Playing Offense in Olympic Weightlifting

Olympic Weightlifting is a considered an individual sport, most athletes do train with a team, and a coach but during competition day it’s all based on the lifter. Unlike most competitive sports theres not the traditional offensive and defensive portions of a competition or game. In our sport it comes down to who is the most prepared to life the most weight on a given day.

Playing offense in Weightlifting is a concept I’ve spoken about recently with some of my athletes, it refers to staying on top of and even ahead of your own preparation, or even to avoid playing defense or “catch up”.

Too often I see athletes not taking their training and competition preparation seriously until it’s too late.

Missed training sessions, neglecting nutrition and sleep, skipping accessory work.

As competition’s get closer athletes scramble to get their schedules in order, get nutrition in line, and spend extra time working through any nagging injuries.

This last minute scramble adds stress and anxiety to the last few weeks of prep. Focus is shifted from confidence and success to fear and failures.

The athlete is playing defense, mitigating loss, and trying not to make the most of a less than ideal situation.

Playing offense carries over to the actual competition in regard to attempt selection, especially in competitive sessions.

It’s better to be the more prepared athlete, taking more aggressive and confident attempts.

The athlete on offense will play their own game and make confident attempt selection, knowing they have done the work to prepare for such lifts. The coach has seen this in training and knows they athlete is able do what it takes to succeed in this event (whether that’s Personal Records, podium placement, or making Team USA Squad).

Being the athlete that makes other coaches say “oh shit, they made that, we have to go up now to keep up” is always better than being the athletes that says “oh shit, they made that, I have to go up now to keep up”.

With the current tie breaker rule in effect an athlete that hits a total first wins. This would be the lifter on offense.

The lifter on defense has to raise their attempt selection just to avoid a tie…. which would still be a loss based on chronological order of making the total.

Playing offense starts in training, and it starts far our from competition.

A few ways athletes can play offense in training:

Schedule and plan their week, and make sure to work in adequate time for training.

Following the above, schedule adequate time for sleep, meal prepping, and eating appropriately for their goals.

Make the most out of every phase of training, even far out from competition. General prep phases can be boring, but consider it as stacking the odds in your favor, each successful phase of training will lead to another more successful phase.

Complete each training session life it matters, and like the competition is next week.

Communicate with your coach any issues that are coming up in training, or issues that may require modification to training.

These actions are not EASY, but they are simple. They require the athlete to be deliberate, intentional, and disciplines, with many facets of daily life outside of training.

They pay off is always worth the effort.

Playing offense in preparation will lead to better training, increased confidence, and better competition results.