So we have like not shied away from really challenging
yourself in the weight room. And so now that's
not going to get me in trouble with people listening
to your podcast, but that's like almost, you
know, sacrilegious in American physical education
is supposed to be just, uh, you know, introduce
kids to it, to a movement and that's, and that's
it. So we play punk rock and heavy metal. We
play old school hip hop. We have skull and crossbones
everywhere in the weight room. Hi, Paul. It's
my pleasure to have you on Evidence Strong Show.
If you could briefly introduce yourself. Hey,
so first of all, thanks for having me. My name
is Paul Coover. I'm an athletic director in San
Diego, California. I'm a physical education teacher.
And then most recently, I'm the head coach of
the Great Castle Weightlifting Club, which is
a USA weightlifting certified club that operates
out of a high school classroom, sometimes during
the school day. As far as we know, we're one
of the first programs to sort of do it during
the school day. And I'm just excited to share
our experience here. Awesome. That's exactly
the topic of our... interview, how you even got
an idea of having weightlifting in school? It's
sort of a roundabout way, but the honest answer
there, Alex, is failure. It was born of ability.
I've always been a curious, sort of rebellious
person to look at my own coaching and realize
that I was falling short, that I was not serving
the students the way that I wanted to. And so
that's part of the reason that I'm so excited
to be here. I feel like a lot of people see that
in American physical education and whether they,
you know... have a way out or not, you know,
we're always looking to share because I feel
like we've sort of stumbled in to this sort of
magical outlet. So anyway, you know, to sort
of give some context on high school physical
education in the United States, it would certainly
not be unusual to walk into a, you know, elective
class, so sort of an advanced weightlifting class,
you know, and see some of the Olympic lifts.
It wouldn't be uncommon to see, say, a high school
football team learning those in a PE class. specifically
aimed at them. What we're doing though, is we're
offering, you know, weightlifting to physical
education students, nine and 10, grade nine and
10. So these are 14, 15 and 16 year olds primarily.
And this is not a, not a selected population.
So this is anyone who walks through the doors
of our high school. We have, you know, 1400 students
is put into a physical education class. And our
goal this year is to at least introduce all of
them to the basics of, you know, the Olympic
lifts. So backing up, you know, I started with
the failure, you know, I started. teaching in
Oakland, California, and doing sort of, I guess
you could say, a standard PE curriculum. If there's
people watching and wondering if PE has changed
in the last 30 years, it really hasn't. And so
what I found was that we were basically serving
three types of students. I'm oversimplifying
here. But in general, you had students that are
athletes. They're playing club sports. They might
be involved in an after -school sport. This is
someone whose parents might be involved in driving
them to a club soccer practice, or maybe they're
on the football team, or what have you. And the
second group was people, students that were completely
disengaged from sports. So by 14, 15 years old,
they had decided that they're burned out or they
have decided the sports are not fun. They had
a bad experience, whatever the case may be. And
then that third group was sort of the hobbyists,
you know, if I would say. And this is sort of
that the group that PE is built around. And so
this is the idea that we're going to, you know,
sort of 1950s America mentality of we're going
to get together and we're going to play a unit
of softball and then we're going to go off to
math. class. And then we're going to come back
six weeks later and we're going to play, you
know, a soccer unit and then everybody's going
to get along. But in the context of those other
two groups, you know, that group is smaller and
smaller. We were finding. And then in terms of
that group that's playing sports, let's say you're
doing a soccer unit and that student's playing
a high level club game later, maybe that day.
And so physical education class didn't make a
ton of sense for them. You know, and then that
second group is sort of disengaged. You know,
the whole point of playing soccer is to sort
of hide the running in a physical education.
setting, right, is to make it fun. And if it's
no longer fun, I really started to ask myself,
what is the purpose? So I lean back on what I'm
familiar with. I grew up in the track and field
world. And so I started introducing just out
of desperation, some of the warmup drills that
we knew, A skips, B skips and karaoke and very
just nuts and bolts things. And what I found
was that in that time of the class, the objective
was so clear and achievable that students really
started to buy in. So it was it was measurable
and it was repeatable and scalable and all the
things that we look at, certainly in weightlifting,
but, you know, in so many other ways, places
as well. And so we started I started creeping
a little bit. And so I would stretch that out
as long as I could because it was the most successful
part of my class. Everybody could participate.
The social kids could be social and the kids
who are working on their own could work on their
own. And then I really just started, you know,
trying to be honest with myself and saying this
was the best part of my class. And then, you
know, I tried to do a soccer unit. fell flat
or a basketball unit and it fell flat. So by
unit, you mean four week block or how does the
unit work? That's exactly right. So every school
is a little bit different. And typically it's
units are dictated by, you know, area of the
school. So, you know, there may be several hundred
students taking physical education class at any
given one moment. So maybe there's, you know,
a class in the gym, a class on the field, and
then potentially, you know, maybe a weight room
or something like that or split on the field
or something like that. Four weeks, six weeks
would be kind of traditional in terms of the
grading periods. Sort of an arbitrary. period
of time and certainly too long, I think, you
know, for what I was trying to do. You know,
I had my head, you know, six week, you know,
track and field unit. It was very interesting
to me and to nobody else. And so so I started
really digging in. What can I do to expand this?
