I think what I like about the system here is
that they have a system, but they're more loose
with the rules. I think that it's really good
for us to have a system, but we need to learn
to adapt to specifics, to the specific situations.
And they're not so serious about it here. I think
a lot of people think the Chinese system is super
serious and really intense, but people are pretty
chill. Hi, Steph. It's my pleasure to have you
on Evidence Strong Show. If you could briefly
introduce yourself. Of course. My name is Stephane
Gregory. I'm a chiropractor out of Canada, but
I work with Guangxi province in China and worked
with the Chinese Weightlifting Association and
many other Olympic teams. But my specialty now
is weightlifting and pain -free weightlifting.
Awesome. So are you based in the National Center?
What is the setup? Right now, because of the
timing and competition, we're basically in...
And everyone's at their provinces. There are
some national teams, but national teams are basically
built here when big international competitions
are coming up. So there is really no weightlifting
national team. So I'm at the Guangxi province.
That's my home base. I'm the director of performance
of all the sports here. And I run a team. And
when we go to this upcoming national games, we're
all competing against within provinces. Each
province is fighting against each other kind
of thing. Once that's over, then people go back.
I can go to those national training centers.
However, each province training centers basically
looks like a national team training center. They're
pretty much the same. I would argue that in many
teams, they prefer their province's facilities
more than the national facilities because national
facilities is more kind of, I guess, strict,
whereas the provincials, they're more comfortable.
They're used to the environment and stuff. So
it's very different in the sense that every area
has really solid training facilities. Awesome.
So today we're talking Chinese weightlifting.
system so let's start from the beginning how
the kids go through the system how do they start
weightlifting specifically yeah well so one thing
you would learn in the chinese system is that
there is a system but it is not a system it's
very adaptable to each area what i did before
the call is i just asked a lot of the athletes
so i bear in mind i'm working in one province
and the stories were all quite different between
all the athletes wow so how they get selected
could depend on them and where they are, what
their home city is. But typically before the
age of 11, they had some sort of a visiting person
came by, did a bunch of testing on the athletes
in terms of like, they got to the jump, run,
play, do different activities. And basically
if they looked athletic or they performed well
in some of these events, they were then said,
you can join a sports school. Not a specific
sport, just come to a sports school, develop
as an athlete. And then when they come to the
sports school, they sort of have, some of them
had options. They're like, what would you like
to do? And others were kind of told like, you
should go weightlifting or you should go martial
arts. So like some of our athletes were told,
you can go weightlifting or martial arts or judo.
And then so they had to choose between them.
And then once they get into that sports school,
they train, they go to school, they do training,
they live there. So they're not usually living
with their parents. They're staying in a dormitory.
The whole campus is like a university basically
at these sports schools. And they will stay there
until they're good enough to. leave that level.
So they will train, they'll compete, they'll
do little city level, provincial level competitions.
And or coaches might even come and just be scouting.
So if I take, for example, Zhao Jinghong, who
is a world record holder right now. And when
she was picked, she said that when she was around
11, I forget the specific age, but she got into
the sports school. She doesn't know why she was
picked. I asked her, do you know, like, are you
really fast? Is it your height or anything? She's
like, I have no idea. And so she was at the school.
school for about a year. And then her current
coach had gone down and was recruiting and liked
what he saw with her. She also doesn't know what
he liked necessarily. But then he said, come
join our weightlifting team in Nanning. And Nanning
is the city I'm in. It's the provincial level.
And so then she came over and started training
here at the Bay's at that point. Other athletes
are more selected to a competition. So if they
won a competition, you got more recognition and
like, you're good. Come on over. Some might be
connections, whatever. heard was sometimes it's
like oh like this person knows that coach or
that coach is looking for someone from a certain
area maybe they like people from this city versus
that city so it was it was very varied stories
of how they actually get into the sport so that
was kind of interesting it wasn't a simple you
do this test you do good on that it was very
varied and i think that's actually a good thing
of their system they're very adaptable i don't
know if they do it on purpose but they're very
adaptable and they mold to the current situation
which allows them to not being strained to metrics
that they might not, probably wouldn't have been
able to track back then. Now with AI and all
the central databases that people do, they might
be able to track it. But before then, it was
just gut instinct. You are describing more a
system where the child is taken into boarding
school, the sports school system. How is it viewed
by the families, all athletes for this matter,
the separation of family life from sports or
development? the sport i think well clearly every
person will have a different experience with
it i think a lot of the athletes generally were
speaking along the lines of they just this is
what it is they just kind of this is how it is
the coaches were are basically their parents
in the system here so that like when i say like
are your parents coming to competitions most
of them will be like i don't think they've ever
seen you compete so it's not like we're proud
of you son like let's go cheer you on every time
you do competitions more i have a business transaction
yeah The parents will get paid. So if an athlete
goes to a sports school, the parents get paid.
Athlete gets paid after a certain age. The specific
age, I might not be clear on. I imagine it's
around 16, but basically there's a monthly stipend
to the parents. And a lot of the athletes in
my province, because we're a southern province,
it's a lot poorer. A lot of the families are
rural, living in the countryside, not a lot of
facilities. So this is actually a way for the
family to survive. So kids will be like, I'm
doing this to help the family. I'm going to go
to sport, provide, make sure you guys are okay.
It's got more of that transactional feel. There's
no like, it's not like you cannot see your parents.
