Bringing kids into Olympic weightlifting…aaahhh, what a subject. Actually, I could probably change that first sentence into “Youth sports in general….aaahhh, what a subject.” Thinking about introducing young kids into sports programs sounds like something that should be simple, pleasant, and uplifting. In reality, it often becomes complicated, frustrating, and disagreeable.

Listen, I don’t want this article to start off with a negative vibe. I guess I shouldn’t say the kinds of things I just said about the unpleasant aspects of starting young kids in weightlifting. But you see, I come to this subject with a different background than most of you. I’ve been a high school coach for 19 years (football and track and field). That means my main demographic of athletes has been between the ages of 14 and 18 throughout most of my career. Through CrossFit and private training, I’ve also done tons of work with older athletes, but it’s safe to say the highest percentage of my coaching has been with youngsters.

Let me tell you a quick story that explains a little about my attitude in this area. One of the track coaches I work with is a 78 year-old man who’s been coaching high school sports since 1959. Pretty amazing, isn’t it? This guy started coaching before the Kennedy assassination. Obviously he has a massive amount of knowledge and understanding about the profession. Anyway, I was chatting with him one day and I asked, “Over the last 50 years, have you seen a lot of changes with the way kids act?” I’ve never forgotten his response. He said, “The kids haven’t changed. The parents have changed.”

Back in the old days, parents turned their kids over to coaches and let them do their jobs. If a kid came home and told his parents, “My coach yelled at me today,” the parents would ask the kid, “What did you do wrong to get yelled at?” Nowadays, parents want a lot of involvement in how their kids are being coached. And if a kid comes home and tells his parents, “My coach yelled at me today,” the parents say, “What’s wrong with that coach? How dare he yell at my kid!”

Obviously these are generalizations. Not everybody is like this. But I’ve been coaching for almost 20 years, and I’ve seen the change myself. Many parents these days are overbearing, nosy, interfering, and completely unwilling to respect the boundaries that exist in the coach-athlete relationship. Many of them are openly trying to propel their kids to sports greatness as a substitute for their own lack of achievement. They shop their kids around from program to program, looking for the best coach as though they’re visiting different car dealerships looking for the best price on a new minivan. And to these parents, the “best coach” is usually the one who will let them have the most involvement in how their kids are trained.

So from that messy commentary about how lousy it sounds to work in youth sports these days, how can we deliver some information in this article that will be positive and helpful in your job? Fortunately, I think this topic is something almost everybody will have some interest in. All of you coaches are looking for good tips on how to work with young athletes. Many of you are parents (or will be someday), so you’re interested in the subject from a personal standpoint. In other words, this subject connects with practically everybody who’s involved in the iron game.

There’s no way we can cover the whole topic in one article, so I think I want to examine two specific parts of it: physical considerations for young weightlifters, and mental/personality components.

Physical Considerations…

First, we should probably dispel the negative traditional notions about what happens to kids when they lift weights. If you come from an older generation, you probably know what I’m talking about. Since Olympic weightlifting has existed, many people have had the idea that it’s not safe for young kids. I used to hear this notion that weight training would damage the growth plates on the bones of pre-pubescent kids, stunting their growth and making them short.

This is a silly old wives’ tale. It’s basically the same as the other dumb crap you heard when you were a kid, like “television will rot your brain” or “masturbating will make you go blind.” Strength training has been proven through research to provide tremendous benefits to young kids. I’m not going to cite any specific studies because that’s not what I do in my articles, but you can look around on Google and you’ll find plenty of them on your own, if you want to. Physiologically, it’s definitely possible to damage cartilage development in children if you pound them with physical activity that’s irresponsibly planned and, basically, stupid. However, this would have to be an almost life-threatening level of heavy lifting that crushes their joints.

Weight training activity, if managed with basic common sense and an educated background in the field, is safe for kids. When we’re talking about Olympic weightlifting, it becomes even easier to manage because we all know what new lifters should spend almost all of their time focusing on…technique. The fundamental rule in this sport is that beginners have to learn proper movements with extremely light weights in the early-intermediate stages of training, with strength development being incorporated appropriately.

