East London Weightlifting Club

09/05/2024

My weightlifting club, East London Weightlifting, closed down a week and a half ago. This was due to Crossfit London shutting its doors - we were in one of the CF London arches.

This was all very sad - CF London was the original UK Crossfit Club. ELWL was growing - we had a really good group of members and the sessions had a great atmosphere. It's a bit of a cliché but there was a lovely community at CF London.

It was also sudden. Although I knew there were problems, in the end I had one day notice so didn't have plans in place.

Luckily for me, the opportunity has arisen for me to revive East London Weightlifting at Momentum Training in Haggerston. I start again this Tuesday. I'm hoping my old members come back and I think it's a better location for attracting new members.

I'm not sure what's happening with CF London but I reckon they'll pop up again somewhere. You can't keep a good club down! I wish them all the best. They helped me to build a great little weightlifting club and welcomed me as part of the team when I didn't have any work. If my new club is successful it's because of their help and support in growing a membership at CF London.

Now I just have to get to grips with a new booking app, get my bars and weights from Hammersmith, make sure everything's ready for this re-opening this Tuesday and hope people turn up!

Onwards and upwards!

30/11/2023

Blog, blog, blog. That's me.
This time I'm waffling on about developing a pre-lifting routine.

The missus was telling me today how she gets some grief at cricket for her preparation routines. Before every ball she faces when she’s batting she gets her grip, adjusts her stance and looks up, ready to go. Every ball the same thing. I find it odd that anyone sees this as strange because in […...

16/11/2023

My thoughts on stress and its effect on recovery.

Stress is one of those things that I’m interested in, and have quite strong opinions on, but might well be completely wrong about. When I try to read up on stress I end up lost in a maze of feedback loops and long neurotransmitter names which shut off my brain’s ability to concentrate. It probab...

10/11/2023

A blog post about why weightlifting technique for performance is different from weightlifting technique for teaching.

When I first started coaching I was a recently retired weightlifter so I had good weightlifting technique and I thought my demonstrations were the business. The trouble was, while I hit all the key positions well, I also moved through the positions very smoothly and quickly. This is good form for a....

31/10/2023

A blog about how we make the club programme more flexible to allow for individual differences.

There are lots of benefits to training as part of a group. Everyone doing the same training at the same time builds an atmosphere in the gym that is enjoyable to be a part of. It encourages consistent attendance and when you’re feeling great you contribute to a hard working environment. When you.....

18/10/2023

I've been blogging again. This time about competition decision making.

I did a talk last weekend at the British Weightlifting Stronger Together conference and one of the things I said (there were quite a lot of things) that seemed to cause a reaction in the audience was about making decisions in competition based on information rather than emotion. The scenario I descr...

08/10/2023

I coached one of the East London Weightlifting members in her first competition today which made me write a blog about coaching first-time competitors.
She did very well - five out of six lifts.

I’ve coached lots of beginners at their first competition over the years and I think I’ve developed my approach in that time. Here’s how I currently think about it. The goal of a weightlifter’s first competition should be to find out what lifting in a competition is like and to have a good e...

27/09/2023

Hip snatches. We do them at East London Weightlifting so I wrote a very short blog post about them.

People are often surprised that I prescribe hip snatches. They’re a great exercise for encouraging a positive movement at the top of the pull and under the bar. They’re surprised because I’m always on about jumping and trying to make sure the lifters I coach achieve a correct power position. T...

25/09/2023

I don't post enough on this page. I tend to post videos on instagram and I'm not a huge fan of repeatedly posting stuff all over the place. But I do post the blog stuff here which is my favourite bit. This blog post is about process vs outcome goals.

When I’m teaching beginners I often have to try to change the way they’re thinking about the movements they’re practicing. In the main, people who turn up at the gym to learn weightlifting already know what weightlifting looks like. They’ve already made some assumptions about how a weightlif...

16/09/2023

A blog post about the importance of practicing good technique:

I suppose the title to this blog post sounds a bit obvious but I think the consequences of performing lots of poor reps in training are profound for weightlifters. I think that most people can attain an excellent technical standard in weightlifting. It’s not a silly goal. I see great technique all...

14/09/2023

Or does it? Find out in my latest blog!

“It doesn’t have to be pretty” is a phrase I’m always disappointed to hear a coach say but it’s still one I hear quite often. On one level, it’s true. On any given heavy lift, especially in competition, a lifter can’t be too distracted by being perfect. Things can go wrong with a lift ...