I think everyone who attended this year's English would agree it was one of the best yet! Having a Weightlifting championship central to a fitness festival (FitFest) in the enormous NEC in Birmingham felt so fitting and really led to one of the most enjoyable competition experiences we have ever had! So with that all said, it's only right to tip my hat to British Weightlifting and those involved in organising the competition, hopefully national level competitions continue in this fashion!
It was awesome to attend a National event and already know most of the people there, Many we knew through conversations in competition halls, athletes visiting our gym, or simply being friendly with each other on social media, it was a little bit like a real life instagram feed coming through in real life.
I'll get the what could have been better' out the way now because there's really not much to write about. The comp itself got off to a bit of a slow start with the competition management systems not playing ball with the wifi at the venue, luckily there was a plan B in ready in the form of an offline spreadsheet, the change of system pushed the initial sessions back a fair way and made quite a few BWL staff visibly stressed, but I suppose that its a lesson going forward! I imagine next time they will bring Ethernet cables, or a separate hub to run the wifi from entirely. Fair play to the staff who managed to improvise with the relaying of changes and updates to the scoreboard, look like a pain.
My only other gripe was that there was only singular scoreboard on the TOs desk per platform, right on top of where the athlete cards were, rather than a screen a a couple meters or so away - it led to a load of coaches crowded around a 22 inch monitor at any given time squinting away, plotting their next move. And plotting is difficult when you have to climb through a load of bodies.
Now for the 'what blew my mind' section (BWL Staff and Officials, you can breathe now). The layout of the Red, Blue and Green platforms lined up next to each other was awesome. As a spectator, you could position yourself in the middle of the room and take in multiple sessions at a time. Further to that, Weightlifitng really felt 'main event', central to the room, making all the noise with a large crowd! Warm-up rooms were perfect, with literally everything you would need to prepare your athlete all in one space, and a generous amount of space between you and the next platform. As always, every single member of staff, volunteer, and anything in between were super helpful, informative and straight up friendly. British Weightlifitng have really tried to change the dynamic over the last year to 'we are British Weightlifitng' rather than BWL the governing body, and the athletes who pay memberships. And I can start to see it coming through, we have a CEO who interracts with literally everyone and can talk an excellent weightlifitng game, staff visibly happy when people make lifts, a squad of volunteers made from individuals from all over the country. Pretty cool.
FitFest itself was an experience. Including CrossFit, Powerlifting, ATHX, ninja warrior assault course bits, indoor rowing and a plethora of stores and stands selling discounted merch or giving away samples. I was honestly baffled by the indoor rowing before I witnessed it, I just thought you'd rather be on water but the atmosphere was insane, if you're struggling to imagine it picture for a moment arcade horse racing with your mates after a few pints - the unhinged screaming and shouting for your jockey to reach the end of their lane and elation when it makes it there first, limbs in the air, knee slides, spilt pints... that was an entire bleacher of spectators watching their favourite rower on a concept 2 erg in the middle of an arena - trust me, its worth a watch. Stores I particularly enjoyed included the Grenade stand who we managed to pillage ~100 protein bars from and has since sent me down the path of protein bar addiction, and the Joov tent, which I managed to haggle a muscle rub, and some electrolyte tablets from on the cheap - which I almost feel bad about now because they're actually pretty good!
Anyway, let's get into the part you're probably here for, the comp breakdown. We had Sophie and Lily competing in English Seniors, and Karl, Jodie, and Erin lifting in the English Masters competition. Each session was completely different and came with their own challenges in coaching, and very different preparations on the lead up to the event which made this a really unique experience in itself.
Sophie
Snatch: 51 / 54x / 54
C&J: 61 / 64 / 66x
PB Comp total
So, I didn't coach Sophie on the day - she is coached by Josh Telling from Wild Boar (and he is doing a great job), but she's still a core part of our team here in Liverpool so I'd be completely remiss not to include her in this! I love watching Sophie compete, she just can not hide her emotions to save her life and honestly when she smashes a lift its brilliant to witness in real time - That "YAAAA " on the catch in the the 64 C&J before immediately reverting back to her super serious weightlifter face (pictured) was a particular highlight of mine.
No medals for Sophies first call up to England Seniors, but she absolutely took the gold if we were measuring decibels raised by the crowd during the athlete introductions! The room erupted when she was announced which says a lot about the impact she has made in weightlifting over the last couple years. Always hard working, always positive, always slay.
Lily
Snatch: 65 / 70 / 72x
C&J: 80x / 83 / 86
PB Comp total
A really, really fun session which had a number of challenges, the main one being the emergence of an absolute bloodbath of attempts in the Snatch between 66kg and 70kg which led to a wait of over 20 minutes between Lily's opener and second attempt.
It's been a scenario I've thought about theoretically in my head for a while, how do I keep an athlete warm whilst waiting for a long duration between attempts? At BUCs earlier in the year we had a little bit of experience with long waits when Lewis Wilkinson had to take an uncomfortable amount of time between attempts on his C&J, we simply had him take a clean deadlift to experience what the bar felt like from the floor so he could anticipate how to set his balance on the platform at the weight he was going out to hit - but it didn't really prepare us for a 20+ minutes wait!