They communicate with their parents. They talk
all the time. Parents will come here. If an athlete's
hurt, like I've had a few times where an athlete
was hurt bad enough that the parents came down
and stayed with them to make sure everything
was okay. So it's still a loving relationship,
just very different than what I've ever seen
in Western world. Each culture needs to do what
they need to do, I guess. But like, if I were
to then throw another, I've had some athletes
come from normal schools where they didn't go
to a sports school. They went to regular elementary
school, going into high school, and they performed
well in those varsity programs that you'd have
in a normal school. They performed well enough
that some coaches were like, hey, actually, can
you come join our team? So it would be completely
fluid based on if they felt they had the potential
and the coach recognized that they wanted them.
I would say our very good weightlifters all were
identified fairly early on. I'd say all of them
were by the age between 10 and 13 were in a sports
school. And I would say before 15, they were
already at like the provincial level or at least
similar or at least a little bit higher with
a higher level coach. It's very fluid, which
is, that's what I was saying. It's like, it's
a system, but it's not systematic in any way.
Okay. So they get to provincial level. Now you
have national games, huge event. It's, would
you say comparable to Olympics in status? A high.
Well, here, this is the Chinese Olympics. That's
what I call it. But I believe in size. It is
much bigger than the Olympics. Because if you
imagine for, like, say Worlds, that just happened.
We sent our junior athletes from our province.
Like, the females were from our, like, hey, you
guys haven't had a chance to go international.
All our A -team are peaking for national games.
So why don't you guys go to Worlds? Like, Worlds
was kind of, like, it's kind of an annoyance.
So the national games is the absolute priority.
It's every four years, just like the Olympics.
So, yeah. It's just monstrous because it's for
weightlifting, for example, at the international
stage, I say most people know maybe 10 athletes
from China. There's got to be 200 per province
that are close to that level. So you're looking
at like over a thousand athletes, people I've
never heard of that are better than most athletes.
So it's a really steep, deep talent pool that
this national games can pull out. Not all thousand
would be competing, but it basically it's yeah,
it's pretty crazy to think like all of these
people. from one country and just i'm coming
from canada where our system it just doesn't
have the depth that the system has so very interesting
preparation for national games so that's the
the main goal of a professional athlete in weightlifting
they want to do well at this particular event
and now how do they go from getting to province
training center to the stage at the national
games so walk me through how they would well
so the national games the like the national games
would say If I want to think about it, it's like
province versus province. And it's simply who's
the best in your category or your province are
going to go to national games. So they had qualifying
for the last, I would say almost two years. They
started talking about qualifying two years ago.
The qualifications involved some international
competitions. Like they want to see, can you
compete? Are you someone who doesn't choke? Are
you able to perform? Then they had a lot of qualifying.
competitions within china so making sure like
you are outperforming other provinces so a lot
of What China does really well is they're very
smart on athlete selection for competition. They
are not, someone's like, you're good in this
category, so you should go. It's more like, okay,
you're good at this category. If you have six
spots to send someone, they're going to be like,
well, which category should we send someone in?
Which one are we most likely going to win the
gold medal in? Which one? So they're, they're
like spying on each other, provinces and dealing
with, okay, what, how are they doing right now?
Okay. What are they able to lift? What can our
guy look? Okay. Let's compare. Let's see what,
what chances. have to maximize and then that's
that's the kind of the selection process which
i'm not part of i'm just making sure that they
don't hurt and that if they're injured they're
getting back to training but i've seen parts
of it and it's fascinating how much they consider
i've seen a mind like a common mantra but like
a like a chart of all the things that can you
know hundreds of things so it was it's pretty
it's pretty intense how they select but it's
qualifying just like anything else so it basically
comparing it to the olympics is appropriate because
like the olympics You have to qualify to the
Olympics. You need to meet a certain standard.
You need to succeed against other people sufficiently
enough to qualify to go to this major competition.
So they do the same thing, but within China and
they do consider the international competitions
as well. So for the province, is that each province
has one competitor per weight class or? No, they'll
have many. I think that's where you have to qualify.
So if we take, for example, the 49, it's confusing
with the new categories. So they're still doing.
45, 49. And the reason it's confusing, like now,
like the new categories, but then also like,
so like Audrey Equay, who won in the women's,
the 49 that took Paris. So if you win a medal
at the Olympics, you get automatically qualified
for the national games. But her province probably
also has a few other people in her category.
And if they meet, if they qualify through competition,
they would also still go. So it's, I don't, they
don't cap it if it's like one per one category.
it's going to be who met the qualifying standards
at that level. You guys are all clear to go.
So that's why it means like it's a really big
one. And then I think there is a number cap.
I didn't actually learn about it. No one ever
talked about a number cap because we're sending
a lot. All of our, say, our female team for weightlifting,
we're sending 12 girls to the national games.
And it was never about what category. It was
just, did they qualify to go? So I think it was
more, did you do well enough? Then you can go.
But imagine, they can't just send. everyone like
if everyone's really good that would just be
like what 18 different rounds of weightlifting
for one category would be too long so that is
actually sure exactly that it puts the full qualification
standards this is mind -blowing i'm gonna to
give you an idea of how big this is is the national
games are going to be held in guangdong province
And like one sport will take an entire city.
