How do you cover weightlifting?

JDV, when you're done, could you give some hints about covering hockey.

 

Covering a WL meet part 4

The Meet

Step 1. Talk to some lifters before hand & the promoter to get a vibe on the meet. What is the underground story, who is going to do what, where are the battles, which lifters should we watch, who is going for records.

Track those leads down and get a feel for it - talk to those lifters. this will set up a nice piece if those lifters break the records as you have that behind the scenes look, the prep, the mindset, the whole thing - what made it happen (as opposed to lift made & the obligatory "how did it feel")

Step 2. Hang out in the warm-up room - this is where the action is. You can see a LOT unfold there. Who is lifting what, how they look, how others respond to that. Lifts & strategy will often change a lot based on this. Also, note the dif in how the top guys you are folling warm up & prep for the meet - very good info.

Step 3. The actual meet. I disagree with an earlier point about covering the "little guys." That is cheap novelty in my opinion. Cover the best liters/winners and the real battles. That is what OWL coverage readers want. If you come in with "so & so little lifter lifted 2X their bodyweight isn't that cool/novel" you will come off as a rookie and the readers will feel like you are patronizing them.

Yes, the little guys lift more proportionately. So, do ants - its called physics & it's NOT news to any lifting fans or competitors.

Right, so the proper measure for finding the stars to cover is two main ways, well I guess three:

1.) Are they close to or breaking a record
2.) Are they winning someting meaningful (lifting some big weight - multiple titles, etc.)
3.) Is there a close/exciting battle for placings going on preferably with good backstory.

That's about it.

During the meet some people will make and some will miss lifts. Often missed lifts will come because someone is getting too aggressive in chasing a competitor or a record. Being that you only have 3 attempts on each lift a god bit of strategy is placed on how those lifts are picked.

Conversely, if a lifter is making their lifts easy are they sandbagging. Will they play it safe with the first lift and then go for it on the next, etc. Lots to be mined here as the meet plays out. The added drama is that the lifts are technical and most are lifting close to max on each lift so lifts will be missed and then it is interesting to see how the lifters respond mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Similarly, in a close contest lifters will change lifts and push themselves to uncharted levels to get the win. This is where things get good (you can see some of this in my 1990 National win (final vid) on You Tube where me & my nearest competitor changed our final attempts at least 3 times each (I think it ended up at 4 each) and I ended up lifting a 15lb personal record in the deadlift to win my first National Championship. Those make for exciting plays/meets and the crowd loves them

They are also very unusual as often true PR's (not meet PR's) don't come in meets (even with drug use).

Other than that cover how the meet plays out interview fans as to who they like, what they thought, do the follow-up interviews with the lifters and try to capture as much insight and drama as it happens.

Oh yes, you can also get some insight as to who made/missed weight how bad of a cut it was & how much/quickly they reloaded & what they weight on meet day. Often lot of drama there & if I lifter cut too hard they will have nothing on meet day.

I hope that helps as that is about as inside a meet as you can get.

Again, happy to help - just give me credit (anyone can use just give me credit as well)

Thanks & look forward to the article!

John D. Villarreal

 

Just try to capture the spirit of the thing.

 

Oh he did. He did.

In other news, a retirement community in Florida...

 

Just go ahead and shoot me now, but I actually didn't mind reading JDV's thoughts on weightlifting for about the first two posts ... but I did eventually lose consciousness somewhere in the third ...
Short and concise, man. Short and concise.

 

Make sure to ask the female lifters about their snatch.

 

I tried to avoid it... but it's clean and snatch, jerk....

 

Typical jr- a snide comment. JDV gave a well thought out answer to someone who asked for help.

With the detail that JDV provided even I could cover a weightlifting event.

 

Thanks for all the pointers JDV. Pretty sure my story will be much shorter than your posts since I will be stringing for the AP. The meet is next weekend. I will post the story.

 

I always thought it was kind of strange that the clean and jerk followed the snatch -- as in, snatch, clean and jerk. Maybe it's just me, but I'd want it in this order: clean and jerk, then snatch. If you knew the snatch would be good, you wouldn't even have to jerk.

It also seems to me that if you're any good in the snatch, you wouldn't need, or want, to clean and jerk. You'd just be done after the snatch. On the other hand, maybe you'd want to clean and jerk if the snatch really stank. It's quite an interesting sport.

 

Mr. Reza Zadeh is not amused.

 

I'm sorry, but this has cracked me up all day.

ogre, with any luck, the weightlifters you cover will be as loquacious as Mr JDV, and you will have no problem getting enough material for your story, a dozen sidebars, three features, a made-for-tv movie, and several books. Good luck.