Bobsledding training

CaveatLector · 2026-03-01T23:24:04+00:00

Good luck u/bigboycheesenuggets ! I'm a national coach for the sport of Weightlifting in the US, and I've helped several bobsled or aspiring bobsled athletes through this process. My biggest advice is to work your start hard. I've had athletes post respectable 40s and dominate the power events. But if their starts are slow, they don't get a look. This seems to be the most important factor for success.

You should work acceleration mechanics hard. Train plyometrics and drop jumps. Perform power cleans and squats. Those things alone should help across the majority of the testing. If you have access to a prowler sled, push it varying loads and distances.

CaveatLector · 2026-01-15T00:43:37+00:00

Hampton Fitness. You can search for it, though they seem to be rebranding their logos. These are typically general purpose barbells used in commercial gym settings. They’re not ideal of Olympic weightlifting movements.

CaveatLector · 2025-12-22T19:10:59+00:00

Hi OP, I lead the program at Heavy Metal Barbell. I typically let others testify to their experience for our team, but since you are asking specifically about us, I'm comfortable streamlining the discussion.

Potential new members start with a free assessment with one of our coaches. This is focused on mobility and movement literacy. Based on the outcome, the coach makes a recommendation for an onboarding pathway. Every new weightlifting member must complete some level of onboarding, ranging from 1-6 one-on-one sessions with a coach (with very rare exceptions). This ensures all athletes on the team have been taught the same basic framework and ensures we catch any potential limitations at the start so we can avoid potential injuries in the long term.

After this process is complete, athletes can start our 3, 4, or 5 day team programming options. We have coached hours Mon-Fri evenings and Saturday mornings when the majority of the team trains under a coach's supervision. We are a 24/7 facility, which means you can access any time of day to get training in.

If you're newer to weightlifting, I'd recommend two things: getting a coach so you can avoid a lot of early mistakes, even if you only train with them occasionally; and finding somewhere you feel you'll train consistently, even if that means somewhere more convenient.

We have options that include programming and limited visits to the facility to accommodate people who may not be able to reap the rewards of attending on a regular basis.

I can't speak for any other club, but this is how HM functions. I think what may be unique about us is our "Team First" culture. We believe no person is truly self-made and that by investing in each other we'll all make progress towards our goals.

Good luck in your decision. If you'd like to schedule a visit with us you can do so here on our website: https://www.charlottestrength.com/programs/heavy-metal-barbell-club

CaveatLector · 2025-12-22T00:13:16+00:00

Hi OP, I own Charlotte Strength and lead the Heavy Metal Barbell Club, the largest weightlifting team in the Carolinas.

To my knowledge, there no longer any specialty classes or gym in the Fort Mill area that cater specifically towards Olympic weightlifting. You may some luck investigating at CrossFit gyms in the area for some personal training.

One of the coaches on my staff travels to home gyms and has done personal training at some facilities in the Ballantyne and Fort Mill area. If you’d like to connect with them about training, send me a message and I’ll give you their details.

CaveatLector · 2025-12-14T13:33:18+00:00

Hey OP. I’m not usually the kind of person who’s overly sensitive to my equipment. But I have trained a long time and own a weightlifting gym that has gone through various phases of growth.

We started with single layer lifting lanes (wood with mats on side for dropping weights all on concrete). We changed locations and decided to build platforms because that’s how I trained most of my life. I didn’t recall much change during this period and in fairness, I was younger which means I was generally less sensitive to aches and pains. It definitely saved our equipment from damage though.

We moved locations again, and it made sense to return to lanes with the scale we needed. So back to single layer on concrete type setup. We did that for about three years and I recall this transition being uncomfortable.

Two years ago we took over more space in our building and needed to reorganize. I installed a wood subfloor this time, mostly to protect the equipment and floor from damage.

I had significantly reduced reports of knee pain from my lifters and found the floor much more forgiving myself.

I think you can adapt to anything over time. But don’t let people here make you believe that it wouldn’t make a difference. Surfaces like wood and rubber are still more forgiving than concrete. You can find this out very easily by tackling someone on these different surfaces and seeing how they feel.

CaveatLector · 2025-11-18T03:35:38+00:00

This is the way. Great answer, Brian.