So like weightlifting is in one city. Track and
field is in another city. Mountain is another
city. So they're spreading it out, which is more
like just population control, but also to include
everyone. I'm sure there's background politics
behind it. But if you want to go to the busiest
place possible, go to Hong Kong and it's going
to be absolutely wild. They're flying people
just to do like performances for entertainment.
Let's move to that. selection for the olympics
yeah so for the olympic teams the national they
call them their national teams weightlifting
for example was mostly held in beijing but also
did some other provinces they they'd like to
move around they don't like to just always stay
in one place but the at the province level who's
you're really good who's doing really well who's
performing internationally very well and then
it'll kind of go through stages actually everything
here is i didn't talk about stages part but everything
is kind of like let's send a bunch of people
see who's performing better let's take away people
so at the national teams that say two years before
harris there would have been four squads kind
of like a squad b squad c like tiers shouldn't
say squad because each coach has a squad but
it's like kind of like a level b level c level
d level so the provincial levels that did really
really good or like best provincial levels they
might go to d level c can they hack it and they
compete against the others if they're not doing
well enough or they don't want to be there they
go back but then as you get closer to the olympics
like okay so you have your a b c d a d and c
will stay there as kind of backups before you
have specifically this person going to the Olympics.
And then once you start selecting people or which
categories you're going to be going for, then
those people start disappearing. And then they
go back to the provinces. And then as you get
closer, whoever's performed the best and who's
going to be the most likely to win at the Olympics
stays on. So it was like 30 athletes on the national
team. Then it went down to 20. And then it went
down to the squad that ended up going to Paris.
Within that squad, they'll probably keep one
or two other athletes, kind of just to have training
partners. So otherwise, like, it got quiet. Like,
the hall is big. It's not a small hall, I suppose.
It's like a big hall, and there's 30 athletes
lifting. It's really loud, and it's fun. And
as the guy goes, it's, like, kind of quiet. Like,
I don't know. Some of us were not really liking
it. Like, me, Diane, he's a very playful guy.
And you could tell, like, he was just, like,
I don't like quiet sometimes. Or from my, from
me watching it, it's, like, I could, it felt
like, you know, it's, like, a little quiet. here.
But yeah, so then you end up with that final
squad and then who goes is going to be based
off of that politics of who's more likely to
win. So if I give a good example, it would be
from our province of Jianghui. In 12 years at
world level, like top level, her and Mo Zhijie
have basically gone up and over each other. They
both won world records over each other. They've
kept fighting. They've always been the same level.
But then it'll always come to, the leaders will
be like, this competition matters. And then who
did better in that one goes. So even though for
Paris, I'm biased, I would have liked Jean -Claude
to go. But she won like two or three international
competitions before, I think it was Asia Champs.
But then Ho won at the Asia Champs. I might be
getting the name of the competition, but she
won the one that the leaders cared about. So
then she went. And then they might've looked
at the training history. Maybe Ho has a, like,
she's a. feet years competitor like honestly
she's incredible so they might just be like we
trust her and then they pick her so even if the
athletes are like like they were literally lifting
the same in general like well at times higher
but if they go like you know what i trust this
athlete so i'm gonna send them or like who knows
what politics goes on behind as well but it's
uh yeah it's a very fierce battle but they're
very friendly like they they're not like it's
like they because it's their job they're like
i'm here to work i'm here to get lift heavier
and heavier If I go, I go. Some of them care
a lot. Others, no. Like when I ask, because as
a foreigner, like a Canadian, like Olympics to
me is the big one. And I'll talk to them. It's
like, oh, like right now, I'm always like, we're
getting ready for LA, right? Like we're getting
ready for, and they're like, I don't care. I
was like, what? How do you not care? They're
like, it's too far away. I was like, I'm just
doing this. I was like, okay. So it got sidetracked
there. But basically, this selection is forming
within each other. And they start with a bigger
number. And they bring it down to the top ones.
And then depending because of the restrictions
at the Olympics, it was six spots. So then it
was very competitive. If they didn't have that
restriction, they would have had a lot more people
to go, which would have been good for me. You
mentioned that coaches have squads. Could you
expand a little bit on that? And also, is the
coach assigned to the level? So if I'm national
coach, I always coach A -level athletes. How
does that part work? Oh, that's a good question.
Yeah, because it is. Each country kind of does
their coaching different. The coaches here at
the provincial level are mostly athletes, ex
-athletes. Typically, to become a coach, it's
not like you pass a coaching and you become a
coach. You're usually an athlete who does well,
and then you pass the coaching certificate to
say you're good enough to coach. And it does
actually relate kind of to you. So at the National
Games, this is one of the reasons why I keep
bringing it back. but if the athlete wins at
national games they're guaranteed a coaching
job like if they want to be a coaching job at
a major city depending on availability but they
get it so our head coach coach towel right now
he is the national game champion he's the head
of the men's team he's also very good as a coach
which allows him to stay here for very long he's
been here for a while So him as a coach, he is
actually a national team team because his athletes
have done well enough to make it to the national
team. So if the athletes have won the competitions
or are selected to national team, they keep their
coach. So that coach can go up with them to the
national team or national team coach can take
them because some coaches don't want to go to
national team. Our city is a lush, beautiful,
tropical paradise. It's hot, but it's beautiful.
