For the Love of the Sport

The bar stares me in the face. It is cold, rough, and stiff as I place my calloused hands around it. Today I will do the same thing I have done everyday for the past year: snatch and clean & jerk.

I do some box jumps and and a couple double unders to get the blood pumping to my legs. The room is cool, with some chill music playing softly in the background. It’s just another day at the gym.

After stretching and warming up I slide on my high knee socks that will protect my shins from the wrath of the bar, and next my bright red adidas shoes. I tape my thumbs, tighten my wrist wraps, and slather chalk all over my hands. My coach threatens to make me clean the gym, so I put down the chalk bucket and get ready to lift.

Starting with the tens I do a couple quick reps. This is my chance to fix any technical errors before the bar gets heavy. As the weight goes up, I have to get into more of a routine before each lift. I take a sip of water, chalk my hands, shrug my shoulders, and stomp my feet out as if catching an imaginary bar. My hands grip the bar and my back tightens. There is no doubt in my mind that I will make this lift. I raise my head and find a focal point to stare at.

Shoulders tight, back tight, and heels pushing hard against the floor I start to pull the bar. The bar doesn’t want to move, so I add more force. The bar scrapes my shins and out-turned knees on its way up. It gets to my hip crease, and I hesitate a second longer before I begin the second pull under the bar. The bar is motionless; it sits in the air right where I left it.

My feet move out with a bang and I dive under the bar to catch. My chest is parallel with the wall and my shoulders are flexed. The bar is solid in my grip and I will not let it go. As I stand up I let out a breath relief. The bar stays above me a second longer, before I slam it to the ground with a satisfied grin on my face. My coach walks over and gives me a high five before telling me what I need to fix for next time.

The battle continues everyday with that barbell. It never gets lighter, I just get stronger. Some days the bar defeats me and I leave with my head hanging low. Some days I reign victorious, beating my own personal records and doing what I never imagined I could. Either way, every time I walk out of the gym I leave motivated to be better the next day.

Weightlifting is a metaphor for life. The whole point is to overcome obstacles and better yourself in the process. The goal isn’t to know everything, or to be able to lift all the weights in the world; the goal is find your physical and mental limits then to push past them!

It is a lifelong pursuit to become the greatest you can be.

Bomber Strong: Scott Safe on High School Weightlifting

Liz - interviewer

Scott - interviewee

So how long have you been in the sport of Olympic Weightlifting?

I think 18 years. Longer with powerlifting, but for weightlifting I think 18.

So you have a big powerlifting background then?

That’s what I was. I was a powerlifter, then I converted to weightlifting because that was much better for athletics. My kids were coming up and I wanted them to do what was the best, so that’s when I made the switch.

How did you get involved in the high school weightlifting program?

We started it. I knew that when my kids were coming up I wanted them to have fun with weightlifting in a high school environment. So when my son, Nathan, and I were deer hunting one year, we were talking about this sitting in the woods, and I said “We’re going to make this weightlifting association up with high schools,” and he thought “Yeah, that’d be cool dad,” and that’s actually how it started. So I got with Roger Sydecki, and the NSCA (Scott Sully), the NFC people, and the USA weightlifting people. We called a meeting, and I said I wanted to run these high school meets, it would be for high school only, with high school state championships. They all kind of laughed at me, but said “Yeah, lets try.” That was the start of it, and I think this is the seventeenth high school state championships. That was seventeen years ago, and that’s kind of how it started.

So, just follow your dreams then right?

It was! It was something where we just had a plan and it worked out.

Can you tell me more about the program? Like how often are the meets and more about the season.

The meets start in December, after volleyball and football are finished. We like to be finished before track and baseball get started. So we’re kind of a winter sport. We follow the model of Texas with powerlifting and that, but the reason they did that is because more high school coaches are accepting of that. We’re not interfering with their sport seasons too bad, we’re just taking up one sports season, and that’s the one we picked; the winter.

How does this program benefit the students?

Physically, weightlifting is by far the best and as an athlete I think mentally it’s awesome. It’s all about hitting PRs (personal records), and building self-esteem. All kinds of good character-building things. Weightlifting is good in many ways, so I think it’s a beautiful program for kids.

Do you have any ideas for how to spread the program to other schools?

