Weightlifting is a simple sport. You lift a weight from the floor to above the head across two competition lifts. However, the art of doing so in the most effective manner involves a very complex set of movements. It’s not something many can successfully manage to learn on their own, understandably. Seeking out a coach is the most common advice, and perhaps the most sensible. But how can you discern between the masses of coaches we seem to now have available? And what should you be aware of while doing so?

In such a niche sport, it is hard to tell apart what defines a good coach from an average or a potentially—but hopefully not—poor coach. To make things more difficult, from what I have learned over time, it’s generally not measured on media attention. Additionally, someone could have the very best athlete, maybe in the whole nation, but that doesn’t automatically mean they are a great coach. So how can we establish what good coaches are, and how to find them? Before we do so, let’s just delve into the aforementioned scenarios.

Our sport has started to blossom and flourish as of late, and along the way we have also seemed to attain a lot of self-proclaimed experts in the field. I have stumbled across a number of these over the vast social media platforms available to us today. Generally these are people who are starting or carrying forward hype, or attempting to reinvent the wheel. Making a controversial statement certainly draws attention, and we all know that any news is good news. These are typically people who will state that they have a “new” method of executing the lifts, and go against the grain of most others defining them as “unique.”

Something essential to note is that it is critical as a coach to be open to new things, and also to be up-to-date. There certainly are things that have been done in the past that can and should rightfully remain in the past. There are also things done presently which weren’t done in the past, which is also acceptable. The key is a rationalization and evidence for doing them. People making broad statements for attention usually can’t back it up with any form of valid evidence. A typical example of this is when a picture slide or video clip is produced of one unique lifter, sometimes even of one unique lift, demonstrating perhaps a unique technique being executed, which said coach is now promoting as a “new method.” We need to take into consideration that in any research there are anomalies. There is always going to be the odd “one-off.” What we should focus our attention on instead is the common themes from all the good lifters, not one unique lift done by only one person (which I would estimate would account for less then one percent of all international weightlifters).

Additionally, I have seen a few coaches lay claim to the fantastic work of phenomenal lifters. Yet the consistency across the other lifters at said coach’s club may tell a completely different story. It is clear to me that occasionally we get a freak lifter who was destined to be great regardless of who they were coached by. Now the good news to this is that the coach can’t be a poor coach, because otherwise the athlete would have either left the sport, left the coach, or gotten injured. I’m not trying to say these coaches are poor coaches, but simply that we can’t confirm they are great, either, as we might assume if they were demonstrating consistency across the ranks of their other lifters. This leads me on to the first thing I would say that you should look for in a good coach.

Consistency, in my personal opinion, is more important then high calibre athletes. I would still want to see a good standard of athletes, but they don’t have to be world class. As long as they possess a consistent technical execution, which of course you’d expect to be backed up by evidence by the coach, then you’re basically 2/3 of the way there already. Consistency among athletes and their technique implies that the coaches have a method they believe in, have validation as to why they believe in that method, and know how to convey themselves to teach this method.

As a coach, it is of great importance to me that I have a coachable lifter. But as an athlete, you need to have an approachable coach. Top-level coaches and even non-elite level coaches can be slightly intimidating to approach, but that’s not what I’m referring to. However, if your coach is closed off to your questions and makes his club more of a dictatorship where you can’t oppose anything, you’re probably at the wrong place. “Do what I say, because I said so” is not really a valid reason to do anything, even if the coach’s name is Lu Xaiojun (well, this may be the only exception, I guess).

Experience is also a factor you need to take into account. Just because coaches were very good lifter doesn’t automatically make them good coaches. In fact I would put these coaches under the microscope as much as a coach with very little experience, as both of these types of coaches can totally underestimate the difficulties of others if they have never experienced it themselves. (This is assuming most top lifters were more natural to the movement and more talented towards the sport.) Additionally, if you have an ex-lifter who has a specific technique suited to them, they very often attempt to make others replicate this, without the understanding that perhaps it’s only suited to a minority of lifters.

So in my opinion, the better coaches are those with some experience in the sport, who weren’t necessarily great lifters, but can certainly relate to the difficulties involved in learning and executing various stages of the lift and offer alternative learning strategies that may have worked for them or others.

Of course, I should state that I know many ex-international lifters who have turned coaches who are incredible coaches. But they didn’t stop lifting last week, they stopped many years ago, and have since been developing themselves once again, but this time as coaches. This is commonly forgotten. Many people assume that the carry-over between roles is highly related, but it’s not.

So to summarize, here’s what to pay attention to (and not pay attention to) when evaluating a coach:Don’t judge them by media or social media. Media attention is just attention. It doesn’t necessarily correlate with good coaching. Many of the great coaches are too busy coaching to worry about attention.

• Be wary of “new methods,” or those that are controversial. This may simply be more attention grabbing.
• Identify if the coach has a model they explicitly use. Can they back up the reasons as to why? Can the effects be seen in all their other lifters?
• If they answer the above question, they’re halfway to answering the question of “are they approachable.” How do they react to being quizzed about their knowledge?
• It’s healthy to ask their experience in weightlifting, but don’t assume the better coaches were the better lifters. Knowledge and understanding of the sport is critical, but experience as a coach is more important.