OUR APPROACH TO TEACHING WEIGHTLIFTING IS TRULY DIFFERENT, AND BETTER, BECAUSE OF OUR INDIVIDUALIZED APPROACH, OUR EQUIPMENT AND OUR HEAD COACH
Our Weightlifting Workshop system fully integrates the development of three things concurrently – conditioning (building your strength, power, flexibility and ability to train), mind control and technical skill. That system is both carefully structured and completely individualized. There are no “beginner’s programs” or “advanced programs”. Every lifter wants to be strong, skilled and confident, but each starts from a different place and has different specific goals at any given point in time. Your mental and physical makeup, personal history, athletic/fitness background, goals and training availability are unique to you, so your training program must take all of this into account.
But while your plan will be completely individualized, it has a carefully detailed, methodical and integrated underlying framework that assures all the technical skills needed will be developed, strength will be multiplied and the mental attitudes and skills you need for success will be acquired in a fully coordinated way.
Ivan joined us from CrossFit and has since developed masterful technique in the snatch.
Optimal weightlifting technique forms the foundation of your success and enjoyment of weightlifting. It enables you to get stronger and more confident faster. Everyone deserves to be excited and confident about their lifting skills – not frustrated, uncertain or fearful. We specialize in teaching technique correctly from the outset, and in helping those who want to improve their technique from its current level. Here’s how we do it.
We teach technique in a very different way. We start by using the most efficient techniques known as models. It turns out that these techniques are also among the easiest to learn, because of their efficiency. But these models only serve as a starting point, as they need to be adjusted for your individual characteristics.
To accomplish this, we use carefully developed lessons that focus on the development of one attainable skill at a time, while monitoring your responses. You “deliberately” practice each lesson with objective feedback on virtually every rep you do – so there is never confusion about whether you are “doing it right” – and, if you are not, what you need to strive for on the next rep.
Once you master the skill taught by a given lesson to the point that it is reliably repeatable, you move on to the next. Each lesson builds on the foundation established by the prior one, enabling you to enjoy a string of continual successes – which builds your confidence as well as your skill.
By the time you have completed the relevant lessons, you will have developed a technique that will assure both your success in the sport and your joy in doing it. Moreover, you will have learned the sport faster and with much greater precision when compared with more traditional approaches. It’s hard to match the thrill of lifting the heaviest weight you ever have in an almost
effortless way – but that is the reward of developing your perfect style.
That sport of Weightlifting was created to develop and measure strength and power. Fortunately, you were endowed by nature with the ability to develop your strength and power to levels that are two, three or four times your starting levels, or even more. Training correctly, you can exploit that ability for development. But you won’t be able to leverage that ability if your training is either too easy or too hard for you at a given stage in your development.
Consequently, concurrent with your technique building practice, we create a plan for you to develop your strength and power, improve your flexibility (if necessary), and gradually condition you for future training. In establishing this plan we consider your current condition, previous training (if any), available time for training and rest, and training preferences.
We then carefully monitor your reactions to the training you carry out, to see whether more of the same or something different is needed or wanted. Athletes have made American and World records with training loads ranging very widely in terms of volume and intensity, so it is not the case, for example, that you must squat every day to get strong. Similarly, some athletes prosper doing singles, while others benefit from more reps per set, at least in certain exercises. Some need variety and others benefit from practicing the competition lifts and very little else. Our journey with you is founded on a base of a wide variety of proven traditional systems, as well as our own, adapted to your needs, preferences and responses to training.
Lucas works his squat – one of Weightlifting’s key exercises
Olympic silver medalist, Lee James, concentrated deeply before every Competition lift he attempted.
Your mind and body are inseparable. For instance, your mind drives you to strive in your training and the physical success you derive from that training gives your mind the confidence to strive for more. Too many lifters leave the development of their minds to chance. We don’t. We believe that developing mental skills is every bit as important as perfecting technique and maximizing strength. In fact, you can’t truly perfect your technique or maximize your strength without developing your mental skills as well.
As you work to develop your skill and conditioning, we work with you to assure your mental skills are being developed as well. That includes, but is not limited to, skills for setting long term goals, preparing for each training session, focusing on each lift within a training session and learning how to exert force.
We believe that our facility and equipment are the best available anywhere, for several reasons:
First, all we do is Weightlifting. While we deeply respect fitness training, CrossFit, Powerlifting and Strongperson training, we concentrate on doing one thing and one thing only – Olympic-style Weightlifting. Our facility reflects that specialization in its every detail.
