CHFP is Celebrating Five Years: 2012-2017
April will mark the 5 year anniversary of CHFP in the D.C. metro region!! From the beginning, I wanted to establish a training facility in the region offering a training environment that replicated the focus and energy of some of the top training centers I had the privilege of training in over the years. When I began as a Coach, there was a small handful of strictly weightlifting-only gyms in the U.S. that were business enterprises, where members actually paid for coaching fr
Approaching the Bar: Creating a Strategy and a Plan
Recently, I overheard a conversation with a competitive weightlifter describing their coaching support. In a nutshell, they defined a weightlifting coach rather simply as having two primary responsibilities- technique and programming. My experience as an athlete taught me that this was a relatively narrow view about what a good, competent coach really offers. It became apparent to me that there are some that don’t understand there is a huge difference between a coach being co
Approaching the Bar: Frustration is a Distraction
In my 18 years as a competitive weightlifter, I learned first-hand that good (and great) coaches are committed to making their athletes better, faster. The most destructive thing a lifter can do to slow their development is to get in their own way by responding to their coach's feedback and cues with resistance. They either reject the feedback, or they shutdown from receiving the information due to frustration, anger, disappointment about their training session. At one point
