Piece of the Platform – Volume 8
Welcome to piece of the platform. As Athletes ourselves and as Technical Officials, we’re really lucky that we get to spend time with, know, work or train alongside some really fantastic people from within the weightlifting community. We’re even luckier still that some of those people have agreed to a take part in our mini interviews, that we’ve coined ‘Piece of the Platform’.
We’ve reached out to Coaches, Technical Officials, BWL staff, Athletes and volunteers, and we’ve asked them all some variation of the same 4 questions. The answers we’ve had back have been inspiring, funny, helpful and thought provoking – so we’ve collated them here, as an addendum to the learning resources, to pool that collective knowledge and advice in the hope that you’ll enjoy reading them just as much as we did.
Lesley Brown – Coach & Scottish National Athlete
Want to know more about Lesley?
@miniature_lb
@physio_miniaturelb
What’s your favourite thing about weightlifting ?
As an athlete:
my favourite thing about weightlifting is realising there is no ceiling that you don’t put on yourself. If you want to lift heavier weights you can. Not saying it’s not hard or that it won’t take you years and it may feel impossible at times but where there’s a will, there’s a way.
As a coach:
Seeing my athletes exceed their own expectations is everything. You know exactly how hard the training is and you know what people go through behind the scenes. So seeing them overcome whatever their challenges are is so rewarding.
Favourite thing about being a TO, is actually just giving people the opportunity to compete. The sport can’t exist without them!
What one piece of advice would you give to athletes about competition?
Start sooner! I started my competition career so worried about hitting qualification numbers for things or being “good enough” when I should have just done some competitions to get used to it first.
When I did my first competition I’d only been training in a CrossFit gym where the bars have two lines… I warmed up that day on a two line bar as that was how I found my snatch grip. Out I go onto the competition platform and the bar only has one line 😅 as it’s an Eleiko bar. So be brave, and just do the competition before you feel “ready”.
What do you think BWL and the Technical Officials do well, and what could we do better?
There’s been a HUGE shift in the number of competitions running each year. There used to only be one or two a quarter whereas now you can compete every month if you really want to. That’s a huge amount of work in the background for clubs and volunteers to manage. It’s helped to grow our sport and I hope this trend continues.
Transparency and communication still has some way to go. It can be difficult for athletes to get information with enough time to act, such as with British championships selection policy this year, and I hope this improves over the next few years.
If you could ask your favourite lifter one question, who are they and what would that be?
Megan Signal
from New Zealand is someone I’ve always found inspiring.
Over the years I’ve watched her share her struggles with bodyweight, severe injuries, surgeries and balancing having a job as well. It’s something that I find relatable as very few people have the opportunity to just train full time and we all need that reminder it’s ok to be human.
I’d ask her – if you could do anything differently, would you?