Second, our facility features eight full sized training platforms and four cages designed specifically for Weightlifting, so, for example, you can do snatches, cleans and jerks within those racks, from various heights. We have blocks that enable you to lift the bar from any height ranging from below the knee to jerk box height – in ¼” increments. And you have access to full sets of ELEIKO, DHS, UESEKA and ZKZ barbells and other world class equipment.
Third, we have a host of proprietary feedback devices that can help you to understand how you are doing on each rep you perform. We have found that this kind of feedback accelerates learning dramatically, by making it clear to you what you are doing or need to do.
These are just some of the resources available to those who train at our facility, so many that it takes our athletes a while to learn about them all.
Please contact us to schedule a visit to our facility
Our combination of special racks and netting helps protect bars from falling off the special blocks – which permit block heights of from 7” to 57” in ¼” increments
Artie uses mirroring to show, and give Lyn some pointers, on splitting for the jerk
Our Head Coach, Artie Drechsler, is directly involved in all coaching. A self-coached former three-time Junior World Record Holder, he has had one of the longest high level coaching career’s in the sport’s history (he had his first National level coaching experience at the 1968 Sr. Nationals). Artie is the only coach in the NYC/LI area who has achieved USA Weightlifting’s highest coaching ranking – Senior International Coach (Level 5) and he teaches USAW Level 1 and 2 coaching courses. He is also a member of the USAW’s Hall of Fame and wrote the highly acclaimed Weightlifting Encyclopedia. You can see Artie’s CV here.
WE ARE COMMITTED TO PROVIDING COACHING IN A WAY THAT BEST MEETS YOUR NEEDS.
We offer a wide range of coaching options including:
Join us at the Weightlifting Workshop – our truly best in class Weightlifting only facility. Train with athletes ranging from beginners to advanced, all united by a single purpose – to become better weightlifters and to support each other in doing that.
Please contact us to schedule a visit to our facility
Virtual Coaching – We offer virtual coaching services to a limited number of athletes, so that those who live too far away to travel to our facility on a regular basis can access our coaching. Anyone who does train with us online is invited to train at our facility whenever they are able, subject to the space available at the time.
While nothing can fully replace in-person coaching, today’s technologies enable virtual coaching to be quite effective – if you have a willingness to self-coach, use some measuring tools that we can suggest (and your progress will be even better if you have a training partner, friend or relative who can help, with some guidance from us, to provide some real-time coaching).
Our virtual coaching includes:
- A program created specifically for you to develop your strength, technical skill and mental control
- Weekly review monitoring of your training results via video, the results you capture on our specially designed spreadsheet, and a weekly e-mail report you send to us.
- Our analysis and comments on the week that has just passed, and our suggestions for the week(s) to come
Please contact us to arrange for virtual coaching.
Fix My Problem – Sometimes you hit a sticking point, either in terms of a technique problem you can’t seem to fix, a strength exercise you can’t seem to improve in, or a personal record that has been elusive. Let us know what your problem is and we’ll see if we think we can help you overcome it (it’s rare that we can’t).”
We charge a flat fee for the assistance, depending on its nature, and guarantee success or your money back (if you actually carry out our prescription fully). Don’t give up without talking to us. We’ve been able to help countless numbers of lifters in these situations. If you are interested, please contact us for more details
Coach/Parent Mentoring –
We know that many coaches, and parents who are coaching a child, need various kinds of support from time to time. Perhaps they need some fresh ideas about a vexing coaching problem. We offer joint coach/athlete support as needed. Please contact us for further information.
Special Classes – We offer a variety of special classes for groups. For example, we might teach lacrosse players how increase their explosive power by learning to power clean, or Cross Fitters how to improve their snatches. These sessions generally work best when they are conducted over a period of several weeks, in small groups.
Please contact us to schedule a visit to our facility
We are so confident that our coaching system will work for you that we offer the following guarantee. If you fully carry out the training plan we agree to and are not satisfied with the result, we will refund in full your most recent fee – no questions asked (although we would appreciate your knowing why you were not satisfied – so that we can improve our approach in the future).
We have worked with athletes from the complete beginner through World Champion/World Record Holder Level and have enjoyed working with them all. There are only three things we expect from the athletes we train: 1) dedication to consistent training, 2) willingness to apply the guidance that we provide, and, 3) respect and support for every other person in the program.
Junior World Team member and multi-time Senior National medalist in the Individual lifts and total, Ed Herger, who I coached from day one.