They have families. They have lives here. You
don't necessarily want to go to Beijing where
it's cold, the snows and the pollution is a little
bit stronger. So they might say, I don't want
to go to Beijing. So coach you or coach someone.
Can you take my athlete? Can you coach them on
from here? And then they'll go up there. In the
province and the national team, a coach will
have more than one athlete normally. And I would
say typically between around four athletes. I
think I've seen up to six, but they'll have their
squad and they'll be a mix. So they'll usually
have... one or two like a level but they're also
developing the younger athletes so like i said
once they went to the provincial level like those
younger athletes are there too so they're training
with the top tier at the same time which is awesome
because you see this amazing lifter and you're
right there and you're not there yet you're like
oh i'm good and you're learning from them so
it's it's usually four people i would say and
usually one or two top and then some lower and
sometimes they'll have Extra athletes come in
when they're doing selections. They'll bring
in like a few extra, whether it be like summer
break. So as they are from a normal school and
they're trying it out and they think they'll
be good, they might come for a summer training
block. That happened this year. There's, I think,
eight extra female athletes and another 10 extra
male athletes that came here. They're training
for a few months and then they're gone. Unless
that they're good enough that already they stuck
around. I think maybe one or two athletes stuck
around after that. But the coaching in that squad
allows for really good teamwork. They kind of
act like a family. all kind of stay close in
the dormitory they train together all the time
sometimes they just walk everywhere together
but that's just more that they're friends you're
not and a national team same thing they'll have
but a national team will be a little different
the coach will have top tier to lower tier until
they start pairing people away and then the coach
will have like just the top tier like those who
are going to the olympics or going to worlds
or whatnot so their team will shrink but that's
where i was talking about before they might keep
some of the other athletes just so they have
training partners so like stay here come hang
out come bless with us make sure everyone's happy
kind of thing so unless if you coach you who
was Tantav's coach he just every single person
he has is unbelievably amazing so his team was
just stacked all the time he had no B's he did
have like a B level athlete but he was still
world level amazing so it's kind of like a strange
it's like okay just superstars all over but then
everyone is equal so i guess on the day -to -day
basis that might actually work pretty well because
they are peers so probably you can feel don't
feel what we view from outside no i would say
like the only real competitions is if there is
anything is between province but it's more so
in the organization aspect of things in the sense
that there's a money aspect behind everything.
So if you win at national games, what's cool
here is, so say I'm a coach. Well, I don't get
any bonuses, but a coach who has an athlete win
at national games, the athlete will get a cash
bonus plus credibility to get higher level jobs
after they retire. The coach will get a bonus.
The province will get a bonus. Any coach that
ever worked with the athlete will get a bonus.
So even like that city level, all the levels
below. they all get bonuses because they want
to show like even at the city level just because
you're at the lower level doesn't mean that you're
not helping the system so they will also get
bonuses as well but there's this everyone gets
everyone wins when the athlete wins the specific
number of the bonuses i don't know the details
how did you end up in the job you have how did
you get there oh uh luck Luck mostly. I think
it all started with my friend, Dr. Brenna McPhail.
She saw a post on Facebook about someone hiring
for a national team in China. And there was just
this big influx where they wanted to hire law
foreign experts to help them with rehab, help
them with performance training, help them with
technical coaching, kind of a model of let's
hire the best. Let's copy what they do so that
we can do it better and then not need them anymore.
And I applied and I applied for track and field
initially. But then through like, oh, we actually
have this province job. It sounded more interesting
to me because there was less one team or managing
a whole program. And then I applied. But the
experience I had before, I've worked, I volunteered
for like 10 years. with rugby, American football,
soccer, with basketball. I was strength and conditioning
coach for a while. I did first responder work.
So I was within sport and had a lot of experience
with different sports. I worked with a team to
make a pickle at Penn Relays. So I had experience
with the sports, which was good for the application.
So if you're ever looking to get a job working
high performance in China, they really want to
make sure that you have a legitimate degree because
there's a lot. of fake degrees out there. Make
sure you have the paper copy of your degree.
At no point when I was going through school,
I was like, I really need this physical paper.
And I came here and was like, if you don't show
me your physical paper, I don't believe you.
Mom, dad, help me. So you need a physical degree,
real, and then you need experience. A lot of
the jobs here are like, oh, we want you to have
five years of experience with Olympic athletes.
But we're like, yeah, outside of China, that's
not that easy. But the more experience you have
with teams, the more experience you have working
in sport, even if it's not paid, it's just...
Like as long as you're working, like you're doing
stuff with sports, that's what they cared a lot
about. And that's what I always did. That was
my back. Like that was my weekends and stuff.
I always went to competitions and stuff. So that
helps me quite a bit. And then the reason I got
chose here was because of the list of certifications
and things that I had. The leader who ran this
place recognized one of the certifications I
had. I forget which one she even cared about.
But it was just because her English wasn't that
great. But she's like, I know that one. And then
she's like, if I know it. probably good so like
that was just a pure luck like i happen to like
know the system that she likes and then she asked
for me out of the list of candidates so it was
like luck comes in part but that came from having
a lot of different experiences so yeah that's
why i like to say it's like it's kind of more
luck like i didn't envision I want to go to China.
It was just, I took advantage of the opportunity
when it showed up. How long have you been there
for? This is my seventh year. It's been a while.
