One of the things I learned very early in my weightlifting career is that you have to be extremely selfish if you want to be a successful athlete. You have to see your training as the most important thing in the world, above anything else. This isn’t a mentality that makes you a great person, but it does make you a great athlete.
 
That’s why this interview with Phil Sabatini is so interesting to me. I’ve seen Phil’s results throughout his entire career, including his quick rise to the top that made him a National Champion and Pan Am team member. His talent is as good as anybody I’ve seen in the sport in several years, but this interview opens up a side of his career that, frankly, you don’t hear about very often. Phil has chosen to make his personal athletic career a lower priority in his life, behind his family and the athletes he coaches on his team. In other words, he’s putting others ahead of himself.
 
It’s one thing to make this kind of move when you’re a local lifter who’s just doing the sport for fun. It’s entirely different when you’re a National Champion who could potentially make the Olympic Team. I have to say, I enjoyed reading this interview quite a bit because of the human side of it. The decisions Phil has made show a tremendous amount of character. He’s one of the best weightlifters we have in the United States, but he’s not selfish. Trust me, you don’t see this very often. Catalyst Athletics is proud to give you a look at the life of 2010 US National Champion Phil Sabatini.
 
Tell us about your background. Where are you from, where do you currently live, what’s your occupation, family life, what kind of sports background do you have outside of lifting, etc.
 
I grew up in a small town in Pittsburgh, PA. After high school, I accepted a full-scholarship to play baseball at Ohio University and majored in Physical Education. As a collegiate athlete, we were placed in a rigorous strength and conditioning program, something that I had never done before, and I immediately became extremely passionate about training. By my junior year, I decided that I wanted to pursue strength and conditioning as a profession and was fortunate enough to stay at Ohio University as a Graduate Assistant and complete my Master’s degree in Sport Sciences. After I graduated, I worked for two seasons as a strength coach in the Chicago Cubs organization, then accepted a position as the Head Football strength and conditioning coach at VMI (Virginia Military Institute). After eight years, I decided to pursue higher education and was extremely fortunate to land a job as a non-tenure track professor at Old Dominion University, teaching Anatomical Kinesiology and Strength and Conditioning courses in the Exercise Science major.
 
I have been married for almost eight years, have two daughters (five and three years old), and we are currently expecting our third child in July!
 
I have been involved in athletics my whole life. Baseball has always been my favorite and best sport, but I was also a very successful football player and wrestler throughout my high school career. Ironically, even though I played a ton of sports, because my high school was so small, our weight room and strength and conditioning program was non-existent, so I didn’t start to lift weights until college. I was hooked immediately, and trained religiously throughout my baseball days. After baseball, in my preparations for the strength and conditioning field, I learned more about weightlifting as a sport during my Master’s program, when my mentor and assistant strength coach at Ohio U at the time, Joe Fondale, introduced me to it.
 
Describe your weightlifting history. When/how did you start? Who have your coaches been? What are your proudest accomplishments?
 
Joe served as my first coach and encouraged me to lift in a meet after only a few months of training. In that meet (2007), I qualified for the American Open doing power snatch and power clean and jerk, as my technique was still in the beginning stages. There, I met Leo Totten, who was Joe’s coach as well, and within a year of training under him, I qualified for the National Championships. I was undoubtedly hooked on both the sport and training and it became an extreme passion of mine. After 4fouryears in the sport, I became an American Open champion, a National Champion, and was a member of Team USA for two Pan-Am teams and was the alternate for multiple World Championship teams. Although I didn’t win every meet, I had goals of making an Olympic team and was willing to make sacrifices to get there, which also became my greatest challenge.
 
At the time, I was working 60+ hours and traveling a ton as a collegiate strength and conditioning coach. Recovery was becoming more and more difficult and I was seeing little progress in my training. Right before the 2012 Olympic Trials/National Championships, my first daughter was born at 27 weeks, weighing 1 lb. 14 oz. We spent months in the hospital watching this tiny thing gasp for air on a daily basis. As much as I wanted to make sacrifices, there was very little I actually could. So, after a great performance at the 2012 National Championships, I decided to take a break from competing and focus on family. This became extremely influential on my life because I was able to learn that I didn’t have to win prestigious meets or have these massive accolades to enjoy weightlifting. I came back to competing in 2014 and this outlook has allowed for me to have success in the sport but has provided me with perspective that keeps my head above water during even the most challenging times.
 