We try every year to bring new schools in, and so we’re always talking to schools. Not just myself, but Scott Sully does, a lot of guys do. Also now USA weightlifting is flying me around and we are going to other states trying to build the same kind of program in hopefully all 50 states. We need to get more weightlifters.

What do you see for the future of the program?

It’s very bright. I don’t think many people know how cool it is, but they’re finding out and as they find out, for every good experience that a youngster has that youngster and his parents tell other people. So I think the future is very bright, it’s a great sport that not enough people know about.

How do you think we could make it more entertaining?

Part of that is that we just need it to continue to grow like it is now. Nationally, weightlifting is growing because of the influx of crossfitters. That helps because there’s more interest, more money, more gear, and more people doing it. The more people do it, the more they like it, so it’s kind of like the chicken and the egg. You don’t grow unless you got more people, but you don’t get more people unless you grow. We’re kind of in that, but I think every time we can hook another school in, we bring another whole group of people; parents, kids, coaches, etc. I think we need to continue to just keep on doing that.

Any ideas to get weightlifting on the media?

The entertainment part is a good question. That’s a toughie, because we still need to get through six attempts with everybody. Cooler singlets are fun, people like that. Streaming live, like today, so people can watch from home is good. It’s a long day and I don’t think we can ever get away from that totally, because everybody gets six attempts. They need their six attempts. That is something we have to keep working on though; figuring out how to make it more acceptable to the TV audience.

Last question, what’s the most important thing in weightlifting?

Desire. If you’re really going to be the top of the top certainly there’s a tremendous amount of just physical talent. At the very very top of the heap you do need a big amount of talent, but I think passion more than anything. People with a lot of passion for it, they continue to train even when they don’t get maxes. You just keep on and keep on. I think passion is #1.

 The Cannon Falls weightlifting team. Each one medaled at the
 state championships. Coach Scott Safe is pictured to the far left.

Scott says none of his lifters are pure weightlifters, most of them participate in other sports such as volleyball, football, and basketball. If you are interested in the high school weightlifting program go to www.mnweightlifting.org.

Living The Dream

    It all started about a year ago, when I walked into Crossfit Progression for my intro session. I was crazy nervous and had no idea what I was in for. Coach Juli started by teaching me how to squat and other various barbell movements. I didn’t understand any of the Crossfit lingo at the time, and the only workout I’d ever seen was Fran. My mom decided I could try crossfit, but only if I quit gymnastics. I was a bit devastated, but I got over it pretty quickly.

I would spend an hour at the gym on Mon, Wed, and Fri, then 2-3 hours on Tues and Thurs. This wasn’t a huge deal for me, because in gymnastics I used to practice about 12-15 hours each week. I was always looking for some workout to do. If I had time when I got home from school I would sneak in a quick Jillian Michael's workout or a run before going to the gym (which I now realize was probably not the smartest idea).

Pic from the Pendlay Seminar
by Sherwin Samaniego

My favorite part of Crossfit was the Olympic lifts. I loved the feeling of having the barbell in my control. At the beginner’s lifting classes I learned what real weightlifting is; lat pull downs and squat jumps were not part of it. I guess you could call that weight training. Anyways, I thought Coach Nic was the coolest coach ever: he was always loud, enthusiastic, shouting encouragement, and he made the lifts very easy to learn. When I was finally allowed to do regular classes I was pumped. I got to push myself beyond my limits and set new PR’s.

In February there was a lifting seminar with Glenn Pendlay and Travis Cooper. I had no idea who they were and was pretty confused to why everyone thought it was a big deal that they were at our gym. Now I understand that they are like weightlifting gurus. At that seminar I think I was the only one lifting in tennis shoes. Glenn said something about getting real lifting shoes if you were going to be a serious weightlifter. So soon after the seminar I got a pair of Reebok lifting shoes. This was an exciting moment and led to multiple PR’s.

In March there was the MN LWC meet. Through talking to my friend Jack and asking him about a million questions I had a better understanding of how a weightlifting meet goes. I was confused when he said that they didn’t give points, instead you either make a lift with two or three white lights or you get red lights and the lift doesn’t count. I also learned who all the big name weightlifters were and how they trained. The meet was filled with personal records; we all had a good time. After the meet we got to have chicken fingers as a reward.

