I originally got into coaching Olympic weightlifting because as an athlete, I love the thrill of competition. I love the feeling of chasing this amorphous goal of high performance. But mostly, in the individual sport of Olympic weightlifting, I want to feel like a part of a team, and moreover, being able to lead that team. All of this is perhaps a byproduct of my military socialization. When I began my coaching career, I was driven with a singular goal—to share my love of the game and competition with my athletes so I can build the most badass and competitive team in town. But as time went on, I was forced into the realization that not everyone who participate in Olympic weightlifting has this same goal, not even close. And no matter how passionate I was about the competitive element of the sport, I was not able to impose this will upon clients who have no interest in competing, or even see the disciplines of snatch and clean and jerk as a sport in itself.

I gathered from my conversations with other weightlifting coaches, that this is a common frustration. So I write this article with my fellow coaches in mind, about how to manage these interpersonal relationships between clients and athletes who sees weightlifting as a sport, and those who use it as a mere training modality. If you’re an athlete or exerciser, this article may also give you some insights into your coaches and their interactions with you.

The first thing I want to impress on my fellow coaches is that neither reason to participate in Olympic weightlifting is more valid than the other, but the key is for you to figure out to what boundaries YOU’RE willing to coach. I was once in a coaches workshop with a prominent Team Canada Karate coach, Tommy Suzuki, and he told us that ahead of the world championships, he would line his athletes up before they got on the plane, and ask each one of them “are you an athlete, or are you a tourist?” In other words, are you here to compete, or is this sport just your excuse to travel to places you haven’t been before? If this sounds familiar to you, you may have read Greg Everett’s article on the Athlete vs. the Exerciser, which has the same basic premise.

However serious Tommy was about his competitive team, Tommy had another brilliant piece of insight he delivered to us as coaches: given the decrepit state and decline of physical education in elementary and secondary schools, we, as coaches of club sports, are essentially substitutes in filling that gaping hole. This is what explains the fact that Olympic weightlifting, being a strength sport, therefore naturally attracts a population that see it as a good vehicle to “get into shape,” where lacking in the formal education years of their lives. This is by no means an unreasonable expectation. While these are some pretty giant shoes to fill, it is up to you as the coach to decide whether you are willing to cater your services to a general population and fill that PE gap, or stick with high performance and competitive athletes. Can you straddle the line between the demands of the athlete, versus the demands of the exerciser? Are you willing to accommodate both the competitor and the tourist?

The second thing I want to remind my fellow coaches is that there is a qualitative difference between our clients and our athletes, and it really behooves us to understand that difference to manage both our own expectations of the job, and the expectations of the people that we serve. All athletes are clients, but not all clients are athletes. Your athletes are your competitive team. These are the people that you periodize your programming around a competitive season that includes accumulation, specification, peaking, and transition.

Now, here’s the key, they don’t have to be in the sport of Olympic Weightlifting to be considered athletes. CrossFit has sent legions of competitors over to our side to hone their Olympic weightlifting skills in order to round out their edges in competition. You’re probably coaching a few of them right now. Or if you’re lucky, you’re coaching varsity or professional athletes in other sports like football or hockey, who need the explosiveness and strength and conditioning of our sport to improve other domains of their fitness.

In essence, being an athlete really refers to a state of mind that the individual has and how they orient their goals towards an athletically competitive outcome. For this group, your programming may look more pared down, as you’ll have to fit it within their other sport-specific training. With this group, managing the difference between sport and training modality is extremely easy – it’s merely a question of scale, how much, or how little do I give someone. If you’re REALLY lucky, you may even get this competitive and athletically driven individual to dip their toes in competitive weightlifting. After all, the groundwork is already there for you, your role in the case of this athlete is much more of a technical one.

Now we come to the crux of many of our frustrations, our clientele who are not athletes and who are not competition oriented. They see weightlifting solely as a training modality, not for any particular sport, but for general fitness. Many of us take on this group out of necessity, because they outnumber our weightlifting competitors and other sport competitors combined by far, and we just really need the revenue. My advice with this group, from experience, is as follows: unless you can afford it, don’t close the door to this group completely. Instead, have some kind of systematic selection process in place to ensure that this client is someone that you would be able to work with, and it is up to you to define those boundaries. You’ll want to screen out individuals who you know would be draining, unmotivated, and whose money just won’t be worth the mental energy. But at the same time, I implore you to open your minds to the possibility that they may surprise you. Legendary NBA coach Doc Rivers once said that he doesn’t coach to who he thinks the person is, but who he thinks the person should be. Respect their goals and journey, and treat those clients like the athletes that you hope they may become one day, and your wish may just come true.

In conclusion, one last thing I think us weightlifting coaches need to keep in mind when working with a general population in a training modality setting is that we really are playing a prophylactic public health role. It’s one that is thrust upon us, but something that we should take seriously regardless. Of course, for most of us, our heart and soul lives and dies by our competitors, but have you ever asked yourself where many of your own competitors come from? Probably from the general population, and most of them self-select into the athlete group because they’ve met passionate and incredible coaches along the way while stumbling upon this sport. Keep an open mind, stay flexible, and allow yourself to be surprised and I’m sure you’ll see that you never step in the same river twice. The exerciser of today might just become your athlete of tomorrow.