Question:

"At what point, in y'alls mind, does a lifter program for themselves for a big meet versus with a coach?"

This was a question I saw in a private online group. I thought I would share my answer here because this is one of those things I have been saying over and over again.

Answer:

The short answer...

Right before you have the best meet of your life

The longer answer...

Only you know yourself best. Beginners and intermediate lifters don’t know this yet... but should be learning. When you get to the point where you know yourself best, but aren't using that knowledge, I would say that is ignorance (when you step back and think about it, you will agree. To spend years and hours learning and mastering a craft and then not use that information... hm).

The first thing you would know if you have studied sport training is that 12-16 weeks is not a program, it’s a season. A head football coach can’t 100% focus on player development for one season - he thinks in terms of 3-4 seasons. In training this is called a quadrennial. So, where should the lifter be 4 years from now? Answer that and simply work towards those objectives.

What you don’t know is what you don’t know. That is why we are all here and why you surround yourself with people who have been where you want to go.

The longer you do this and the better you get, the smaller this group of people becomes because most never get that far (as a coach or athlete). So as you advance you have to also advance where you get your advice from. This is not a slap to those who may have helped before. A professional baseball coach would suck at coaching T ball while a great T ball coach would suck at coaching pros.

While many fundamentals are the same, the attributes and how they are instructed do change.

At some point in time, a lifter realizes this. They begin to use coaches as consultants. This allows them to use what they know to be true from their experiences and fill the gaps of what they don’t know with the coaches.

Again, a pro football coach  doesn’t coach the same things as a pee wee coach and not in the same way. At that level the player doesn’t need a coach. They need a leader to bring the best of them out.

You will read here how the greatest WL ever discovered this himself.

This sport, when viewed as a sport, is AWESOME . Not because of the PRs and relationships made. It’s a masterful tool of teaching one the science and art of self-mastery.

I love to see authentic questions about this because it shows that you are right there at that tipping point to go from very good to great. It’s not easy, it’s uncomfortable as hell, and it's a road you walk alone. But with guidance and advice from others. This road will lead to places you never dreamed possible because you are putting faith in yourself. This is how we were designed.

One other short story. Many years ago we had a lifter. Very highly ranked. Very educated with many years of experience. He was also very consistent.

Those who were there will never forget how he performed that day. The focus was intense and he was destroying every weight that was in his way. Without any doubt the best meet of his life. BY FAR!

I asked him after and he told me he finally discovered his coach (and a very very good and legit one) was actually holding him back by pulling all the parts he knew to work together. He took it all back and his training partners would help keep his ego in check if needed.

I don’t know the exact number but I do think Jeremy Frey put over 100 pounds on his total that day. At his level that was unheard of.

I’ve seen this time and time again.

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