Getting my USAW

The weekend of December 6/7 I attended the USAW Level 1/Sport Performance Certification. It was a long weekend of a lot of lifting and a lot of learning. I will say though, that I really enjoyed it both on a personal level as a lifter and as a hopeful strength and conditioning as well as weightlifting coach.

We talked about a lot, so I'll just give a brief overview.

After about a half hour of just talking and introductions, we finally got into it. The first things we talked about were essentially readiness of athletes for the Olympic lifts (snatch and clean & jerk) and different assessments that should be done. We also discusses training adults versus children and differences necessary. We talked about a little more after that, but I didn't take as much notes so I don't remember.

We then went into technique and talked about that a lot. Before I get into it at all, a lot of people, myself included, think that USAW teaches a strict triple extension technique rather than catapult or any other technique you can think of. With my experience, that was not the case at all. We were taught weightlifting. While there are differences that are needed on an individual once technique becomes a little better and for a person's anatomy, we were taught weightlifting: a delayed and controlled first full, get the bar to the power position, extend your hips hard and get into a good catch position. Regardless of who is teaching, those are things that should be taught regardless and every good weightlifter does those. We did talk about some things that will be different for bigger or smaller lifters and other differences that are needed, but that was the base.

After lunch, we got into lifting, and we lifted a LOT. We first went through the progression of snatch and then the clean. After we went through our progressions, we were allowed to go heavy. I ended up PR'ing my snatch as well as my clean. The biggest difference that was changed about my lifting was my start position, and it felt a little awkward the first couple reps, it then felt a ton better and have had a lot more success with it since.

We followed the lifting with talks about programming and then left.

The second day was going over the jerk, practicing teaching the lifts, going over coaching and cueing, identifying errors, and then equipment. We finished it up with the test, where I got a 100% on.

I didn't really go over what we did specifically, and that was on purpose. I do that because this was an awesome certification that I think any coach should get because you learn so much that can be helpful for athletes, whether they are fitness athletes, weightlifters, or any other type of athlete. I learned a ton here, and recommend anyone mildly interested in coaching or the lifts to spend that $495 and go get your USAW. You will not regret it, I promise.