And the school that I was at, the weight room
was it was a dungeon. I'm absolutely bare bones.
And they've done it. It's not like that anymore.
They have a fantastic principal who's renovated
the school. It's beautiful. I took a tour up
there a couple of years ago. But at the time,
I didn't feel like I could use the space because,
you know, the bars. didn't spin and very minimal
squat racks and it felt dangerous at times. But
I stumbled across a flow wrestling video. So,
you know, for those of you who are familiar,
flow sports now covers that whole enterprise
of sports. But at the time it started in track
and field and wrestling. I mean, I was a track
and field guy, but this is in the early days
of the internet and you quickly run out of track
and field videos to watch. I migrated over to
wrestling because it was the only thing available
to me. And I came across Arizona State doing
a workout on the field. And so shout out to the
Sun Devils. Or Arizona State, I have no affiliation
with them, have not never been there. But what
I saw was like a bunch of jacked dudes, for lack
of a better word, you know, with with rusty plates.
And they were doing curls and really ugly overhead
presses and sort of like what you would term
like, you know, maybe a kettlebell halo or something
like this and lunges. And then they'd run a lap
and things like that. And that it sounds funny
to say now, but that video really changed my
life because all of a sudden I was like, we can
do something. I'm not limited. So we took that
track and field warm up. We started adding in
comedically difficult circuit training. with
45 -pound, 35 -pound, 25 -pound plates. And the
students really responded well to it because,
again, I truly believe that every student has
a goal, you know, for themselves, whether they're
going to admit it or not, whether that's, you
know, get more muscular or lose weight or be
social or, you know, blow off some steam or feel
better mentally, whatever the case may be. And
all of a sudden we could all do it. And the kids
who wanted to be social, you know, could do,
you know, as many goblet squats with a plate,
you know, as they could. And the kids who wanted...
to work on their own would put their headphones
in and and work on their own and so you know
my principal gave me a hard time he's like you're
gonna have a bunch of kids walking into 24 -hour
fitness and they're gonna bypass all the equipment
and just go grab a you know single plate i hope
they do do that sometimes into this and to this
day i still program we call the sun devil workout
just as an homage to those early days but at
some point whether you are aware of it or not
as a teacher as a coach you you have to make
decisions based you know on some sort of north
star or driving force and in a American physical
education, lots of times that driving force is
physical activity and that's it. And so we treat
all, and it sounds ridiculous to say out loud,
but I'm going to say it anyway. We treat all
exercises if it's the same. And so dance is wonderful.
Yoga is wonderful. Running is fantastic. Weight
training certainly is great, but at no point
would any sort of evolved coach say that they're
all one in the same. And so what's driving your
instruction? What's driving your decisions? And
so physical activity. started to feel like too
low of a bar. It started to feel like we can
do better than that. We can, we can program.
And so again, coming from the track and field
world, and I was very lucky to be around, you
know, good weightlifters. I had always been obsessed
with the Olympic lifts and we can, we can talk
about this later, but I started aiming toward
that just because they were fun for me. Everything
was power. We never jerk, barely understood how
to teach a snatch, but we started doing it because
it's fun to make the bar move fast. And so that
was just part of our programming. And then. Over
the last two years, when we really started hammering
down on what we're doing and why, what I found
was that weightlifting is the best driver of
instruction for high school physical education.
I truly believe this. We don't all get there
because they're fairly technical lifts and it's
hard in an hour a day and we see the kids three
times a week sometimes. But if a student ends
up learning to front squat and they learn to
RDL and they learn to overhead press, which are
the three sort of core lifts that we teach before
we teach anything else, that's an absolute win
for us. We're talking about bone density and
we're talking about personal pride and satisfaction
and we're talking about heart health and we can
build muscle. We can do all kinds of things.
And then the kids who have that aptitude, you
know, we're dry. We know where we're going. We're
going toward, you know, clean and jerk and we're
going toward a snatch. And I have some some kids
that I can thank for that. And so that's kind
of it's a long winded way to say, you know, that
that's the origin story. And now we are we're
a comprehensive physical education program. So
I do I do want to note that. Right. So we're
not catering to just athletes here. And, you
know, we're the state of California. We're on
the hook to teach, you know, state standards.
There's. you know, Quite a bunch of them. And
then a bunch of content areas, you know, aquatics
and gymnastics and so on. And so, you know, my
sort of, I guess, advice for someone looking
to do it would be that within those state standards
and within those content areas, which we do and
we respect those integral pieces of high school
education, there's a lot of flexibility on emphasis.
And so what are you going to emphasize? Are you
going to emphasize, you know, aerobic conditioning?