Wow. That's very impressive. All right. So you're
a seasoned specialist and let's... Talk a little
bit about the training, how the weightlifter
training looks like day to day or throughout
the year. I would say that if you pick a name
out of a hat, some will have a four -year plan,
some will have a two -year plan, some will have
a today plan. This is where the system is not
a system here. They each on the national team,
for example, definitely they're planning ahead.
When they put the team together, like I said,
the national team for weightlifting is not really
put together. There is a group, but it's usually
more junior. or people they're thinking of adding
onto the team. But after this national games,
it'll likely be built fairly quickly. They'll
get the coaches that they want and then they'll
probably put in a plan to LA. Like it'll be,
this is... our competition plan to LA and they
will plan like, okay, LA is obviously the key.
They'll do all the politics of which categories.
That's the big thing here. We're all small categories
here. So they're like, LA, the Americans like
bigger sizes, so they might not want our smaller
sizes. So it's a concern for some. They'll plan
backwards that way. What are the major competitions
they're going to need to perform at? And then
they'll decide which ones are qualifications
and they'll do all that. So the national team
level, they are going to. They're going to plan
out, but they, at the provincial level, because
a lot of those athletes will still be training
at the provincial level, they will probably at
least plan out the year, have a good idea of
like the year, which one, which competition is
going to matter more, which ones do we want to
peak for versus which ones do we just want to
show up to. You don't always have to peak for
competition. I think that's, that's a misunderstanding.
A lot of people go like, I have to peak for every
competition, but if you did that, man, your body
would break so quickly. Because peaking is like,
you're priming to get the mess out of your body
and that. Or sometimes the athletes are like,
I'm peaking for Asia champs. And it will depend
on the athlete. So if, say, an athlete's a junior,
they're going to obviously peak for junior competitions.
But maybe this junior athlete is transitioning
to senior. They're going to peak for maybe like
Asia champs or worlds. That'll be their... ultimate
goal so i know aim for that and they won't be
aiming necessarily for the olympics until they
can reach that with first goal right so that's
just generally like it's very it fluctuates depending
on the athlete depending on the coach depending
on their level that they're training at it it's
going to be very unsystematic in around the country
but each person will have their own plan and
i've never seen them go like here's a two -year
plan with the the graphs and and like intensity
volume stuff like that i think that is very much
specific to the coach and i think that they prefer
to use a system of training like this is my weekly
system or like like maybe like they have blocks
but they're not like so much like undulating
periodization fancy calculations it's it's more
i need to get this like this is weak right now
let's get this one up Okay, next one. Okay, what's
weak now? Let's focus on that. It's more adapted
to what they're showing up with. At least what
I see from the coach here, Coach Dung, who was
a national team coach before the Tokyo Olympics,
but she came back to run the team here. So I
see some of her planning and it seems to be more
like weak point trainings. Like, let's get this
number up for you. And then they have a general
flow of the weekly training. weekly, monthly
training. How many for weightlifting team you
have at your province? How many athletes roughly
and how many coaches? And obviously you are responsible
for all the sports. So how the rehab and prehab,
how that builds in? Who is responsible for what
and how many people are involved? That's what
I'm asking about. So our program is, I would
say there's about eight to 10 coaches on the
men's side, six coaches on the female side. GMO
side, probably 30 -ish athletes. Inside 40, a
little bit more. Actually, no, that number might
be too high. I'm thinking of when they're summer.
But basically, on the base, it'd be maybe between
50 and 80 athletes, depending on the season,
like if they have more UBs or not. I would say
that's kind of standard. I would say some provinces
have more, like the Beijing team, I think, has
more. But each area, depending on, I guess, how
many people are doing well, they might have a
bigger number or just based on budget, if they
can afford to have more people. Recovery aspect.
So I like to break down the Chinese system into
they have the coaching technical staff. They
have the recovery team. So they call them doctors
here. Not all doctors are all doctors. Sometimes
massage therapist is a doctor. But this recovery
team is basically, they'll usually have at least
one medical, like real legit medical doctor or
team who is going to be like any like, if they
need to consider surgery, any injections, medicines,
they usually have a doctor on base, several doctors.
We have a hospital on base, but there's could
be like for your like, if you have colds and
flus and stuff, there'll be doctors there to
help the athletes. There'll be sports scientists
who here typically just mean like they analyze
your blood. So because they do all. their internal
testing make sure the athletes are healthy that
everything's going well so that they're testing
the blood there and then they're when once they're
international athletes then they follow the water
and they continue their testing Then they have,
so the team doctors on team, they'll probably
be weightlifting has six on the female side and
another six on the men's side. And those doctors
basically are your, I hurt here. Okay, come and
massage it or accuate or do something. And that
will be before training or after training or
at night. So athletes basically have access to
care any day, whenever they need. Those doctors
will be at the training hall. So if they are
training, then the athlete's like, you know,
my shoulders. a little tight they'll go they'll
rub it they'll do like the like spot massage
like okay go back so they'll they'll have that
treatment throughout the training which is incredible
they'll also do a lot of stepping massage before
training so the team doctor will get some sticks
stand on you step on all the areas that are tight
that aren't what the athlete wants to relax and
after training they'll they usually have a good
treatment room with ac because it's hot here
so they'll go to another room have ac on they'll
have five to eight treatment beds and then athletes
just come in. file into a bed that's free. Team
doctor massages whether they ask them to massage
or if they have an acupuncturist, the acupuncturist
will do it. Sometimes they'll do cupping. It's
kind of like dealer's choice for the doctor or
for the athlete. If the athlete goes, I want
acupuncture, they'll go to the person they like
their acupuncture, get acupuncture. If they like
cupping, they'll go cupping. So that's all in
the team. Does that make sense? So they have
the team doctors, sports doctors, they have sports
scientists at the blood work. The sport hospital,
so kind of think more centrally now, has rooms
for more teams. doctors. But these ones aren't
specific to teens. They're just doctors to do
treatments. So this is where like if your team
doctor is too busy or your timing just wasn't
good, you had to go eat and you missed the treatment
time, you'd go to the hospital and then they
have a whole bunch of people there to help treat
on any other issues. That's where they'll have
modalities, so many modalities. If it has a fancy
name, it's electric, magnifier, microwave, elective
input, blah, like any modality you could think
of, they have it. They usually get the athletes.