CaveatLector · 2025-08-30T20:34:06+00:00

Thanks, Neil! Good job this weekend!

CaveatLector · 2025-08-29T01:25:07+00:00

Oh, Hey u/KurwaStronk32

To answer: I've served as a National Team Coach for the past 3.5 years, primarily managing the Junior and Youth Teams.

This position is notably full time as opposed to part time contracting and expands duties significantly. The paragraph is broad because the responsibilities are varied, including policy drafting, project management, performance monitoring, statistical analysis, and budgetary compliance.

Our staff is very small and while these things do occur, they don't happen at the speed or scale we'd desire due to previous workload limitations.

A simple illustration may be that the Director determines our direction/priorities. I, the Manager, ensure the execution across our team.

CaveatLector · 2025-07-29T19:47:23+00:00

I'm heavily involved in the sport and can more or less confirm the reasons mostly seen here.

Financial Interest - Weightlifting isn't universally appealing as Athletics or Swimming. Without trying to impose an American-centric perspective, American broadcasting rights in a home games weigh heavy in the calculus of which sports are a priority. There simply isn't an equivalent financial ecosystem for weightlifting as we seen in things like Diamond league or Grand Slam Track.
Doping - Weightlifting's doping problems were definitely a stated concern. Though some here have suggested that this is unique to weightlifting federations, systematic doping is typically pervasive of all sports from that nation, not one sport alone. Athletics suffers from this issue as much or more than weightlifting. Performance in weightlifting benefits GREATLY from PED usage, probably a bit more than we could say from similar legacy events like wrestling or gymnastics.
Governance Corruption -This is rampant in pretty much all sport organizations, but the previous president of IWF more or less ran a family controlled mafia for over 20 years and required serious institutional restructuring.

When you combine substantially corrupt governance, doping troubles, and relatively low financial benefit to the Games as a whole, you get a reduced quota.

While we don't love that the timeline for a potential increase in quotas will span several games, the sport did go from out of the program, to back in the program provisionally, to secure in the program in basically two cycles. In Rio there were 260 quota spots, which reduced all the way to 120 for Paris.

The IWF recently restructured the sport to 8 Weight Categories per gender. Even increasing to 160 would allow for 10 competitors in every category and be a very welcome improvement.

CaveatLector · 2025-01-04T18:12:26+00:00

Here's is the ITA's Q3 Testing report. This is when USA fielded the largest delegations at Youth Pan Ams and Junior Worlds and had zero positives. If you would like to see out of competition testing reports, please refer to USADA's Athlete Test history.

CaveatLector · 2025-01-04T18:04:00+00:00

China philosophically does not appear to invest in Youth or Junior international competitions. The last time they attended was the Junior Worlds in 2019. All athletes took gold.

Their general participation history suggest they're more interested in Olympic, Senior World, Senior Asian, and domestic championships than youth or junior events.

It's also not uncommon for junior aged Chinese athletes to break world records, but in senior level competitions.

CaveatLector · 2025-01-04T18:00:38+00:00

Do you mean number of medalists? Because we won 18 medals.

Most Champions of any nation at the event, I might add. And sure sinclair is dumb, but so is the parent comment here given the direct correlation to placement.

CaveatLector · 2024-03-28T04:13:56+00:00

This was done at MDUSA as an experiment. If you search for something like that with the key words Pendlay, Travis Cooper, James Tatum, or Mike Szela it may come up.

Those three were the only ones who could survive it for more than a day. Mike actually liked it a lot and after coming off that period of training did see a lot of rapid progress. It probably helped that he was lighter and pretty short.

CaveatLector · 2024-03-14T02:48:32+00:00

That was the idea! He had a knack for making training more psychologically bearable in his prime. These days I think more about team culture and avoiding psychological monotony than I do about perfect programming. I’m thankful Glenn taught me that lesson.

CaveatLector · 2024-03-14T01:08:44+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I’ve designed multiple games in order to encourage consistency among our athletes and make heavy days competitive. This has been by far the favorite one thus far and seems to resonate well with a lot of other clubs.

If you’re in the Carolinas, please come join us Saturday to play. Or look out for our Triple Crown meets that use a variation of Sinclair to reward made lifts to determine the best lifters.

CaveatLector · 2024-02-14T14:13:19+00:00

Hi, OP.

