Needless to say, this past year has been a whirlwind for competitive weightlifters and coaches at all levels. Athletes and coaches scrambled to refocus training after the announcements of the Olympics postponement; Gyms and club owners retooled their services for remote delivery amidst shutdowns; many athletes trained in the confined spaces of their own living rooms and apartments without access to facilities and equipment.

While virtual competitions are far from ideal, in a year that has saw widespread lockdowns and bans on international (and even domestic) travel, it has become necessary for this sport to survive. I think 2020 has taught us to simply be grateful and take what we can get. Given that rates of vaccine rollout remain uneven across the world, I think it’s safe to say that virtual competitions will stay around for the better part of 2021 yet. I competed in my first virtual meet at the Ontario Provincial Championships, and the foreignness of the experience produced a lackluster performance. So, for the coaches and athletes who are preparing for their first virtual meet, here are some lessons learned and tips based on my experiences that I hope will be helpful:

1. FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY

Your association or governing body will send out the necessary information you will need to ensure that you are properly set up and equipped to compete. Ensure you read through it with a fine tooth comb. We’ve all skimmed over competition protocol under normal circumstances because we’ve done it so much, but when it comes to virtual meets, make sure you follow step-by-step the instructions that are delivered including weigh-in time and format (do you need to calibrate your scale, verify your equipment?), competition platform set up (what camera angles are requested, how is the platform sectioned off?), and competition process (how will your lifter be called? How will the live scoreboard be displayed? How are subsequent attempts declared?). All of these are critical so that the competition lifts go as smoothly as possible. Most importantly, if something is unclear MAKE SURE YOU ASK QUESTIONS. By the time that first lift is off the floor when the competition starts, there should be no questions in your mind as to how the meet will go.

 2. HAVE SOMEONE THERE TO HELP YOU

This point may seem self-evident, and usually not an issue especially if there is a coach there with the athlete competing. Often in competitions, you can get away with counting your own attempts and loading your own bar if your coach can’t make it. But in a virtual setting, you really need someone there with you. For one, there are no loaders except for yourself and whoever is there. Secondly, keeping track of attempts on a live virtual screen can be overwhelming especially if you see on the same screen the scoreboard, the current attempt, and every other lifter in their respective boxes. Having someone there whose sole purpose is to keep track of the scoreboard or pay attention to the announcer’s call will alleviate that burden. Additionally, having someone load the bar for you, especially when it comes to your competition attempts will help you save valuable time and energy, something I will touch on next.

3. EFFECTIVE TIME MANAGEMENT

The pace of a virtual meet will be faster than in person. This is because the time spent readjusting and loading the bar in between lifters are no longer present. Therefore, as soon as one lifter is done with their attempt, the screen will flip to the next lifter with the clock counting down almost immediately. What this means is that the 30 seconds to one minute of additional time you had in between each attempt where the loaders are on the platform is no longer there. You need to plan accordingly so that you can still work at your preferred pace. For example, I usually like to have three attempts go by between my warm up sets in competition, but when it comes to this virtual meet, I gave myself four attempts in between each warm up set. This also meant that my entire warm up scheme was pushed farther to the left, and I had to start my warmups earlier than usual in order for me to keep the pace that I am accustomed to.

4. MAINTAIN OPTIMAL AROUSAL

This was by far the most difficult lesson for me to learn. If you’re like me, you thrive in a high pressure competition setting. The sights, sounds, and smells of a competition venue fills you with adrenaline and you come ready to attack that bar with aggression. All of that was gone during this meet. All I had was an empty room, my assistant, and two 17inch monitors in front of my platform. Even though I knew I was in a high stakes competition, where I need to hit a certain total to qualify for nationals, my unconscious mind just would not let me enter into that zone of optimal arousal because it didn’t feel like a real competition. Take it from me, you need to do whatever it takes to get you or your athlete in the zone. Whether that means visualization beforehand, being a loud hype-man in the moment, putting on your favorite playlist, or have your coach slap the crap out of you. WHATEVER IT TAKES to get into the correct competition mindset.


Above all, what I took away from this experience is that our sport and the people who constitute it are resilient and flexible. Many people have already taken note of this before me. While I’ve seen many praise the efforts of lifters and coaches to continue training and competing, one group of individuals that I think got overlooked this past year are the various weightlifting associations and event organizers who also sprinted into action to adapt decades-old processes for competitions, including logistics, admin, personnel, planning, and cost, into this new environment, whether socially distanced or virtual. They made it possible, given the huge constraints they were working with over the past year, to make some semblance of a competitive season possible and allow us to do what we love. It’s also worthwhile to remember that many of your association administrators and organizers are volunteers who took time out of their lives in the middle of a global pandemic to allow us some reprieve from what seems like a desolate situation. So please take the time to give them your thanks and help them wherever you can.
Catalyst Athletics’ own Amanda Braddock is the competition administrator for the Ontario Weightlifting Association where I coach and compete, and I’ve seen her and her team at the OWA put in countless number of hours ensuring that the association is able to host competitions and that the Provincial Championships were able to continue. So, Amanda, if you’re reading this, my hat’s off to you and the rest of the OWA team for being able to pull this herculean feat off in a year where everything is more challenging.

In conclusion, if our sport can survive 2020, it can survive just about anything. I am hopeful. My one message to weightlifters everywhere is just to keep an open mind, and don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the necessary.