would make professional powerlifters cry![/quote]

Yeah he’s an animal. He has a ridiculous work rate. He can smash through a session so quickly…he doesn’t much rest to do his sessions. He just hammers through it.

He should get 74/90 by the end of the year? He’s already done 69 in training. Next comps in 2 weeks time.

The first and main issue is that the OLifts are technical to start and most are hampered by that and flexibility. PL you see much faster gains from the get go but the learning takes a chunk of time and dedication to get the basics somewhere grounded.

I started when I was 15 and a half.
35/45 15yrs @ 75
100/120 18yrs 77
116/142 23yrs 83.5 : missed 120 in comp this year!
120/145 25yrs 90.5
122/147 26yrs 89.5
27 at the end of the year

So as you can see I made f0ck all gains when at Uni…and suffered a back injury that took me out for 6months. Then it was savagely slow from 23-25 :frowning: with me stupidly keeping my weight down until I decided to shift up to the 94’s in 2009.

So I’m getting f0cking on it now!

Koing

#8

This is a very interesting subject. How do we, in the US, recruit better? We need to stop trying to get the 5’10 220 running back who’s going to the NFL and make millions of dollars - we simply can’t compete for that athlete.

Now, how many high schools have kids 5’7/5’8" who are just as good athletically, but simply don’t have the size to compete beyond their local high school. How many colleges, even D3, take kids who are this size and let them play football/basketball - not many?

So, why not go after those gifted athletes - direct them to weight class sports like weightlifting or even wrestling instead of chasing a pipe dream of making the NFL/NBA?

I wish there was an easy answer for the USAW to do better recruiting. I know my coach, Rege Becker, has spoken to local track and field coaches about strength and conditioning - he asked who they think is a better athlete - a kid who can bench his bodyweight or overhead squat it?

But the lunkhead mentality persists at the school level - bench ( 2 man bench - hand on the bar to help), quarter squat, and reverse curl(power clean. If we can’t get the coaches on board we can’t win the kids. The marketing from the NFL/NBA and Joe Weider bodybuilding types is just too well funded.

#9

[quote]NewWorldMan wrote:
This is a very interesting subject. How do we, in the US, recruit better? We need to stop trying to get the 5’10 220 running back who’s going to the NFL and make millions of dollars - we simply can’t compete for that athlete.

Now, how many high schools have kids 5’7/5’8" who are just as good athletically, but simply don’t have the size to compete beyond their local high school. How many colleges, even D3, take kids who are this size and let them play football/basketball - not many?

So, why not go after those gifted athletes - direct them to weight class sports like weightlifting or even wrestling instead of chasing a pipe dream of making the NFL/NBA?

I wish there was an easy answer for the USAW to do better recruiting. I know my coach, Rege Becker, has spoken to local track and field coaches about strength and conditioning - he asked who they think is a better athlete - a kid who can bench his bodyweight or overhead squat it?

But the lunkhead mentality persists at the school level - bench ( 2 man bench - hand on the bar to help), quarter squat, and reverse curl(power clean. If we can’t get the coaches on board we can’t win the kids. The marketing from the NFL/NBA and Joe Weider bodybuilding types is just too well funded.[/quote]

I think also the issue is that a lot of weightlifting coaches don’t have their lifters training hard enough… I the training volume that Donny and John do at CalStrengh, and the guys at Average Broz, is the exception not the rule in the US. Whereas in the rest of the world that type of training volume is normal.

But I tell you what… once these cats start winning medals at the World’s and the Olympics shit is going to change in USAW.

#10

[quote]JonNorth2012 wrote:
Get your kids in Olympic weightlifting! The sport needs kids starting
as early as 7 or 8! The sport of weightlifting needs to have kids
start at a younger age, preparing them early so they can be ready to
make an Olympic team and start winning Gold medals for the USA! The younger our athletes start the stronger, more efficient and more experienced
they will be when they get in there prime.

Its a shame how
weightlifting is not a varsity sport. Why is not? Why is throwing a
medal ball as far as you can a college sport and a varsity sport but
not weightlifting? Why can you get a full ride to college for golf, a
non Olympic sport but not weightlifting? Its bullshit. I would have
never played football or soccer if I could join the weightlifting team
in middle school or high school. Its sad how these kids don’t have the
option to enjoy the great sport of weightlifting.

The kids I coach
love it, and they always ask me, â??hey coach Jon, can I get a
scholarship weightliftingâ??? I say no you cant, and then most of them
leave the sport and play a sport that they can get there college payed
for , and I don’t blame them! Did you know that weightlifting use to
be apart of track and field. What happend? I am getting pissed just
talking about it, good by. [/quote]

I couldnt agree more.