WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.680 I think what I like about the system here is 00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:05.540 that they have a system, but they're more loose 00:00:05.540 --> 00:00:07.480 with the rules. I think that it's really good 00:00:07.480 --> 00:00:09.220 for us to have a system, but we need to learn 00:00:09.220 --> 00:00:12.160 to adapt to specifics, to the specific situations. 00:00:12.460 --> 00:00:15.640 And they're not so serious about it here. I think 00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:17.379 a lot of people think the Chinese system is super 00:00:17.379 --> 00:00:19.339 serious and really intense, but people are pretty 00:00:19.339 --> 00:00:23.160 chill. Hi, Steph. It's my pleasure to have you 00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:25.260 on Evidence Strong Show. If you could briefly 00:00:25.260 --> 00:00:27.539 introduce yourself. Of course. My name is Stephane 00:00:27.539 --> 00:00:30.600 Gregory. I'm a chiropractor out of Canada, but 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:34.579 I work with Guangxi province in China and worked 00:00:34.579 --> 00:00:36.840 with the Chinese Weightlifting Association and 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:40.460 many other Olympic teams. But my specialty now 00:00:40.460 --> 00:00:42.600 is weightlifting and pain -free weightlifting. 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:45.399 Awesome. So are you based in the National Center? 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:48.359 What is the setup? Right now, because of the 00:00:48.359 --> 00:00:50.920 timing and competition, we're basically in... 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:53.000 And everyone's at their provinces. There are 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.259 some national teams, but national teams are basically 00:00:55.259 --> 00:00:57.840 built here when big international competitions 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:00.960 are coming up. So there is really no weightlifting 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:03.439 national team. So I'm at the Guangxi province. 00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:05.700 That's my home base. I'm the director of performance 00:01:05.700 --> 00:01:09.280 of all the sports here. And I run a team. And 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:13.519 when we go to this upcoming national games, we're 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:15.540 all competing against within provinces. Each 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:17.200 province is fighting against each other kind 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:20.019 of thing. Once that's over, then people go back. 00:01:20.140 --> 00:01:21.879 I can go to those national training centers. 00:01:22.140 --> 00:01:24.859 However, each province training centers basically 00:01:24.859 --> 00:01:27.340 looks like a national team training center. They're 00:01:27.340 --> 00:01:30.159 pretty much the same. I would argue that in many 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:32.540 teams, they prefer their province's facilities 00:01:32.540 --> 00:01:34.959 more than the national facilities because national 00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:37.480 facilities is more kind of, I guess, strict, 00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:39.579 whereas the provincials, they're more comfortable. 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:41.319 They're used to the environment and stuff. So 00:01:41.319 --> 00:01:43.799 it's very different in the sense that every area 00:01:43.799 --> 00:01:46.340 has really solid training facilities. Awesome. 00:01:46.359 --> 00:01:49.299 So today we're talking Chinese weightlifting. 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:52.140 system so let's start from the beginning how 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:55.060 the kids go through the system how do they start 00:01:55.060 --> 00:01:58.019 weightlifting specifically yeah well so one thing 00:01:58.019 --> 00:01:59.980 you would learn in the chinese system is that 00:01:59.980 --> 00:02:03.319 there is a system but it is not a system it's 00:02:03.319 --> 00:02:06.019 very adaptable to each area what i did before 00:02:06.019 --> 00:02:08.319 the call is i just asked a lot of the athletes 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:10.860 so i bear in mind i'm working in one province 00:02:10.860 --> 00:02:13.340 and the stories were all quite different between 00:02:13.340 --> 00:02:16.520 all the athletes wow so how they get selected 00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:19.949 could depend on them and where they are, what 00:02:19.949 --> 00:02:22.889 their home city is. But typically before the 00:02:22.889 --> 00:02:26.090 age of 11, they had some sort of a visiting person 00:02:26.090 --> 00:02:28.509 came by, did a bunch