And that's great. But for so long, it was game
playing. It was it was just exercise disguised
as something else. And so. So within those standards,
we've chosen to emphasize the Olympic lifts.
And then we and, you know, we still we still
do teach badminton would be a student favorite.
Right. And that's fantastic. You know, and in
the context of what we're doing, you know, in
the weight room, you know, a day of badminton
with some change of direction and a little bit
of pure speed movements is awesome. And so, you
know, I have kids walking away that we hope can
make choices about their own health. So so that's
the origin story. All right. I have a lot of
questions, but let's. establish how exactly the
program run at the moment. So how the Olympic
weightlifting. is the core and how you build
around it. Great. Okay. So we have a funny schedule
and it would work. I would, you know, I could
make it work with any school schedule, but we
see the kids every other day. And so some weeks
that's three days a week and some days that's
two days a week. We have four teachers on campus
and we're very fortunate that we have a principal
who has supported our ambitions here. So I will
say that up front. But what we do is we have
four spaces on campus. So we have a traditional
sort of powerlifting gym. It's built on a subfloor.
So if you drop the weights, it'll go through
the floor. So maybe not the best. design there.
But that was the one we started in. And then
we have that classroom that I talked about that
I sort of had offhanded mentioned to the principal,
hey, this would be a great weightlifting space
at some point. And I was in the military at the
time and I went on deployment and came back and
she's like, all right, so when are we building
the gym? I was like, I didn't know that that
was a real thing. And so we took some of the
weights from the original weight room that were
old and rusty and whatever. We got a grant from
the Los Angeles Chargers. So thank you to them.
to renovate that space. And it's iron plates
and basic bars, not Olympic lifting bars. But
we took that stuff and we put it down on the
football field. And so we have a container there.
And then we got some dumbbells and some of those
plates in that sort of Sun Devil style. And I'm
going to get a lot of heat for saying Sun Devil.
I'm an Indiana grad. But we put that into a gym
closet. And so we have those four spaces. So
we have a sort of a traditional powerlifting
space that we use to sort of reinforce some of
the strength movements because we don't have
a ton of time, right? So we do have to sort of
compartmentalize. the training a little bit that
might, you know, might fit in one or two training
sessions. For someone going to a weightlifting
gym, we might have to spread them between two.
And then, you know, we have the classroom that
has the rubberized floors. And then, you know,
we got a fantastic support from our administration.
We got Rogue everything. And so that's our weightlifting
space. You know, we held a little, you know,
unofficial meet in there last year. And so it
would be very familiar to someone walking in
with a weightlifting background. Then on the
field, same thing. We have bars and plates and
we can lift down there. We call that sort of
like our CrossFit meta. ball conditioning space
where we can build in some of those more fun
you know old school push the plate across the
field type stuff as warm -ups and then and then
and then a lift and so that'll be another olympic
lifting space and then the gym you know we're
calling it speed city and we're rolling that
out this year and that'll be you know some of
our plyometric stuff some some more change of
direction stuff and that you know all of which
hopefully will support you know kids uh snatching
more right really what we're what we're driving
at is much much bigger than that but you know
if we're doing the things that we need to do
to to clean and jerk more and snatch more we're
doing lot. And so, you know, I'm very passionate
about that and be, you know, be happy to talk
more about that. But what we do is we have four
teachers and we rotate through the spaces. So
every time my class sees me, we'll be in another
one of those spaces. So we're getting sort of
a compliment of each sort of style weightlifting
at the moment of weight space lifting, of training
with weights. Three of the four being some version
of, you know, Olympic weightlifting. And then
the last one being sort of our, you know, ancillary
movements. So four coaches that work hour by
hour for the whole day with different classes.
Now you as one coach rotate through the week
through four spaces. Correct. So if we're teaching
three classes. All three on a Tuesday will see
me, and we call the one the Chargers weight room
because they donate the money, right? They'll
see me in the Chargers weight room. The very
next time, they'll see me in the Raiders weight
room, if you're familiar with the rivalry. And
then they'll get their full Olympic lifting day,
and then the next day they'll be on the field
and so on. All right. So if I'm a student, you
are my coach, or will I rotate to four coaches
too? Yeah, great question. So I'm your coach
for the full year. And the relationship builds.
is just too important there. You know, I've,
and we can talk more about this, but as I've
gotten to know some of the students, you learn
their tendencies. You learn just like any other
coach, right? You learn that they need a little
bit more of this and a little bit less of that.
Or, you know, this kid's a little bit more beat
up or the front squats are hard for her. You
know, let's make sure that we don't overdo it
there. So those relationships are super important.
