A Few Words to Team USA

A Few Words to Team USA

Team USA is just days away from boarding our planes and heading to Germany for the World Team Training Camp. They’ll spend a week there, and then it’s off to Turkmenistan to throw down with the best in the world. There is a whole new feel in the air because this is the first meet that counts for the 2020 Olympics. I’m sitting here thinking about the blood, sweat, and tears that my athletes have put in to make it to this point. When I started focusing on weightlifting in 2014, I never would have guessed that I would have four athletes heading to the Senior World Championships to begin the battle for 2020. Yet, here we are!

I’m so incredibly proud of my four: Hunter Elam, Meredith Alwine, Nathan Damron, and Jordan Cantrell. Each one of these athletes have fought their own battles, and overcome their own struggles. God only knows how much sleep I’ve lost over each one of these athletes: Jordan’s glute, Nathan’s neck, Meredith’s hip, and Hunter’s weight. Yet here we are!

These four have overcome all of their struggles, and now they’ve earned the right to begin the march for 2020. However, this blog isn’t about my four. They’re a part of it, but this is a letter to the entire team, the coaches, and all the staff. It’s a new era for USA Weightlifting, and it’s time that we all start acting like it.

That feeling of accomplishment!

Thanks to Phil Andrews, USAW CEO, and the staff at USA Weightlifting there has been a shift in culture. We don’t talk about making it to Worlds or making it to the Olympics. A few days ago, I was texting with Phil Andrews, and we were discussing medals. I can’t tell you how good it felt to be discussing the possibility of medals at a Senior World Championships.

I remember writing multiple articles and blogs in 2014 and 2015 regarding what it would take to medal at the International Level. I knew what it would take, but I didn’t think that it would be this soon. I didn’t realize that Phil Andrews would have such an immediate impact. Yet here we are!

I believe that the staff at USA Weightlifting is doing their part. Now it’s time that all of it members do the same. We have to start thinking differently, and we need to start speaking differently. It all starts with the athletes that are heading to the World Championships. Now I want so speak directly to these athletes.

This message is to the entire team. This is about Team USA now, not just Team Mash Elite. Each one of you is about to embark on a journey unlike any weightlifter in the USA has ever experienced because now we are trying to win medals, lots of medals. I remember coaching at MuscleDriver USA. Our athlete would talk about strategies for making the Olympic Team. They would look for the easiest route to determine their weight class. When I say ‘they’, I’m not talking about the entire team just a few people. I loved that entire team, but I hated this mindset. I wasn’t the head coach, so there wasn’t a lot that I could do.

Now I have something to say. This entire team is amazing. Each of you has the ability to accomplish extraordinary things during the next two years. I hope that none of you talk about ‘making the Olympics’. I hope that each and every one of you dreams about winning the Olympics. Guys if you can’t dream about it, you sure as heck can’t do it. There is no reason for this team to doubt themselves anymore. All of you are incredible, and now it’s time to shine. It’s time for China, Russia, and Bulgaria to see what America is capable of.

This is a message to all of the coaches as well. It’s time that we come together as one. I know that all of us going on this trip have a horse in the race, but dang it, it’s time that we agree to put our heads together to yield that absolute best athletes to battle at the top level. If we do this together, all of us can stop talking about the Chinese Method or the Bulgarian Method. Guys and gals, it is time to start talking about the American Method.

As long as the men and women that take that stage during the summer of 2020 in Tokyo are ready to earn medals, I’ll be happy. I’ve learned so much from my fellow coaches in America. Sean Waxman has taught me about culture. Kevin Doherty has taught me so much about meet day back room strategy. Dave Spitz is my ongoing business adviser, which gives me the ability to support my athletes in as many ways as possible. Ray Jones has been a mentor since 2016.

Heck I nerd out with Kevin Simons and Spencer Arnold on a regular basis, as I consider these two to be the best coaches in the world. If all the coaches in America could develop these types of relationships, we could develop a system of which the world has never seen. All of us have our unique abilities. If we put all these abilities into one system, we could help our athletes become the best in the world. Guys, it’s time for China to be asking questions about the American Method.

Coach Spencer Arnold helping with Hunter Elam

Yesterday, Coach Don McCauley posted a video of a surgeon talking on Ted Talks. The surgeon was talking about taking the athletic model of coach and athlete and applying it to all professions. The same surgeon had one of his medical school professors shadow him during surgery. The surgeon thought he did a good job and assumed that the professor wouldn’t have much to say. He was wrong. The professor had two pages of suggestions for the surgeon.

Here’s my point. None of us coaches in America is the perfect coach. If we were perfect, we would have Olympic Gold Medalists to our credit. I know that all of us things that we know everything about programming and technique. I agree, some of us are pretty darn good, and some of us are lying to ourselves. Either way, there is a lot more to coaching than programming and technique: recruiting, sports psych, generating revenue to support our athletes, etc.

All of us can improve, and we need each other to do that. We need constructive feedback, and we need to process that feedback with humility and an intention to put the feedback to use. It’s hard! I get that. No one, including the surgeon in the video, is above constructive criticism. None of us has coached a perfect athlete, and guess what, none of us knows a perfect coach. It’s time to do our part in making American Weightlifting great.

I’ve heard so many coaches, including me, talk about what everyone else needs to do to make weightlifting in America competitive at the International level. I’ve never heard a lot of us coaches talking about what we need to do. It’s time y’all. I’m willing to throw my hat in the ring. I want to get better.

I’m lucky enough to have friends like Sean Waxman and Spencer Arnold who aren’t afraid to tell me when they think that I am messing up. They know that’s exactly what I want. I want to get better. Yeah it hurts my ego for a second, but I get over it and I get better. You know what? I do the same for them because I want to see my friends successful. I don’t give them suggestions because I think that I am a better coach. I give them suggestions when I see something that might help them become a better coach. It’s all about one’s motivation, while helping their fellow coach. It has to be done with a heart set on helping someone get better not in a way as to seem like a superior coach. Like I said, until one of us produces an athlete that earns Olympic Gold, all of us have work to do.

As we all pack our bags and board our flights, I want you to think about this. This time we go as Team USA. This is not about Mash Elite Weightlifting or Cal Strength. This time we go as a unit ready to take on the world. I want all of us to remember this in the words we use and the way that we treat each other. I want all of us to remember this when we communicate with each other. I want our athletes remember this when we train together.

I want our athletes to remember that we are Team USA when they take to the platform in Turkmenistan. I want them to remember that we are capable of being the strongest country in the world, and now it’s time to become just that. I’m willing to put my pride aside and do whatever it takes. Are you?

I’ll see all of you soon. I can’t wait to sit down with each of you and discuss making this the best team in the world. Phil, Gattone, Pyrros, and Lorene have shown their commitment to this very thing. Now it’s time for us to show our commitment.

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