of testing on the athletes 00:02:28.509 --> 00:02:30.629 in terms of like, they got to the jump, run, 00:02:30.930 --> 00:02:33.770 play, do different activities. And basically 00:02:33.770 --> 00:02:36.550 if they looked athletic or they performed well 00:02:36.550 --> 00:02:38.569 in some of these events, they were then said, 00:02:38.650 --> 00:02:40.789 you can join a sports school. Not a specific 00:02:40.789 --> 00:02:42.710 sport, just come to a sports school, develop 00:02:42.710 --> 00:02:44.590 as an athlete. And then when they come to the 00:02:44.590 --> 00:02:46.789 sports school, they sort of have, some of them 00:02:46.789 --> 00:02:48.629 had options. They're like, what would you like 00:02:48.629 --> 00:02:50.509 to do? And others were kind of told like, you 00:02:50.509 --> 00:02:53.050 should go weightlifting or you should go martial 00:02:53.050 --> 00:02:55.469 arts. So like some of our athletes were told, 00:02:55.509 --> 00:02:57.750 you can go weightlifting or martial arts or judo. 00:02:57.849 --> 00:02:59.650 And then so they had to choose between them. 00:02:59.750 --> 00:03:02.330 And then once they get into that sports school, 00:03:02.430 --> 00:03:05.409 they train, they go to school, they do training, 00:03:05.530 --> 00:03:07.949 they live there. So they're not usually living 00:03:07.949 --> 00:03:10.250 with their parents. They're staying in a dormitory. 00:03:10.250 --> 00:03:12.449 The whole campus is like a university basically 00:03:12.449 --> 00:03:15.030 at these sports schools. And they will stay there 00:03:15.030 --> 00:03:17.719 until they're good enough to. leave that level. 00:03:17.819 --> 00:03:20.280 So they will train, they'll compete, they'll 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:23.379 do little city level, provincial level competitions. 00:03:23.620 --> 00:03:27.340 And or coaches might even come and just be scouting. 00:03:27.500 --> 00:03:30.060 So if I take, for example, Zhao Jinghong, who 00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:32.479 is a world record holder right now. And when 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:35.039 she was picked, she said that when she was around 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:38.120 11, I forget the specific age, but she got into 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:39.879 the sports school. She doesn't know why she was 00:03:39.879 --> 00:03:41.680 picked. I asked her, do you know, like, are you 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:43.599 really fast? Is it your height or anything? She's 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:46.180 like, I have no idea. And so she was at the school. 00:03:46.219 --> 00:03:47.740 school for about a year. And then her current 00:03:47.740 --> 00:03:51.139 coach had gone down and was recruiting and liked 00:03:51.139 --> 00:03:53.919 what he saw with her. She also doesn't know what 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:56.400 he liked necessarily. But then he said, come 00:03:56.400 --> 00:03:59.219 join our weightlifting team in Nanning. And Nanning 00:03:59.219 --> 00:04:01.419 is the city I'm in. It's the provincial level. 00:04:01.580 --> 00:04:03.840 And so then she came over and started training 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:07.259 here at the Bay's at that point. Other athletes 00:04:07.259 --> 00:04:09.259 are more selected to a competition. So if they 00:04:09.259 --> 00:04:11.960 won a competition, you got more recognition and 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:14.099 like, you're good. Come on over. Some might be 00:04:14.099 --> 00:04:17.420 connections, whatever. heard was sometimes it's 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:19.439 like oh like this person knows that coach or 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:21.240 that coach is looking for someone from a certain 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:24.339 area maybe they like people from this city versus 00:04:24.339 --> 00:04:26.879 that city so it was it was very varied stories 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:29.939 of how they actually get into the sport so that 00:04:29.939 --> 00:04:32.120 was kind of interesting it wasn't a simple you 00:04:32.120 --> 00:04:34.259 do this test you do good on that it was very 00:04:34.259 --> 00:04:36.759 varied and i think that's actually a good thing 00:04:36.759 --> 00:04:38.639 of their system they're very adaptable i don't 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:40.399 know if they do it on purpose but they're very 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:42.899 adaptable and they mold to the current situation 00:04:42.899 --> 00:04:46.810 which allows them to not being strained to metrics 00:04:46.810 --> 00:04:48.790 that they might not, probably wouldn't have been 00:04:48.790 --> 00:04:51.649 able to track back then. Now with AI and all 00:04:51.649 --> 00:04:54.910 the central databases that people do, they might 