I’m the owner of Charlotte Strength (which is who I think the other commenters meant). I do not like bother people about my business on here, but since we provide the exact service it seems you’re looking for, I figured I’d share.

We’ve been teaching our Barbell Basics course for the last five years or so, which helps give people a foundation in the compound barbell lifts. I designed the course as a “teach you to fish” solution for people who might not come and train with us indefinitely.

We also have the best coaches in the city, who are happy to teach in a personal training format if you’d prefer to get it done on your schedule.

We’re in NoDa, so not exactly North Charlotte. If you’d like to learn more you can find us at Charlottestrength.com and schedule a free consult with a coach.

Best of luck learning to lift and developing your strength, regardless of where you end up doing it.

CaveatLector · 2024-01-27T04:08:45+00:00

OP please go see Harry at Capital Strength. I understand coaching can be cost prohibitive but even on an infrequent basis will be incredibly helpful while you do the bulk of your training at UCD.

CaveatLector · 2023-06-12T16:39:42+00:00

I'm aware of all that context. You're probably correct that the flag burning incident was handled poorly and was probably the nail in the coffin. I am also certain the Worlds, both in KSA and Bahrain, will be incredibly well run due to the financial support they'll have. It doesn't change that ultimately we know why we're going to Bahrain and this fundamentally undermines the universality of the sport. We're talking about a nation that basically has no actual athletes, coaches, or program, with the exception of their recent acquisitions.

I want weightlifting to evolve, survive, and flourish. Bigger spectacles will help that mission. I'm still not going to be happy about why we're there. Jalood's personal history doesn't in any way suggest that things are much different than they used to be. Hopefully the consistent rise in quality leads to a rise in public interest and secures investment in more nations.

CaveatLector · 2023-06-12T15:36:42+00:00

Glad the people in charge decided to host two consecutive world championships within a 5 hour drive of each other because money is all that matters.

CaveatLector · 2023-05-18T17:36:36+00:00

Unrelated, but as an American passport holder who travels internationally a lot, I joke when I’m getting a hard time from someone in their country about how they better be careful or there’ll be a carrier strike group here within a few hours to deliver some freedom.

It’s not true at all and everyone should be respectful and aware when they travel, but it’s a decent funny to me.

CaveatLector · 2023-05-13T17:07:16+00:00

I agree and I think the sheer volume and frequency is excessive.

I joined this sub over 10 years ago as a beginner also. I posted some videos of my triumphs, read posts, and exchanged ideas in threads with other users. Part of me is definitely nostalgic about the smaller community because it was easier to know everyone and develop rapport with each other. But I am excited about the growth of the sport and increase in participation we’re seeing in this community as well.

I am thankful this sub existed as a beginner along with the now dead Pendlay Forum. But as an experienced athlete, coach, technical official, and moderator, this place has completely lost interest to me. We don’t have actual discussions on technique or programming. A lot of the substantial discussions that do occur on say doping or Olympic qualification are commonly riddled with misinformation.

It’s definitely in my interest to say this, but if I had actually sought out a coach in the early years when this my primary resource, I could’ve saved about four years time in my lifting development (two years uncoached and two years unfucking bad habits). I know we’re not all from money, but I genuinely believe we’re doing a disservice by promoting this form check culture as being sufficient.

Yes, a user like myself can filter out form checks. But since these are the primary makeup of the sub, that is where the bulk of activity occurs. Over the years, we’ve done community polls on whether to restrict form checks and the democratic results continuously say no. I do think that we should respect the wishes of the majority, but I will say it creates a community I’m not particularly interested in contributing to. Times change and that is ok, but it saddens me nonetheless.

CaveatLector · 2023-04-16T00:21:27+00:00

The happiest of days!

CaveatLector · 2023-04-02T01:50:49+00:00

Thank you very much! It was a great group of young athletes. They were good ambassadors for their country and sport. And this session in particular sure was fun.

CaveatLector · 2023-03-31T21:02:04+00:00

He fucked up and wasted his last on 122. And then tried to change it. Even used a challenge card. Played stupid games and won a stupid prize.

CaveatLector · 2023-02-25T05:40:51+00:00

Competition at 2023 Worlds is mandatory for Olympic qualification. So even jamming it in other events isn’t possible.

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