to do it themselves, but they will have what
they call physiotherapists. A physiotherapist
is a modality monitor. So physiotherapy here
means just modalities. No, not what we consider
physiotherapy in other countries. A physiotherapist
is the person who just runs the machines and
tells people right inputs and stuff. Then centrally
here, we have our performance center, which is
our strength and conditioning coaches, which
in China they call performance coaches. And then
we have our rehab specialist team, which is the
team I run. And we both work in a separate building.
and we're centralized but we'll also send two
or three specialists per team to go to the training
hall and do their like help them with their warm
-ups if they need it or if they're hurt give
them rehab after their training or if they can't
train then they'll come here and do rehab here
so that they can train and then they'll go over
there kind of all over the place and then the
performance side even weightlifting which is
it took us a while to figure out how to make
it work but the weightlifters will see strength
and conditioning coaches as well And so even
though weightlifting is strength and conditioning,
like almost in complete nature, like weightlifting
has good accessories, it has good mobility, it
has everything. But the athletes will still go
to the strength and conditioning team. And that's
where we do a lot of our testing. So our strength
and conditioning team do a lot of our objective
measures, like how's your power output? How's
your strength output? And then based off of that,
they are spot tweaking the programming, not the
weightlifting program, but they'll add one or
two sessions a week to just work on areas that
the performance coaches think need help. Or if
they've been hurt and they're not injured anymore,
they might just do extra work to make sure that
they're not getting hurt again. So if I were
to summarize that, basically we have our performance
support team, which is strength and conditioning
geared to improving your objective, like your
testing data. We have a rehab to... help with
extra treatment but managing injuries and restoring
like your ability to train and then we have our
recovery team which is just our general they're
like general maintaining of their healthy tissues
of their nutrition of their health and stuff
so that's those are like the two big categories
they have and they have access to it all the
time the only limitation would be I can only
treat a certain amount of people a day, same
with our staff. So it's kind of, there'll be
a prioritization on if an athlete is going to
win at a competition, they're going to get first
come, first served. So there is a little bit
of a politics of the better you are, the more
access you have. Yeah, fast pass. You get a fast
pass if you win. And if you're going to win,
you get a fast pass. And it's just literally
a logistics thing because they have so many athletes.
There's only so much staff they can afford. But
what I would say is... like the evolution here.
Where I first started off, I worked out of two
medical examination rooms. Like if you picture
going into a small closet room with a little
bed on the side and a little desk, we had two
of those rooms as our rehab facility when I first
came here. And then because we were doing successful,
then they're like, hey, we'll build you another
room, which is a room that can fit like maybe
four beds. And then they're like, you know what,
you're doing well enough. Okay, we need more
people. Let's hire, well, they hired 30 people,
which was crazy. And it's like, okay, let's create
another place here, 20 beds. And now we're in
those. We have 30 beds, but we also have an entire
training facility too with it. So they will adapt
based on needs. So they notice that they need
more, so they may give a few more. So I guess
that's how it keeps evolving here. How much of
the life of a professional athlete in China,
in weightlifting specifically, is designed and
prepared for them by the team, broadly speaking,
and how much they have influence on what is happening
day to day with their bodies and their training?
Well, it's all scheduled here. It's very much
every day. You're part of the team. Like a team,
this is your full -time job. Mealtimes are certain
time. Everyone goes to training same time. So
here, we typically follow Monday to Saturday
training schedule. Monday morning, well, this
will depend on the block that there are. But
Monday, Saturday, they're training. They always
train at the same time, usually in the morning,
sometimes in the afternoon if they have to change
things up. But Wednesdays and Fridays, they get
off. Sundays, they get off. Wednesday and Friday
afternoons are off. Mornings, they still train.
Sundays, they get the whole day off. expected
to be on base they are the food is kind of controlled
so they eat at the canteen depending on if they're
going to like certain competitions so if say
for example we have an athlete that's going to
go to worlds who went to worlds she would now
no longer be allowed to order food to get delivered
she wouldn't be able to order bubble teas and
like foods on the street because they want to
make sure there's no contamination from outside
could also be for weight management and sometimes
they the higher level athletes might even have
like a menu designed for them and they have the
options like if they're hurting or they're not
feeling good like they talk to the coach like
you'll see them negotiate like what they should
do and stuff but pretty much it's the entire
day's planned for them like it's the same thing
every time and in terms of the training all exercises,
sets, reps, loading, everything is prescribed
ahead of time or the coach decides will we watch
the athlete or the athlete chooses the exercise,
how that works. So typically they'll follow like
a schedule. So I'll give you for example, Zhao
Jinghong is nice enough to give me like what
her current schedule is now. So she said basically
currently they're doing a two week heavy, one
week light rotation. So they go two weeks heavy,
one week light, two weeks heavy, one week light
and then soon they'll switch over to a peak.
for the national game. But Monday is snatch from
me, clean, panda paw, and wide grip deadlift.
