RAISING THE BAR IN WEIGHTLIFTING

PROMOTIONS

May 2024 NEWSLETTER

Prologue For those who may be newcomers to this newsletter, I appreciate your readership.  All of the writings in the first person represent my thoughts on these topics and I hope you find them helpful.  Thank you.

-Bob Takano

COACHING TIP

I’ve been watching the IWF Junior World Championships and noticed that even at that level, the coaches make the same error with respect to the two minute clock as coaches at the local level.  For those of you who are not familiar with the rule, any lifter who has just completed an attempt and there are no other lifters taking an attempt before the first lifter’s next attempt, the first lifter is given a two minute clock instead of a one minute clock.  

I’m not entirely sure but the two minute clock (it used to be 3 minutes) was developed to allow the heaviest lifter to recover from a missed clean & jerk before attempting another.  It does not necessarily apply to a small athlete recovering from a missed snatch.  

Yet I repeatedly saw it happen in the lighter weight classes.  A small lifter misses a snatch and need to repeat.  The two minute clock starts and the coach stands idly by waiting for the clock to run down while the lifter gets anxious and may actually be finding herself leaving from the zone of arousal.  She has been recovered from the previous attempt quickly and now finds herself waiting for the signal to go from her coach.

If I have a lifter in this situation I check his/her pulse to make sure its down to 120 BPM or less, and then I tell them to proceed when they feel ready.  This may be at 45 seconds or 1 minute or 1:15, whatever time it takes for the athlete to feel ready to approach the lift.  

Don’t let your athlete over wait.  

IWF Elections

  Not unexpectedly the IWF has turned down the USAW offer of hosting the Electoral Congress that is scheduled for June.  The IWF has been dragging its feet on the elections and this congress represents the third postponement.  They have settled on Albania as the meeting site and already they have missed one of their own deadlines failing to adequately vet the candidates by the April 30 deadline.  All of this will not sit well with the IOC which is poised to dismiss weightlifting from the Olympic Games as soon as 2028. 

Phil Andrews Departure

  USAW CEO Phil Andrews has decided to step down in order to pursue other career opportunities.  Phil has done a masterful job of putting the organization on a much sounder business footing, led the anti-doping movement for the organization and put in place an exemplary office staff that oversees the course of the organization.  While admitting that there is still much work to be done, Phil has left USAW with a very firm foundation for future growth and development.  The Board of Directors is already involved in a search for his successor.  Best wishes to Phil as he moves forward.

Takano Weightlifting is on the move

Due to a change in the ownership of the building and a subsequent demolition, Takano Weightlifting will be moving to new quarters as yet to be determined.  We plan to be settled in a new facility around August 1st-September 1st. We plan to keep the next facility to within 10-15 minutes or less of our current loaction.

Upcoming Events

  Two Takano Weightlifting Athletes will be competing at the U25 Nationals in Las Vegas during the week leading up to July 1st.  Jerry Esparza and Gina Kim will be lifting to establish new personal records on the competition platform at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The rest of the team will be competing at the So Cal Summer Classic in Newport Beach on the July 16, 17 weekend.  Come on out and watch our team put up some big numbers!

USA Junior Teams do well at Junior Worlds

  Congratulations to our exceptional junior national teams on their triumphs at the IWF Junior Worlds in Crete, Greece.  The women’s team won the team title and the men finished third.  This is the best overall performance by a U.S.A. National Junior team ever!  The outstanding performer was Hampton Morris of Marietta, Georgia who took gold and established a junior world record of 161 in the 61 kg clean & jerk.