The coach's knowledge. With that said, from year
one to year two, we may switch kids' classes
based on, hey, they're really - really familiar
with, you know, with this person or it didn't
really work with us. You know, I just couldn't
find the right cues, you know, and all four of
us, all four of the teachers are really good
about trying to get better. And I'm very, very
fortunate to be on a staff that's like that,
where we're all, you know, genuinely trying to
get better. So you have both boys and girls in
the school? That's right, together. It works
really well. How? Well, I mean, you know, without
making generalizations, right? Kids learn at
different speeds. I do tend to find that the
girls pick it up a little bit faster. I don't
know if that's stubborn. I'm a, you know, I was
a high school boy, obviously. So some stubbornness
is good. But some of it's just not muscling a
power clean, right? I have to move a little bit
more efficiently if I can't just reverse curl,
you know, the weight. So anyway, we have different
levels of technical proficiency in the same class.
And so they end up, you know, and this is interesting.
interesting point for people who teach large
groups. It's really hard when kids are developing
at different speeds and also at different motivations
and different levels of energy that they're bringing
to school. And so to have students who can coach
each other is, you know, fundamental to making
this work. And, you know, just yesterday, you
know, I had sort of, I'm the school's athletic
director and I had watched a volleyball practice
and that, you know, there's a girl who looks,
you know, quite athletic and works really hard.
And I, you know, like, hey, have you thought
about weightlifting? You know, she showed up
after school or, you know, we're not even in
school yet. after her practice. And, you know,
being able to watch one of my former students
teach her is just like, okay, we're off to the
races now. Like, let's teach weightlifting to
the whole world. That sounds awesome. Let's do
it. It's really fun. All right. So you mentioned
a little bit that having this knowledge and passion
for weightlifting being passed on to students
so they can pass it on to peers and so on, that
worked and that is important. What else worked
and you think is important to spread, to tell
to other coaches? Sure. Yeah. And I mean, obviously
within that, you have to be careful because,
you know, the student I'm describing has one
year of weightlifting experience, right? So we're
not going to trust her to teach, you know, from
zero to 60. But being able to reinforce cues
is certainly super helpful. And I think a lot
of coaches have found that, obviously. What else
works? Well, for one thing, you know, and we
all know this, you know, in the sport of weightlifting,
I truly believe it has, you know, the ability
to impact students in a way that very few other
things do. is if you watch somebody snatch 35,
95 or well above, it feels the same if it's a
max effort. And the kids feel that. I truly believe
that. They feel like this is something where
there is no peer pressure. It's remarkable to
watch, especially in a generation that's on Instagram
and TikTok. And the social pressure is so enormous
to be similar to other people or to do things
a certain way, you know, or not embarrass yourself.
And then you watch them weightlift and all of
a sudden it's all support. and it's all friendly
competition. And so, you know, I really have
this sport of weightlifting, I think, for that.
And there's nothing that I've found that's anywhere
like it. And it also caters to so many different
goals. It's not just I'm trying to lose weight
or gain weight. It's I want to feel better about
myself or I want to, you know, gain some self
-confidence so that I can, you know, apply for
that job or whatever the case may be. If there
was a coach who was looking to do something like
this, I would say, you know, make sure that you've
gone the full 60 minutes and thought through
every single, you know, iteration of what can
go wrong. thing that can go wrong and we've had
some you know we have not had no injuries i think
we had one kid stand up into a bar that was sitting
on a rack still so that was that was a teenage
boy move but no real injuries but but we've had
some you know bumper slide off of bars when there's
no collars on it and things like this and so
uh being well being able to control the room
you know is certainly not going to be new to
a physical education teacher thinking about that
how do you set up the lesson do you go through
the warm -up with them do you have stations how
how you go about it yeah That's pretty interesting.
So we're lucky enough to have TVs in the room.
And so last year we took a couple of our best
lifters and we sort of made an exercise library
and they're wearing school gear and they can
see this is a peer of mine. And so we'll come
up with a warmup scheme and we'll put it up on
the TV. And so it'll be typically, the warmup
would not be unique to somebody familiar with
the sport of weightlifting, but we might see
some basic jump squats or something like this.
And there'd be a student on the TV. on the TV
demonstrating it. We've made them into GIFs.
And so the kids kind of move as we go. So they
walk in, they sit down. We go over what the warmup's
going to be. We go over the workout that's displayed
either on the whiteboard if the technology is
not on our side or on the TV if it's working.
And then we've created sort of A and B programs,
we've called them. And ultimately they'll be
C, D, E, right? But sort of the more advanced
kids who are truly, you know, performing the
Olympic lifts at this point. And then some of
the newer students because, you know, a student
who went through the whole year. with us and
ended up, you know, literally participating in
a competition for Olympic weightlifting is not
going to be super interested in doing an RDL
with a plate. And so, you know, we've built that
into the program this year. So we'll have an
A &B program there. We do sketch it out for the
whole year. So if you ask me what our lift is
going to be on May 9th, I could pull up and I
could say, you know, in the Chargers weight room,
it's going to be this, on the field, it's going
to be that. Of course, that's going to change,
but we have to know sort of where we're going.