Later I found out that I had qualified to lift at the 2013 Youth National Championships, even though I didn’t know what that was. That was when I decided that I wanted to get really good at Olympic weightlifting. After that I started doing what Coach Nic told me too, instead of trying to max out every day (even though it was fun).

Last year I went to school 8 hours a day, just like a normal kid. I always looked forward to snow days and early releases – when I got to go train with Coach Nic and Coach Juli at 11am. In my mind they were (and still are) the most amazing weightlifters/coaches ever. I couldn’t wait until summer, when I could train with them everyday.

When school came around I knew I would have to wait until after school to train, unless I figured out a way to get there in the morning. In the end it worked out pretty well to do some online schooling. I have an insane schedule which includes riding in different transportation devices for about two and a half hours just to get to and from the gym. I don’t mind all the riding, but it can be pretty time consuming.

The coolest part is getting to lift with the coaches in the morning. I learn a lot from them, more than I could ever learn from hanging out with people my age. Although I do kind of miss my friends, going to football games, and eating skittles.

Pic from short film "The Artist and The Olympian"

Through being obsessed with weightlifting I have learned a lot. There are multiple podcasts, books, Youtube videos, Facebook, and Instagram accounts that have a ton of useful information. Not just on weightlifting, but on life. The people in this sport are a certain type of people. They are not people who are knocked down by anything or anyone. They are not people who give up when things get tough. No sport is easy, but weightlifting is different. I think the people who succeed in it must have passion. They must love the mental and physical struggles. Mental pain (training when you’re tired, feeling lonely, training hard when your shins are bleeding and bruised) and physical pain (being tired, always sore, little pains everywhere) are of course part of life, but we train through it. Weightlifters are the most powerful (fastest and strongest) athletes on Earth, so maybe I should suspect that it wouldn’t be easy to be one.

Right now I am living the dream; training about 20 hours a week (with some really amazing people too). There is 938 days until Rio, so I am going to make every minute count. I know that I will get to the Olympics; maybe in 2020 or maybe in 2016. I know that I will get there because I will not give up.

Kicking Out the Numbers

Lately I’ve been feeling burnt out. I told my coach that I wanted to take a couple weeks off to recover and focus on my diet, but what I really wanted to do was walk out of the gym and never come back. I felt defeated, broken down, and disappointed in myself. I had set goals that I thought were completely attainable, but when I fell short I decided that I just wasn’t working hard enough. My back ached, my shoulder throbbed, my knees were sore, and my hands were wrecked; I wanted to work harder, but physically it felt impossible. I was missing lifts that I had been chasing for months. No snatch or clean & jerk PRs for a long time can be slightly depressing for an Olympic Weightlifter. Thats when my coach reminded me how fun weightlifting had been when I first walked through the door.

Remember when you first started Olympic weightlifting? That day when you first walked into a weightlifting class and learned what a snatch was. That time when your biggest worry was making sure your hands were in the right place on the barbell. The days when you never wasted a second thought on how much weight was on the bar, or the person’s next to you. These days were what my coach was referring to.

This made me think back to all the fun that I had putting more weight on the bar simply for the joy of beating myself. One day I could only lift 50 lbs, but the next I could lift 55 lbs. I liked the feeling of being strong. Not the feeling of being stronger than so-and-so or lifting more than so-and-so, but just the feeling of self-satisfaction. This is where the true love of the sport comes in. The day that you start comparing yourself to everyone of a similar age, height, weight, etc., is when you lose the love of the sport. This started after my second weightlifting competition.

I was the youngest female at the very first the meet I ever attended, and this man named Charlie told me I should quit gymnastics and cross country to do weightlifting. I also found out that I qualified for Youth Nationals. I got a big head and convinced myself that I was pretty good at this weightlifting thing. From then on I wanted to do whatever would make me the best weightlifter. I committed 100% to weightlifting. When I registered for Youth Nationals my coach told me not to worry about my competition, as he didn’t know the skill-level of my competitors. We were just going to have fun and hit a PR total. His exact words were

Snatching 54kg at 2013
Youth Nationals

“It’s just you against the bar.”