Nowadays, my challenges are very similar. My priorities have shifted a ton in the past five years:

1. Family
2. Work
3. Coaching
4. Competing
5. Music (I play in a jazz-funk band and have been involved in music my whole life)

 
You’ve made the transition from athlete to coach in the sport? What are the similarities and differences between those two lifestyles?
 
What used to be #1 is now #4. As easy as it is to type that and tell you that, when training gets difficult and performance suffers, it’s still a tough pill to swallow and easy to displace blame. But this is my life now and I am extremely satisfied with being able to perform as well as I have under these circumstances. It has been extremely important to me to understand that it doesn’t take huge training sessions or eight to 10 training sessions a week to see results. My schedule is now so hectic that some weeks I have to swallow my pride and feel deserving of success after only three training sessions. I try very hard to relay this message to my team, and lead by example that I am living proof that a 34-year-old with multiple priorities in front of training can compete at a high level, see progress in all my lifts, and sometimes only train three times a week. Quality over quantity!
 
Two Years ago, I started a weightlifting team, The Barbell Syndicate. The team has grown to close to 50 members, 40 of which are in-house. We have 15+ National level lifters (Juniors, Seniors, Masters) and are based out of the most successful gym in the Virginia Beach area that has over 200 members.
 
Coaching has taken up the majority of my time, and the differences between being an athlete and being a coach are vast. Coaching is MUCH more difficult and stressful. Negatively, my feelings of insufficiency as an athlete are now feelings of guilt and worry when my athletes don’t perform well. Positively, there is no greater reward than watching your athletes compete and succeed, including being successful as an athlete. Personally, I have a lot to learn as a coach; I believe my biggest flaw as a coach as that I let the athlete in me bleed over into the coach in me. I am extremely competitive and at times can be too aggressive with my athletes’ numbers at meets. I am learning to be more conservative so that my lifters can gain experience as I did under the right tutelage. While this certainly is a flaw, being so closely connected to the athlete/coach, I do have a full understanding of how my athletes will feel throughout a training cycle and leading up to meets, so being able to lead by example, empathize, and encourage them to push forward and stay the course is very beneficial.
 
What are your plans and goals for your weightlifting career? How do you see your future in the sport?
 
My goals for the sport revolve around my team. Personally, I would love to lift at the Olympic Trials or make another international team. It’s possible, but I am realistic with my expectations and there are so many good, young lifters in the U.S. who rightfully deserve those spots. I’d like to continue to progress my lifts as I have been, even 11 years into the sport. I fully believe that I can do 160/200 in the upcoming years. My team inspires me to lead by example. As long as I am able, I intend to compete at the senior level and fight for podium spots.
 
My goal as a coach is to be able to enter a full women’s team and a full men’s team in a Senior National meet. I’d like to expand the youth and junior level in our club so we can develop our athletes at an early age under a long-term plan.
 
Who are some of your major influences, people you look up to, etc.? Who are the people you want to thank for your success?
 
Over these 11 years, I have had a great support system. My wife is extremely supportive of me, both as an athlete and a coach. My parents gave me the support and encouragement at a very early age to pursue everything that caught my interest. However, when I first got to college, I was a boy who thought very highly of himself. My collegiate baseball coach was on a mission to let me know that I wasn’t as good as I thought I was. And he was right. Without Joe Carbone, I would have never developed a work ethic or learned to look within myself before looking to others as to how I could be better.
 
My coach, Leo Totten, has been extremely influential on me, not just as an athlete, but as a coach. Early on in my lifting career, Leo taught me the importance of the mental game. Those same conversations are ones that I find myself having with my athletes on a daily basis. Now, I look to him frequently for advice on how to handle certain situations in and out of the gym, programming, meet advice, etc. I also have a really talented assistance coach, Brenden McDaniel, who has a knack for finding 40+ ways to explain movement correction so that 40+ different lifters can absorb it. Currently, the owner of the gym that our team is based out of, Jason Fernandez, has been amazing in supporting our crew. The past two years have been great to me, both coaching and competing. No plans of slowing down!
 
This sport is lucky to have you, Phil. Keep up the good work with Barbell Syndicate and best of luck with your family and your own weightlifting!