And then we also paid for a subscription with
Team Builder. And so the student... can pull
it up when they're at home and see the workouts
we only do it with select workouts so they don't
get you know totally in love with the technology
because team builder turns into instagram really
fast but that that has been a successful way
for us to to deliver those workouts so that's
kind of what it looks like then we'll go you
know we'll do the warm -up and we'll have a set
time for that warm -up so all the students will
move through the movement so there might be three
four or five movements they'll move through uh
for a set period of time so that's 10 12 minutes
usually and just with their group of three or
four and then we'll go into a main lift and so
that you know if we're in the raiders room that
would be an olympic you know some version of
an olympic lift you know the a group would be
doing you know something like a you know hang
power snatch and then the b group might be doing
you know rdl you know snatch grip rdl um and
then uh and then a snatch balance or something
like that and and they will do that and then
we'll go into a strength movement and then and
then some fun ancillary stuff we call it the
scratch list we stole that from you know my buddy
will fleming scratch list don't think too hard
about it you know bicep curls and tricep push
downs and things like that where the kids can
just you know do the thing that suits them so
they have a choice i understand yeah we try to
build a few minutes into the back end where they
can they can do the thing that they want to do
so you know we have students who go straight
to bodybuilding and then we you know we had three
or four girls last year and it just happened
to be girls who would revert right back to the
onto the list uh which makes no sense after you've
done a heavy back squat or something like this
but that was that was what you're using to stop
them no we said come after school and we'll give
you some real you know better instruction and
that's a whole nother story that's where great
castle was born i have a 15 year old girl to
thank to thank for that and and i truly do owe
her a lot she made me a better coach and all
that but yeah that's what that's what a class
period looks like they'll come back they'll change
going about their life two days later we'll see
them again in a new space with a slightly different
emphasis you know on whether you know a little
bit more metabolic conditioning or something
like that it's obvious that you emphasize technique
and that's the goal to get the kids through their
movement patterns and develop them and because
they are in this amazing age where where they
are improving no matter what, almost no matter
what you prescribe, they get better. Now, what
is really obvious to me also is that the culture
component is emphasized as well. Could you talk
a little bit more about this side? Yeah, so you're
good. This question is going to get me in trouble
here, but I'm going to answer it honestly anyway.
So we have like not shied away from really challenging
yourself in the weight room. And so now that's
not going to get me in trouble with people listening
to your podcast. But that's like almost, you
know, sacrilegious in American physical education.
It's supposed to be just, you know, introduce
kids to a movement and that's it. So we play
punk rock and heavy metal. We play old school
hip hop. We have skull and crossbones everywhere
in the weight room. We turn our personalities
over to these sort of caricatures of college
strength coaches, you know, doing the cartwheels
to get the kids fired up and things like this.
We probably wouldn't do that for the Olympic
lifting portion. of what the students, we want
them to feel when they go into the weight room.
We want them to feel like real energy. And we
want them to feel like this is a place that's
alive. This is a place where I can be myself.
I can take a risk. We celebrate, you know, kids
who miss reps. And, you know, we have to be careful
with that, obviously. But, you know, if you get
pinned on a bench press, it's not the end of
the world. And so, you know, we don't want to
miss a snatch until we know how to miss a snatch.
But the bench is pretty safe and front squat's
pretty safe. You can, you know, let go there.
And, you know, when they see the teacher, you
know, jumping out of their chair, screaming and
yelling, you know, because a kid put, you know,
took a real attempt at a three rep max. I think
that's the culture piece that we're aiming for.
The other thing is, you know, we have really
tried to take ownership of what the students
look like in the class in terms of how are they
responding to what we're doing and not try to
say, well, this student's an athlete or this
student has future or talent. To me, that's immaterial
to what we're doing. After school with the Great
Castle Club, I'm much more focused on, okay,
like, you know, maybe this competition here is
too soon or you're ready or things like that.
But, you know, the culture piece is huge to what
we're doing in PE. And we really ramp it up.
So our first couple workouts are things like,
like we'll go like every minute on the minute
with like a dumbbell goblet squat. Something
that's like kind of hard to mess up and just
something that's like really challenging. So
that when we back off and we're doing... you
know, some technical work on a hang snatch with
a PVC pipe, which we do. The students know like,
hey, like the heavy metal's coming, the punk
rock is coming, you know, and then we can go
have fun. It's fun to challenge yourself. We
keep it safe and we have fun. And some of the
stuff where you can go crazy, you know, running
stairs or something like that, we can, you know,
we let it rip. And then when the kids have to
slow down, they're ready to do that. What else
you think? was important for you to be successful?
You mentioned a little bit the principal of the
school you're in said, yeah, let's do it. So
that was one thing. How much money it costed,
I want to know on the logistical level. Of course,
you have four teachers, so they, salaries and
so on, but like what else? What else was needed
to build it up? On that note, you know, one of
the things that we did was made sure that we
have equipment for everybody. So, you know, we
have, you know, youth bars and we have kettlebells
that go down to eight pounds. And so. That was
some of the logistical side that was required.