At Youth Nationals I did pretty well. I hit a PR and missed qualifying for Junior Nationals by two kilos. This gave me an even bigger head. I started watching the results of the girls I competed against. I friended them on facebook, followed them on instagram, and added them on twitter. If someone made a PR, I made it my goal to beat them. By this point I was cluelessly lost in the numbers. I stopped working as hard; because my goal wasn’t to beat myself, it was to beat my competitors. By the third meet I was already knew where I would rank as far as placement. I knew my competitors best numbers before they ever stepped on the platform. This ruins the game. It’s just as bad as having someone give you a bunch of spoilers right before you go see a movie that you’ve been looking forward to.

My coach and I after
Youth Nationals

Even with all the congratulations and impressed expressions I was not satisfied with my performance. I knew that a few of the girls I had lifted against at Youth Nationals were lifting more than me. My training showed little motivation and my numbers stalled. By the time I competed in my fourth meet, which was a high school meet, I wanted to back out the night before. I told myself that weightlifting sucked and I wasn’t very good at it anyway. A couple people commented on how disappointed I looked after my last lift. My parents even jumped to the conclusion that I was tired of weightlifting, and wanted to quit. Well they were right; I was feeling a little bit hopeless.

The day after that meet I continued my usual routine of going to the gym. My coach could tell something was up, and somehow he got me to admit that I wasn’t having fun anymore. Thankfully he is an understanding coach who has been through all this before. He reassured me that it is his job to worry about the numbers, not mine. He told me to stop worrying and just enjoy weightlifting. So I’ve decided to do just that.

I’m officially kicking out the numbers because the only person I want to beat is myself.

Moral of the story: don’t compare yourself to anyone else or it will suck the fun out of life. We all have a unique story of how we got to where we are and how we will get to where we want to be.

Why Do I Train?

Why do I train so hard? What motivates me to spend endless hours at the gym?

I want to prove to everyone who ever doubted me that they were WRONG! Nobody needs that type of person in their life, but everyone has one. That one person that never has anything positive or encouraging to say; the person who says hurtful words to try and bring you down. What they don’t know is that you are taking those pain filled words and turning them into MOTIVATION! You are training harder than you ever knew you could just because you want to show them how dumb they are. You want to prove to yourself that you are better than that.

I want to show my family that the hundreds of hours spent commuting me to the gym and back are so worth it. They are my biggest supporters; my family. They buy me supplements, weightlifting books, training clothes, and oly shoes. They listen to me rant about how everyone should lift weights, and preach that life is just better under the barbell. I want to show them that their support means the world to me.

I train hard to represent my gym and my coach well. The gym that contains my second family and home. My coach who has not only taught me how to snatch, but also the values of life. The lessons learned in the gym can’t be forgotten. Your coach sees you live through the barbell. The anger, happiness, sadness, nerves, excitement, and passion are all taken out on the bar. I want to show my coach that I was listening when he told me to never give up.

I train to show all my past coaches that they made a mistake when they put me on junior varsity instead of varsity. They made a mistake when they didn’t realize that I was a hard-working & talented athlete. Well they could sure use me now.

I will show the coach that always asked, “Are you working hard, or hardly working?” that I definitely was working hard. The same coach that called me a cheater; I’m proving to him that I know there are no shortcuts in life, and I love the daily grind. It’s what keeps me going.

I want to prove to the coach that believed in me that his time was worth it. The coach who helped me behind-the-scenes, while my assigned coach was busy yelling at me for my mistakes. The same coach that taught me that it isn’t all about winning. It is about having a strong team that has fun together, yet still trains their butts off.

I train hard to prove to all the people that think I am crazy that they are right. I am crazy. I lift weights in the morning, lift weights in the afternoon, and lift weights in the evening. Then I wake up and do it all again the next day. I do it Monday through Saturday, and on Sunday I dream of lifting weights. Mentally I am one with the bar. You could call me obsessed, and I would agree.

Li Xueying with her gold medal (some day that will be me)

The biggest reason I train hard is to show myself that I really can do anything I put my mind to. If I decide one day that I want to start a business or hike to the top of Everest (I want to do both) then I know that I can. I have faith in myself that I can do anything. I will prove to myself that I am not a quitter, I am a champion.