We initially attempted the deadlift scenario, but numerous misses and a series of small jumps ended up extending the time significantly. I didn't think it was wise to have her return to the platform after a prolonged break, especially after just doing snatch deadlifts. In the end, we decided to wave back down to around 55kg and then build back up as if her second attempt was the opener. This strategy worked well, and she nailed her second attempt! What a relief!
Second half of the session was relatively smooth, a miss on her opener due to bar crash in the jerk causing a lttle elbow wobble. We decided to push and go up anyway, after that lifts at 83 and 86 were drama free.
A note about Lily, one of the coolest lifters I have ever coached in the back room, up there with Jodie Coogan who I'll mention later on. Given that the wait was so long, she was just completely composed and just - chill.
Karl
Snatch: 85 / 88x / 88
C&J: 117 / 123x / 123x
Super Karl! We approached this with a plan, knowing that a total of 210 was needed for a shot at a medal. Just two weeks prior, he had achieved a 211 total at our Autumn Open. So, the challenge was on! Our main competitor for medals was Scott Mills from Stockport Spartans, a team we have a strong relationship with, which didn’t exactly work to our advantage—Karl trained there often and had achieved some of his best lifts during their training sessions. They were well aware of Karl’s capabilities. Scott, on the other hand, was recovering from an injury and had only competed once in 2024, totaling 210 at Psych in October. However, during 2022 and 2023, he had exceeded 215 on four occasions, reaching as high as 225. So, if Scott was getting back in shape, I sensed this would be a bit of a fight.
What did work in our favour was that Karl jerked over 130kg at Stockport on the run up to English, and he has also power cleaned it this year (I made sure that they remembered this when I met them ha), which might have influenced some of the decisions made around Scotts final attempt snatch from the Stockport boys to try and open the gap further going into C&J, a miss that really opened the door for us on the second half of the competition.
I fully expected Scott to hit 120, which would require a 128 C&J from Karl to exceed Scotts total. But I had faith! Both went out and hit their openers at roughly the same weight, both looked good. A suprise to us was Scott then missed his next two C&J at whatever weight it was (120 I think?), the door was open, our plan was in motion! 123 for the silver medal! Aaaaand it never quite came together! A combination of shoulder and knee pain really held back Karl's drive in the jerk and sometimes, that is just weightlifting.
What is also very weightlifting is that the favourite didn't show up! So the bronze medal contest turned into a battle for silver! So Karl ended up with the bronze after all! It truly would have been unfortunate if both men hadn't come away with something, as that session was one of the most intense battles I've ever experienced. Right after, I remember Antonio Cappavani exclaiming, "best session of the weekend!" and I'd agree. It had everything: friendly rivalries, athletes pushed to perform at their best, coach vs. coach tactics and mind games (shithousery), and drama, and an electric atmosphere.
Erin
Snatch: 48x / 48 / 50x
C&J: 65 / 70 / 73x
Erin has only just started competing in weightlifting this year, so pretty cool that for her third competition she's already managed to enter her first national competition! Snatch went okay, first 'big comp' nerves set in and really messed with her opener, underpulling 48 entirely before going out on her second and near enough power snatching it. Clean and Jerk was strong. very clinical opener and second attempts, the third could only be considered a training make, a slight flicker of the elbow but I've seen more obvious misses given!
All in all a really strong showing at her first national meet, it wont be the last time you see her, there's a lot more to come from and way more to write about Erin than I could manage in a single blog post, super interesting person - for now though I'll keep it short and sweet.
Special shout out to her supportive Brother who competed in the CrossFit across the hall, cleaning a massive 150kg, probably after some sort of nightmare WoD as well. He just looked so bloody proud of Erin, very wholesome.
Jodie
Snatch: 53 / 57 / 60
C&J: 68 / 71 / 75
A very satisfying performance. 10kg up on her performance at British Masters, a gold medal, 6/6, and importantly for Jodie and I the first competition where the technical changes we have been trying to cement for a long time have settled in and really come out on a competition platform. She's hitting a mid thigh position with balance in both the snatch and the clean, making her catch way more reliable, and the arms interfere less with the drive in her jerks. Excellent work!
We have changed the approach to a fair bit with Jodie this competition. Normally we really dial down on accessories, variations and anything that isn't weightlifting for around 4 weeks leading into comp. this time around she kept her variations in all the way into her taper week, still performing slow pull snatch and floating snatches either as main lifts or primers.
I think if we can keep Jodie fit, we will see a total of around the 150 mark in 2025.
Coaching summary
From a coaches perspective, it went well. Each lifter's plan successfully got them to their goals, whether it was achieving a personal best, winning a medal, or being positioned within a successful attempt of a significantly better positioning or a medal. The strategies for each lifter worked out due to our meticulous preparation (stalking) and thorough analysis of the competition (more stalking) in the weeks leading into the competition. I'm especially pleased with the strategy implemented in Lily's session, as messing it up really could have ruined her momentum in the competition. It's not something you often prepare for in training but we improvised, handled it well and set her up for third attempt that would have exceeded her best competition snatch performance to date.
I have to add, day 2 was made much more enjoyable and streamline by the inclusion of Katie Green in our coaching team. She was there with great advice, reliably counted lifts, and could read the room expertly. So chances are, the reason it all went so well comes squarely down to her. So, thank you Katie!
So there it is! 2024 ending with one hell of a bang at the NEC in Birmingham! We have a pretty quick turnaround after this for our next competition at the start of February, but for the time being a lot of our team will grab some much needed down time over christmas!
Joe.
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