Now, in terms of the bigger picture, we've begged,
borrowed, stole weights to make the field house.
We call it the field house. It's our shed on
the field. It's that sort of old school, you
know, Arnold Schwarzenegger would walk in there
and say, like, this is, you know, where we're
supposed to live type of thing. And I think almost
anybody can do that. You know, I think parents
are really supportive, especially when they realize,
you know, the implications with, you know, ACL
turt. tears in soccer as one example that hits
us really hard because we're a big soccer school,
along with so much research is coming out about
clarity of thinking and things like that. And
so all these conversations are intertwined about
why we do it and how we do it. And so if you
want to ask, we've not had a ton of success with
local gyms. Nobody's looking to give away equipment,
which I totally understand. But in terms of parents
who have things collecting dust and things like
that. And again, I go back to that. devil workout
and say like, if you have a stack of plates,
like I, like I can program for that for like
several weeks with nothing but that. And it's,
and it's really fun. And so, so that's where
I would start. And then in terms of the charges
donation was about $70 ,000. So thanks to them,
but that was 11 squat racks. It was 11 benches.
You know, we have a, what four 45s, four 35s,
four 25s, four 10s, four fives on each, on each
rack. And then our rogue purchase was North of
$10 ,000. And that came largely. you know, out
of the school funding. That was the principal
saying we want to support physical education
and it matters to us. You know, there was a little
bit of a explanation of why we need different
weights. And so, you know, there's an education
piece there and a communication piece as well.
And, you know, thanks to her for listening and
being willing to understand something that's
new to her. I would love to get her in there
someday to try it herself. But, you know, that's
for the future. And then the rest of the time,
you know, we do have athletics funding and we
do have some fundraising. So we've used that.
in terms of the actual investment, I guess if
you add 70 plus 10, it's 80, right? But the rest
of the time, like there's a school north of us,
you know, that donated stuff that they didn't
need anymore because they got, you know, some
money thrown in and we've done a good job networking.
And, you know, I do want to shout out and I don't
know if I'm supposed to name school names or
not, but I will, you know, Valhalla High School
east of us, you know, was gracious enough to
show us around their facility and give us a ton
of ideas about how they lifted outdoors and sort
of led to our field house idea. And then Poway
High School north of us. us were teaching Olympic
lifting at such a level above what we were doing
and to a weightlifting class. So a little bit
different than what we're doing, right? They're
selecting only athletes, but nevertheless, like
super gracious and showing us, you know, some
of their routines and then Mission Vista is doing
something much closer to what we're doing. And
again, just good people who want to help, who
are willing to pick up the phone and say, hey,
like we are dying with like classroom management
when we're trying to teach a snatch balance.
Like that's, it's like a lot. How do you guys
do it? Oh, we have, you know, they have. had
worksheets, you know, answer these questions,
kind of make the kids think about it, things
like that. So that networking piece, maybe I'm
lucky in San Diego, but I doubt it. Again, I,
you know, I can walk into a gym almost anywhere
in the world and weightlifters are weightlifters.
So, so that's kind of how I would tackle, tackle
that side of thing. And then the last thing is
like, don't be limited by, you know, the facility.
My favorite weight room is, is a classroom. And
then, you know, we're out there lifting on a
track and we have, you know, rubber horse stall
mats down there to protect the track and things
like that. Okay. I would like you. to now think
about some success stories. You mentioned you
have a girl who went to national competition
in weightlifting. Maybe some other athlete from
other sport and someone who was in the camp that
I don't care about physical activity at all.
And they are now caring more. So I'm not going
to say her name because she's under 18 and I
don't want to put too much pressure on her. And
if she goes on and does something else with her
life, I'll be ecstatic. But, you know, she was...
14 years old, 15 years old. And she showed some
aptitude. She was picking up the lifts really
quick. And I kind of made an offhand comment
like, hey, we have a club after school. You should
swing by. It's a very intimidating environment
after school because originally I was opening
the doors just sort of for like the football
players to bench press. And I was working out.
It was kind of time for me to work out too. It
wasn't anything formal, you know, but at this
point I had sort of taken a more serious interest
in weightlifting and she showed up by herself,
which is. just like you don't see that very often.
And then so we taught her the lifts and she's,
you know, a really good athlete and not very
strong yet, but technically very proficient and
quickly sending videos to my friends who are
coaches because her speed of development was
exceeding mine. And, you know, I went and did
USA, you know, level one at SoCal and then level
two, you know, I flew to Texas to do that because
I just felt like I owe it to this child who's
so remarkable in her dedication. you know, and
drive. And she made a comment like, you know,
I at some point I said, what do your parents
think about this? Because now we're starting
to approach, you know, heavy back squats and
things like this and like like genuinely heavy
for her. And she's like, I think it's so cool.
