Random, though coherent, thoughts on talent

Starting off, let it be noted that there were quite a few PR lifts generated in the last few weeks by our lifters.

This leads me to the discovery of talent. Specifically, how does one identify weightlifting talent? More specifically, since weightlifting has only one governing body (begging the question: What happened to Ivan's American Weightlifting?), how is talent identified keeping the mission statement of said governing body in mind?
"...The Mission of USAW shall be to enable United States athletes to achieve sustained competitive excellence in Olympic competition and to promote and grow the sport of weightlifting in the United States..."

I guess "...sustained competitive excellence.." is defined as 2 slots in the upcoming Olympic Games for women and none for men. Though I did laugh out loud when I received a nice letter asking me to contribute to the USAW Olympic development program.

Conclusion: make sure that said potential weightlifter has championship level weightlifting parents.

Another way is to market the living daylights out of weightlifting to not only the general populace, but to youth sports in general. A kid turns 5 and his parents are already on the phone trying to find the local soccer club to put the kid into that program. Talk to said parent about getting this same kid to perform skilled athletic maneuvers which may involve a barbell and your life is in jeopardy.

Importantly, there are not that many out of the box talented weightlifters. Not everyone can run sustained 4 minute miles; not everyone can total 350 kilos as a 77. Let's define the talent pool as one of the top 10% in the world in every one of the 15 weight classes. now, how do you pick that set of people, one at a time, out of a line up of athletes? And, make sure that you have enough in the pipeline so when one lifter gets derailed by life's happenings, there are bodies waiting in line to replace him.

Presumably, the person selected will be somewhat athletic and coordinated. Perhaps that prospective lifter can jump well and is moderately quick. The most basic physical desire would be that the person be able to fog a mirror. From there, we look at coordinated, conditioned, coachable, possessing good body awareness, and committed.

The prospective lifter has to be able to rub his stomach and pat his head at the same time. Has to be able to go into a split position, with either leg, and not fall over. Conditioned enough that he can squat more than a few times with his own bodyweight and that exercising for an hour or two won't lead to certain death. It's difficult to coach someone when he is bent over gasping for air after picking up an empty barbell.

Coachable in that the person can handle cajoling, challenge, cues, adjustments, criticisms, and make progress without incredible amounts of consternation or argument. Eventually, the training will take on a solo effort in the lifter's garage or gym.

Committed to the monotony of training. Committed to the monotony of steady progress toward goals. Committed despite setbacks. And, by corollary, committed enough to realize when there is no progress in training leading to the conclusion that it is time to cut one's losses.

How does one develop this talent pool of lifters in a timely, steady manner? To me, it appears as if the game would be one of numbers. Take a large pool of athletes who have these qualifications (and hopefully have them be under the age of 25) and start funneling them down towards the aforementioned mission statement. The athletes could be involved in football, soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, etc, during the course of development in weightlifting.

Without the numbers, one is out of luck. More young people learning the lifts, completing at meets, and lifting in general should lead to the discovery of latent talent as well as "getting lucky" with more than a few gems who could be headed to the Olympic Games.

In a sales training class, I ran into a fellow who told everyone his close ratio was 100%. At first glance, that seems like an astounding feat, especially thinking that sometimes I am meeting with 50 people a month. Upon digging deeper, he only called on a couple of people. Not hard to have a 100% close ratio if you are meeting with only 2 people!!