So those are the exercises that I've been slept
for her on Monday. The weight she goes to, if
it's a heavy, she's going heavy. So she's going
to try to go as heavy as she can. It's kind of
more by feel. So if they feel good, they're going
to go heavier. If they feel like they could get
another rep out of there, they're going to get
another rep. So it's not so much like we're going
for three rep max. It's go heavy. If I got a
weight and I'm like, I can. do two more reps
of that it's like and then you're like this is
heavy enough i'm gonna try to get as many reps
as i can at the heaviest if they're like i can
go heavier they're not gonna waste their energy
giving more reps they're just gonna do like that
one rep or two reps and then they're gonna keep
going heavier until they get to the heaviest
they can so they get to choose based on how they
feel and all the athletes say it's like i treat
like how do i feel i'm that's what i'm gonna
do so if they can't do an exercise then the coach
comes in to like okay let's like our focus is
to smash so like like if it's not snatched from
me like maybe let's put some blocks on there
let's do some blocks snatches like so they'll
modify it based on how the athlete's feeling
rather than give lots of different variation
of exercises to plan go so it's athlete chooses
based on how they're feeling that day so i guess
it's that variable is very strong and then coach
kind of says like we need to go heavy or we're
going lighter. But then the coach is helping
monitor and coach their technique so that they're
doing well. And that's kind of like what I see
how they're doing their training. If you want
to see kind of the full week, like Monday is
like a snatch day, clean pan and pull, wide deadlift
or snatch group deadlift. Tuesday is the jerk
from rack, front squat, jerk dips. Wednesday,
like high snatch or power snatch or high clean.
I think it depends. I think that Wednesday is
kind of variable depending on what the weak point
is. Thursday, you're typically doing back squat.
I think it's typically like a high back squat,
like not high bar, like a quarter squat or half
squat. They're not doing acid grass on that one.
They're doing more of a higher one so they can
add extra weight. And then they do really heavy
like jerk holds just to build up their... It's
kind of more of being able to handle heavy weight
day. A Friday then becomes snatch. And usually
they do like a narrow grip deadlift. which would
be a deadlift for the rest of the world. But
then Saturday, yeah, clean deadlift, narrow grip.
And then Saturday. clean and jerks and back squats.
So that would be an example of a week. But that
is from one coach. Typically, each coach is following
a general standard, but the specific exercise
might change. Like Lisha Rial was doing, I guess
like in the Western world, they would just call
them Jefferson curls, like straight leg deficit
deadlifts, but like going all the way, a full
rounded all the way up. So they had that on,
it was that, that was on, it was on Monday that
each athlete or each coach might have different
prescriptions. That would be based on the athlete
coach, what they think is needed. So perhaps
it was related to a weakness they think she had
or whatnot. So very variable, but they always
have like, this is the standard framework. That's
awesome. Thank you. Now, what happens when the
athlete is injured? Do they go back to the city?
Do they stay and rehab there? Who is responsible
for the rehab plan and how does it go? So rehab
here is basically done in a few ways. First is
how I hurt. Team doctor tries to treat it away.
If it's managed by treatment, stops there. Just
keep training, manage it by treatment. Keep training
until it goes away. When I first came here, I
was very appalled by how it kind of looked. But
now I truly understand, like, keep training.
is is huge here the the coach will modify like
so we kind of have a rule it's like if if it's
it's more painful when you go heavier and you
start seeing that form get really ugly and stuff
you're gonna go down to the level like they usually
say like 70 so go lighter go 70 find the range
where it's not hurting anymore where you have
good form and they'll do like a few weeks of
hypertrophy at that level like let's do lots
of reps high volume six to ten sets of six to
ten reps like or high reps depending on the athlete
a lot of athletes don't like high reps they'll
never go to 10 reps but they'll spend time there
and then okay let's go back up and as you progress
back out so a lot of the rehab is actually done
just through the training We'll do similar kind
of variations. If it's more of a fatigue thing,
like if they're like feeling gassed and they're
tired, they'll use more cluster sets. They'll
use longer rest intervals or they'll just reduce
the total volume so that they're not as gassed.
And then if it's like a range of motion, they
start, okay, let's do block pulls instead of
from the floor. They'll do those tweaks in the
training. So that's where a majority of the group
rehab is happening. And then our team basically
goes in and it's like we assess it and then we
triage. injury, it's like you're not going to
do that if you had a full rupture of a muscle.