Actually, here’s one way we could look at the “research” aspect of youth weightlifting. You want a research study about the positive effects of Olympic lifting with children? Okay, I’ve got one for you. It’s called “China and Russia.” I know that sounds funny, but let’s really take a look at what I’m talking about. These two countries have the world’s most advanced system of youth development in our sport. Many of you have probably seen the video of an 8 year-old Chinese boy snatching 25 kg (55 lbs.) for a triple with good technique on YouTube. There’s another one of Russian world champion Khadzi Akkaev lifting in a meet when he was 13 years old, snatching 95 kg (209 lbs.) and clean and jerking 120 kg (264 lbs.). These are just two examples of something that’s common practice in these countries. There are literally thousands of kids training Olympic weightlifting before they’re 10 in these places, and guess what? They grow up to be healthy, physically developed adults. They don’t wind up four feet tall because their growth plates were demolished. Their bones are strong. Their height is normal. They become world champions and then they retire to live the rest of their lives with a physical condition that’s the same (or usually better) than the rest of the population.

This is why I don’t quote lots of studies and research cases in my articles. Science-based information is valuable and outstanding, but you can learn a great deal about this sport simply by taking a look at the real-life examples of what’s being practiced in different places. How do we know youth weightlifting is safe? Because it’s being done all over the world, safely. We don’t need pie charts or graphs to understand this.

What are the physical qualities that make a kid a good fit for this sport? Flexibility and a natural sense of balance are big ones. Jumping ability is huge. Height is a big one, too. If the kid is going to grow up to be 6’8, he’s probably going to be a basketball player or something else. That doesn’t mean he/she shouldn’t train the O-lifts. It just means a sport where height is a huge advantage is probably a better fit. However, it’s important to remember that it’s really hard to know exactly how these qualities are going to pan out when we’re talking about kids who are 7, 10, 12 years old. During puberty, the kid’s athletic ability starts to become much clearer. In a nutshell, here’s a short list of tips for developing kids in youth weightlifting:

• Most of the best athletes did a wide range of sports when they were kids. If you’re going to teach Olympic weightlifting to kids, make sure it’s not the only sport they do. They’ll have a much stronger level of athletic ability as adults if they play multiple sports when they’re young.
• No weightlifting exercise is off limits for kids, but coaches should make sure technique and positions are the majority of the focus, with weight being added VERY slowly.
• Remember, you’re working with kids. Their environment needs to be a combination of fun, structure, and discipline. It’s entirely possible to combine all three of these at the same time. Also remember that you have to teach them literally everything about what they’re doing. They’re kids. If they’re doing something wrong, it’s because they haven’t been taught how to do it right.

Mental/Psychological…

I’m not sure what you’re going to think about what I’m going to write here, so I’ll just put it down and we’ll see if it makes any sense.

Do you know who Mike Tyson is? Former heavyweight boxing world champion in the 80s and 90s, one of the most famous (and notorious) fighters in history. In his prime, Tyson was a wrecking machine. He dominated his sport like few athletes have ever done. The vast majority of his fights were vicious early knockouts. It was difficult to find fighters who could even last three rounds with him. He was also one of the most intimidating figures in the history of sports. His opponents were often openly afraid of him, knowing his punching power and brutal attack capability. I’ve been a sports fan my whole life, and I’ve rarely seen an athlete as amazing as Mike Tyson.

Let me tell you why I’m bringing him up. Tyson, for those of you who don’t know anything about his life, came from one of the most nightmarish childhood backgrounds imaginable. He was a street kid from the ghettos of Brooklyn, New York. Throughout his early life, he was entirely surrounded by crime, violence, poverty, and a complete lack of any discipline or positive role models. By the time he was 13, he had been arrested over 30 times for assault, burglary, mugging, and a variety of other charges. He was a danger to society, shaped and hardened by an environment where he literally had to hurt people and break the law to survive. He learned boxing while he was in a juvenile detention facility, he was a phenomenal natural talent, and he was sent to a famous trainer named Cus D’Amato when he was released, who became his legal guardian. D’Amato guided Tyson to the world championship, and the rest is history.