And they just wish there was a way for me to
see if I'm as strong as other kids. Like, in
fact, there is a way. And so, you know, we got
her into some competitions and like where we
started, like somebody came over and asked me,
like, who do you have counting for you? And I'm
like, counting what? Right. Like no idea. how
to warm up or anything like this, you know? And
so we're just going to warm up and when they
say our name, we're going to go lift and see
how much we can do to the point where we're at
nationals and still sort of a comedy of errors
there, but we did the best we could. And so,
you know, for her, we think, you know, the ripple
effects have been hard to even quantify. Another
student really got obsessed with the Olympic
lifts, very tall athlete, long limbs, quickly
realized it's probably not a competitive sport.
for him he was in a weight class way above where
he probably should have been strength wise and
just became um i'm going to be a coach and so
he graduated last year and he we're looking to
like get him certified and and he's talking about
maybe you know pursuing that at like a very serious
level when i was out of town he was he was coaching
our our young female lifter with supervision
of another coach who knew much less about weightlifting
than, than he did. And so, you know, that was
another one in terms of the, you know, the students
who were, who were disinterested. I think we've,
we, you know, we've had, that's, that's most,
I think. And I think, you know, some of the ones
where we had a student write in a thank you note,
it's cool to be strong. And like, that was like.
all we could ask for, you know, she, you know,
is no longer in PE, but, but entered the class
saying like, I'm just going to like do the minimum
and I'll kind of do what you ask, but that's
about it. And so cool to be strong requires like,
like we're like, we should put that on a t -shirt
or something like, because in that phrase means
it's so deep in terms of what it requires to
be strong and in terms of consistency and dedication
and overcoming obstacles and lifting when you
don't feel like it and all kinds of things. And
so. Yeah, those are sort of the three that you
asked for. What went wrong? What coaches should
avoid, do you think? Okay, so this will not be
news, I think, to people involved in the sport
of weightlifting that there's this misconception
that it's dangerous. And so there's a communication
piece that has to happen. And I think where we
hope to be successful this year is explaining
this is a comprehensive physical education curriculum.
We are meeting California state standards here.
We are emphasizing strength and conditioning,
but they are getting a holistic picture here.
Once you do that... Right. You must, if you're
a responsible coach, account for the injury risk
of team and individual sports. The research is
unequivocal that strength and conditioning can
address some of those issues. And so that has
really simplified our communication. The other
thing is just the popularization of strength
accounts. you know, on Instagram and YouTube.
People, you know, we can, you know, San Diego
Wave is our local, you know, women's soccer team.
Being able to point to the Wave and they are
posting videos of doing things very similar to
what we're asking the students to do in class
has been phenomenally helpful. In terms of other
roadblocks, you know, I think the funding is
one. So I think I would, you know, you have to
build slowly. You know, you're probably not going
to, we're so fortunate to have those four spaces.
And they just came one at a time. Didn't come
all four at the same time. And so, you know,
so that. That was a challenge. But really, I
think the lack of familiarity with the sport.
But we tell people that we're lifting on perfectly
flat floors with perfectly round bars and perfectly
balanced bumpers. We control the variables, in
some case, controlled temperature. And so we.
We tell the kids, if all else fails, stand up
and back away from the barbell. It's not going
to come after you. In soccer, basketball, volleyball,
very different. I can't control if somebody falls
onto your knee or ankle. Clearly, there's research
showing that weightlifting is safer than some
of these other sports. Then when you add in the
component that it can actually support our performance
in those sports and our injury prevention, that's
sort of where we're at now. I don't know that
you'll ever get away from the idea that weightlifting
stunts grow. or, you know, you'll have some sort
of back issue forever if you perform even a single
back squat. But sometimes you just have to be
bold enough to say, like, I feel that this is
in the best interest of our population and I'd
be happy to talk to you later. We've had some
hard conversations with, you know, parents and
other coaches and, you know, we've been fortunate
to make our way through most of them. I think
we have to highlight the profound change. you
are making so last few decades the physical activity
on the level of society would be you like football
so you will and you are footballers so you will
do a little bit of strength conditioning to support
you playing football whether you will do it as
an adult there are some issues because you have
to have a team actually and opponent team play
it as your physical activity later in life now
the profound change you are making is you are
introducing these kids to something that is very
individual almost self -sufficient you can set
it up in your garage later in life and because
you go through the program for two years you
actually have some understanding how the programming
works that they are heavy and they are back of
days that, you know, there's time to go crazy
and there's time to just focus on technical work
and develop these skills. And they learn this
process of periodization, the progression through
the technique and weight and so on. And after
two years, they... may not be self -sufficient
in a sense that they can program for themselves
and so on. But if they would have to, they have
a starting point for life. So strength and conditioning
becomes a base for them to build their health
and their physical activity habits later in life
on the basis what you provide in this school
for these two years. Yeah, well, I appreciate
you saying that. I will maybe copy that and send
it to the doubting administrators that we may
encounter in the future. Luckily, we don't have
any yet. But no, that's certainly our goal. And
we're going to end our year this year is going
to end with some programming. So the students
are writing their program. The other thing that's
just so magical about the sport is that it exists
in its own right. It certainly didn't for me
until very recently. It was just something we
did in the weight room. And I just loved it.
