One year ago...
From a mixed & matched meta & micro perspective...


One year ago, in the time I still was Elite Sports Manager at the Dutch National Weightlifting Federation, I started up the national youth squad in The Netherlands.

Out of all the things I took upon me I saw this as one of my two biggest achievements. There was no gain in it for me, it just costed an aweful lot of time and energy and even quite a lot of my own money apparently, but the time and energy were well spent.

The way I saw it, in order to reach high level, you should start by motivate and educate the youngsters; give them the tools to grow, let them be part of something and give them long term goals and working goals, structure and team mates throughout the country...

Of course this is also something that should be provided at club level, but without a shared and nationwide vision, it would just remain an individuals act, which is just not as effective.

Before, there had only been a senior squad, but the way I saw it, you should start with the youngsters, or all the effort is more or less waisted. The next thing I am going to say may shock some, but: World class athletes are not formed at senior age.

One can always try of course... and I myself am the perfect example of such an athlete that is trying to make the best of it and get the most out of myself, but then again... my forming started in the gym, from the early age of three.

Also, I am extremely intrinsically motivaded, a charactaristic that is quite rare I have noticed, and is hardly seen in this coming generation, out of where we should get our next generation of weightlifters. So unless one does not care, one should provide that what is needed, to keep athletes, preferably talents lifting weights... out of which motivation is the most important of all.

But how come we did not do anything like this before? Why now? What is new?

Well, it sure has been long since we had true world class athletes... Our last ones - performing at the World stage, but not medalling,
were athletes from abroad.

The easy way out of this is off course ''just'' to buy your athletes, as they do with many sports, athletes, who have been formed and given all they need (and more) at their home country.

But when you would want to develop talent in this country, the federation would need to start acting like it... was my opinion, and start a youth squad. For starters, youth teams and individuals can much more easily reach qualification limits and good rankings than seniors.

Qualification limits for youth, girls expecially, are easily reached when one just comes shows up every training from an early age and is motivated to work hard, so it should be a piece of cake for a talent. The only thing a coach needs to do is to keep that athete triggered...

Besides that, routine and competition experience at big podia is very important for a world class athlete and if we would ever want to produce world class athletes, we'd better start working on that aspect.

Also, when waiting for athletes to become senior, you both let a lot of time go waisted, and - worse - you do nothing to prevent the most talented athletes from choosing for another, more exiting sport. And there sure are a lot of much more attractive sports out there for a young child.

Weightlifting is great and I love it, but I can totally understand why a young girl would prefer to choose for a local dance team, or a boy for the soccer selection. Even if it often doesn't bring them anywhere close to European of World Championships, it still is prestiguous, and fun and can be glamourous. Also there are is a lot of team building with class mates and other locals going on, something of big importance, that is often forgotten.

It sure has been a battle to get this national youth squad started, but from the very beginning, I knew it was just what those kids needed. Guidance, safety, structure, a clear vision and team mates. Also, I really hoped it would bring the clubs and club coaches more together.

Too bad the vision was not shared and no longer actively is worked on, but still I hope it will remain to be a bit like how I meant it to be.

One of the few things that made my hard work at the Federation  extremely enjoyable was to see this little squad of youngsters grow from training to training and to see them interact as team mates on their competition.

The first training there were a few - quite anxious - children, not knowing what to expect, not really knowing each other... and already the next month, you could see they were acting as a team and really feeling they were part of something.

That team building part and the feeling of being something special, something bigger and even a bit glamourous, was exactly what a national youth squad would give to those kids. And the extra trainings, the always handy eye (and pressure;) of another coach watching the kids techniques, the competition experience as a team, and all the other things the squad would give them, would be a great plus, on top of that.

Keeping young talent motivated is something extremely important, is the way I see it. Many disagreed. Talent should keep themselves motivated. It would be a waist of time on all those youngsters who quit too early. Well, there I just simply disagree.

The biggest talents get bored easily. When they are bored, they will walk away. Always.

So you'd better keep them motivaded, is my advice. But that is just me, assuming that Dutch coaches would want to reach the highest level possible. Which is not always the goal..