So a full rupture of a muscle, they're going
to stop the training of that muscle and rehab
is going to do the treatments, progressive overload
of treatment and training of that. tissue itself,
build up the tolerance of the tissue to handle
training. Once they can handle training, the
performance team, I was talking about performance
coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, they're
going to then reintroduce some training at heavier
levels, make sure that they are meeting the objective
measure standards that they had before. Like,
are they back at baseline? If they're back at
baseline, then they're, okay, this tissue is
tolerating training well, like weightlifting
is fully cleared. If they're like, this tissue
is still not doing well, it won't be that they
stop weightlifting, it'll just be more of that,
well, I... extra exercises in weightlifting so
it'd be like you know your hamstrings still hurt
but you can still do your weightlifting lifts
but to avoid you compensating let's add two or
three sets to that hamstring to like rdls or
hamstring curls something to work on that hamstring
so that it builds up as you continue your training
and then the strength coaches will kind of tell
us like all right they're good like they've normalized
or we still have a problem with small it's like
something else and that's basically like a lot
of our rehab is we there's so much treatment
here already anyways so the rehab is about intelligently
programming around the injury so that they can
keep loading as much as they can keep the training
high. Because if an athlete takes a break here,
they're done. There's so much training. If you
took like a month off training, you'd be so far
behind everyone else like you feel. And they've
been training so long, they don't even know what
DOMS are. Kind of like when they have an injured
area and I load it really well, I'm like, oh,
so sore. I was like, yeah, that's what normal
people feel like when we train. I was like, like
we get these. these things called muscle soreness.
And it's really uncomfortable. And they're like,
I've never had this before. It's like you did
when you first started training. You had this,
but you've been training so long, you don't know.
But yeah, so we kind of follow like a training
load monitoring, but rest like specific on like
how much load stuff. It's more keep your training
as much as possible. If we keep your training
high and we add things, get your injury back
up, the risk of re -injury is extremely low.
But if we take you out, your chronic volume of
training drops so much that you just trying to
go back to your normal training is a strength.
around your body and then we look at like the
like the cascade of you got hurt take some break
off you try to go back you get hurt again you
go back you go there and then you just end up
going down there in regards of what team you'll
be on it depends on the competitive level so
if you're a national team before olympics you
get hurt you can't compete at the olympics you're
just gonna be replaced if you're at the provincial
level they care more about if you're performing
so if you're performing you have the potential
you're staying on the team you get all the resources
to get better like if you miss like a year of
competitions it's costing the government to have
you there so they're probably like you got like
let's go back the only time people really get
kicked off the team is not about injury it's
about if they can't perform so if if someone
looks like they're promising they join province
but they just never win they can't get any higher
they're not performing well enough the coach
is like this is athlete's peak they're not getting
better that's when they would get to be sent
back to a sports school or Just back to regular
school. But it's not like you're fired. It's
a little bit more like, let's try. Like they
try really hard. And I've never seen an athlete
here leave because of that. They're usually always
trying to build up the potential. It's not cutthroat,
like evil looking. It's pretty family oriented.
Like, come on, buddy. Let's go. Fascinating.
What do you really like about Chinese system
and what other countries could pay attention
to and possibly consider adopting, you think?
I think what I like about the system here is
that they have... have a system, but they're
more loose with the rules. I think that it's
really good for us to have a system, but we need
to learn to adapt to specifics to specific situations.
And they're not so serious about it here. I think
a lot of people think the Chinese system is super
serious and really intense, but people are pretty
chill. like they're laughing quite a bit they're
they're hanging out that's it's because they
look at it as kind of like a job they don't go
like oh it's do or die it's not it's not like
if i like the the epic videos they make of like
they're gonna make it like they're kind of like
yeah i went to work chill out bro it's not it's
not that intense like staying more relaxed about
this i think helps them a lot because it just
helps them make smarter decisions at times and
i Like, I think that would help a lot of athletes.
Like I think a lot of, especially in development,
like if we go into that whole, like the parents
want the kids to do super well in something and
there's this pressure of doing well right off
the bat, like that's just not here. And it's
like, just go to your job, do your job well.
If you get promoted, great. Like not having this
incredible pressure of winning from the beginning.
And I don't get that sense here at all. Like
some of our athletes who went to world who didn't
do so well, they came back and it's like, it's
like nothing happened. Like we're all chill.
We're all hanging out again. I think that is
something to learn in sports that like, yeah.
And so like in sport in general, like the athletes,
like it's just a sport, obviously lives and lives
and your livelihood is all related to it. But
like, and she talked about like Kyle's physios
and stuff like that. Like sometimes I see how
intensely they argue about topics. And I'm like,
dude, no one's dying. I was like, well, unless
it'd be really messing up your job. But like,
I'm just trying to make someone lift more or
move faster or have less pain. pain but i'm not
a heart surgeon like we can relax a little bit
like let the like the people who do life and
life and death situations to add this amount
of stress like i feel like there's a lot of stress
in this this sport and it's unnecessary very
interesting thank you so much for answering all
the questions two short questions to finish the
first one is what is your favorite exercise what
i like to say here is whatever exercise you're
willing to do is my favorite exercise if i think
part of my job is to be creative and adapted
to what the athlete wants to do and what works
for that athlete. And I will say, even if it
doesn't even make sense in my head, if the athlete
is going to do it and it gets the effect that
I want, then I'm happy. Fair enough. Fair enough.
And the last question is where people can find
you if they want to follow what you're doing
or get in touch, where should they go online?
Right now, the main one would be my Instagram,
Dr. Steph Performance. I am currently building
some workshops based on some... demand that i've
had and uh i'll have some youtube videos and
stuff up for people to to see but instagram's
the easiest thank you so much it was a pleasure
thank you