It was so fun. But it supplemented track and
field. And then later, I mentioned I did some
military deployments. And it was just a fantastic
outlet. when I was by myself, which kind of led
it to being like, okay, maybe this is a thing
that exists on its own. But that is our goal.
My goal for the students is for them to be able
to use it as a tool in the way that they choose
and to make decisions that are best for them
with as many data points and options available
as possible. So we'll see how we do. I think
it speaks also to the goals will change throughout
life. But you showed already that it works for
different goals and the students will see it.
Even if you never mention it through two years
of this program, they will see friends having
other goals and they all went through it and
adjusted and got what they needed at the moment.
And they will have this vision that it can be
used for that, that and the other. Yeah, again,
I appreciate saying that it has the goal and
I have a firm belief that it is impossible. to
walk into a gym and see platforms in the back
and not be drawn to them once you know that,
you know, what you're capable of. So, you know,
I joke with the kids like it's in you now and
it's never going to leave. And, you know, the
leg press and leg extension will become significantly
less interesting to you once you know what those
platforms in the back are capable or what secrets
they hold. So, yeah, again, it's not for everybody,
but certainly exercise is, it has to be. And
so this is our way to introduce it. What is the
fuel? for your program? My goal now for the program
is to be more specific with the individual students'
needs. We have now an entire class at our school
because the ninth graders become 10th graders,
obviously. And those students all have some familiarity,
every single one of them, with the Olympic lifts.
And so being able to program for the basketball
athlete who is in season. vice the American football
athlete who would have just completed his season.
That's a lot of work. And then in terms of the
Greycastle side after school, I need to continue
to become a better coach. I'm obsessed. I'm intoxicated
by high performance and high performing people.
I don't think I'm one. That's the future is better
programming, more specific to the individual,
and then a club that'll serve our competitive
side. I'm excited. I wish you well. I hope all
future... brings all you wish for. Thank you
so much. I really appreciate it. My key takeaway
is that I'm, I've made a lot of mistakes as a
teacher and I would, this is probably the most
important project that I've, that I've worked
on and maybe will work on. And, and I'm, I do
not want to silo any information. So if, if we
can help any, you know, obviously I understand
American PE the best. So we'll start, we'll start
there, but any physical education teachers who
want to teach weightlifting within the confines
of, you know, a standards -based comprehensive
curriculum, boy, I would love to share anything
we've learned. the hard way because I walked
out of, you know, weight rooms saying like, what
did we just do there? That was a mess. And the
kids didn't know what to do. And all my cues
were wrong. And I think we maybe got worse today.
So helping people avoid some of those pitfalls
that, you know, sometimes we feel like we drove
our truck right into them, you know, is sort
of the passion project. So I would love if anyone
has questions, I'd be happy to answer. And then,
you know, also pick people's brains in terms
of how do we get better competitively. So, you
know, some of them. our young athletes are getting
to the point where we need to step our game up
in terms of our technical proficiency. So I'm
just really looking forward to continuing that
process. Awesome. I think, Paul, you are the
right person in the right place in the right
time. So I'm rooting for you. Two short questions
to finish. The first one is, what is your favorite
lift? Yeah, so I listened to a few of your podcasts
and everybody says snatch, which I think is the
right answer. But I'm going to say clean grip
muscle snatch. Me and my little brother, who
is another big influence on me, are always in
this argument about what's the... the best single
lift. And is it a snatch grip muscle snatch or
a clean grip muscle snatch? And I'm a big proponent
of the clean grip. It quickly turns into an ugly
clean versus an ugly press, but it's so fun.
It's easy to teach. It combines some speed and
some power and some pure strength. It's a good
one that, you know, we can compete at. And I,
you know, I have goals in that lift, which is
just so funny to, to closest I've ever come to
passing out is a clean grip muscle snatch. So.
All right. And if people want to ask you questions,
where, Where should they find you online? Yeah,
so my public Instagram is Coach Coover, C -O
-O -V -E -R. I don't do a great job of posting
on there, but I do check all the messages that
come through. If you follow me, you'll end up
with some sports dates on when we're playing
a volleyball game or something like that. And
then I use the page to stay accountable to Will
and my brother and some of my lifting buddies.
I know I'm bad at Olympic lifting, so don't remind
me at that. Be nice to strangers on the internet.
But I do post, you know, that kind of stuff just
to hold myself accountable and show the kids
that, yeah, I don't lift when they're lifting
because I'm coaching. You know, that we're all
in this together. But yeah, Instagram, Coach
Coover. And then my email is just myfirst .last
at gmail .com. So paul .coover at gmail .com.
Awesome, Paul. Thank you so much for today. Thank
you so much.