The difficulty of Tyson’s childhood is one of the main reasons for his success as an athlete. He has openly stated this in interviews. We all know mental toughness is one of the deciding components in sports. If you think about it, Mike’s childhood made him into the kind of person who could withstand anything. No amount of difficulty or pain he experienced in boxing could be worse than what he lived as a kid. So although it’s sad to say it, the hell storm he grew up in was the perfect early preparation for his athletic career. And in terms of physical skills, it’s obvious. He was an expert with his fists before he even put on a pair of gloves for the first time.

Where does this leave us in our conversation about bringing kids into weightlifting? I think there are a few different ways we can look at it. First of all, most people develop mental toughness when they’ve had to deal with adversity. So does this mean parents should deliberately create rough childhoods for their kids, so the kids grow up strong? Well, yes and no. Parents shouldn’t abuse their children. Poverty shouldn’t be a goal for anybody. No kid should have to live an early life full of violence and crime. Those are no-brainers. However, I think it’s also a no-brainer that kids will usually grow up soft and weak if their childhoods are spoiled. Raising youngsters with no discipline or expectations isn’t exactly a recipe for a tough-minded adult with high work ethic.

The point I think we’re driving towards is this…some kids are raised to be soft, and some kids are raised to be tough. Using the word “tough” to describe Mike Tyson’s upbringing isn’t entirely reliable. Obviously his childhood made him a dangerous fighter, but it also made him an adult without the social skills to function properly. He admits this. If you know his life story, you understand the connection here. He’s been in plenty of trouble outside the ring, and some of it resulted in prison time. This is because he was raised with plenty of toughness, but not enough love and discipline. All of these ingredients have to be present in a person’s early years. So as a parent or coach, the process has to involve giving kids a combination of hard work, rules, reward for doing right, punishment for doing wrong, support that still creates self-reliance, high expectations, love, respect for others, and understanding that some bumps and bruises are okay. Olympic weightlifting is a wonderful opportunity for all of these, just so you know. They’re all part of the game, which is why this sport contains so many tough people. You can’t do this stuff if you’re soft.

And as the child’s support system…

Remember those parents I described in the beginning? Don’t be one of them, please. Don’t tell your kids that they’re golden gods every day of their lives. Don’t tell them they’re perfect. Hold them accountable for their mistakes. When coaches work with your kids, let the coaches do their jobs. If you want to be involved, be involved as a cheerleader and supporter. Don’t overstep your bounds or say things to the kids that undermine the coach. I have almost two decades of experience in this area and I can promise you something…all of these things lead to a negative end result.

If you’re an adult and you didn’t make it as an athlete, don’t use your kid as a second chance for glory. Sooner or later, your kid is going to figure you out. And they’ll lose respect for you. This is another thing I’ve seen dozens of times. Coaches often become parental figures to their athletes. You want to know why? Because the athlete’s actual parents are acting like idiots. If the coach is a strong figure with integrity and the parents are jerkoffs, what the hell do you think is going to happen?

Don’t be afraid of Olympic weightlifting. It’s not going to rip your kid’s body apart and leave you with a hump-backed midget. If the kid’s training is handled with solid basic guidelines, the physical rewards will be tremendous. It’ll be tough, obviously. That’s how it’s supposed to be. When your kids are sore, beat up, tired and frustrated, you’re not supposed to rush them to the emergency room or hire a psychiatrist. If your kids come home and tell you their coaches ripped their ass, ask them what they did wrong. If they say “nothing,” they’re lying.

And above all, please try to remember that most of the successful people in this world didn’t get everything handed to them easily when they were growing up. Have you noticed that? When you watch documentaries about great champions or amazing figures in other areas outside of sports, how often do you hear about cushy childhoods that spoiled them rotten? Rarely, if ever. Even the ones who were born into wealth had parents that pushed them. There’s a lesson in there. You’re not supposed to make your kids live in a cardboard box in the back yard just to toughen them up. But you’re also not supposed to serve them pudding three times a day while telling them they’re more special than anybody else in the world. Somewhere between those two points is what we’re aiming at, I think.