00:04:54.910 --> 00:04:56.730 be able to track it. But before then, it was 00:04:56.730 --> 00:04:59.610 just gut instinct. You are describing more a 00:04:59.610 --> 00:05:01.889 system where the child is taken into boarding 00:05:01.889 --> 00:05:05.050 school, the sports school system. How is it viewed 00:05:05.050 --> 00:05:09.610 by the families, all athletes for this matter, 00:05:09.769 --> 00:05:13.129 the separation of family life from sports or 00:05:13.129 --> 00:05:16.310 development? the sport i think well clearly every 00:05:16.310 --> 00:05:18.089 person will have a different experience with 00:05:18.089 --> 00:05:21.290 it i think a lot of the athletes generally were 00:05:21.290 --> 00:05:23.470 speaking along the lines of they just this is 00:05:23.470 --> 00:05:25.850 what it is they just kind of this is how it is 00:05:25.850 --> 00:05:28.110 the coaches were are basically their parents 00:05:28.110 --> 00:05:31.069 in the system here so that like when i say like 00:05:31.069 --> 00:05:32.750 are your parents coming to competitions most 00:05:32.750 --> 00:05:34.089 of them will be like i don't think they've ever 00:05:34.089 --> 00:05:36.550 seen you compete so it's not like we're proud 00:05:36.550 --> 00:05:39.029 of you son like let's go cheer you on every time 00:05:39.029 --> 00:05:42.050 you do competitions more i have a business transaction 00:05:42.050 --> 00:05:45.160 yeah The parents will get paid. So if an athlete 00:05:45.160 --> 00:05:47.100 goes to a sports school, the parents get paid. 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:50.339 Athlete gets paid after a certain age. The specific 00:05:50.339 --> 00:05:52.500 age, I might not be clear on. I imagine it's 00:05:52.500 --> 00:05:55.819 around 16, but basically there's a monthly stipend 00:05:55.819 --> 00:05:59.660 to the parents. And a lot of the athletes in 00:05:59.660 --> 00:06:01.680 my province, because we're a southern province, 00:06:01.779 --> 00:06:03.920 it's a lot poorer. A lot of the families are 00:06:03.920 --> 00:06:06.180 rural, living in the countryside, not a lot of 00:06:06.180 --> 00:06:08.500 facilities. So this is actually a way for the 00:06:08.500 --> 00:06:10.800 family to survive. So kids will be like, I'm 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:12.680 doing this to help the family. I'm going to go 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:15.079 to sport, provide, make sure you guys are okay. 00:06:15.319 --> 00:06:17.879 It's got more of that transactional feel. There's 00:06:17.879 --> 00:06:20.019 no like, it's not like you cannot see your parents. 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:22.180 They communicate with their parents. They talk 00:06:22.180 --> 00:06:25.120 all the time. Parents will come here. If an athlete's 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:27.259 hurt, like I've had a few times where an athlete 00:06:27.259 --> 00:06:29.019 was hurt bad enough that the parents came down 00:06:29.019 --> 00:06:30.379 and stayed with them to make sure everything 00:06:30.379 --> 00:06:33.459 was okay. So it's still a loving relationship, 00:06:33.660 --> 00:06:35.699 just very different than what I've ever seen 00:06:35.699 --> 00:06:38.300 in Western world. Each culture needs to do what 00:06:38.300 --> 00:06:40.420 they need to do, I guess. But like, if I were 00:06:40.420 --> 00:06:42.620 to then throw another, I've had some athletes 00:06:42.620 --> 00:06:45.220 come from normal schools where they didn't go 00:06:45.220 --> 00:06:47.600 to a sports school. They went to regular elementary 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:50.339 school, going into high school, and they performed 00:06:50.339 --> 00:06:53.600 well in those varsity programs that you'd have 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:55.360 in a normal school. They performed well enough 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:57.259 that some coaches were like, hey, actually, can 00:06:57.259 --> 00:07:00.100 you come join our team? So it would be completely 00:07:00.100 --> 00:07:03.100 fluid based on if they felt they had the potential 00:07:03.100 --> 00:07:05.319 and the coach recognized that they wanted them. 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:09.180 I would say our very good weightlifters all were 00:07:09.180 --> 00:07:11.910 identified fairly early on. I'd say all of them 00:07:11.910 --> 00:07:15.490 were by the age between 10 and 13 were in a sports 00:07:15.490 --> 00:07:18.829 school. And I would say before 15, they were 00:07:18.829 --> 00:07:21.870 already at like the provincial level or at least 00:07:21.870 --> 00:07:23.990 similar or at least a little bit higher with 00:07:23.990 --> 00:07:26.730 a higher level coach. It's very fluid, which 00:07:26.730 --> 00:07:27.949 is, that's what I was saying. It's like, it's 00:07:27.949 --> 00:07:30.490 a system, but it's not systematic in any way. 00:07:30.589 --> 00:07:33.689 Okay. So they get to provincial level. Now you 00:07:33.689 --> 00:07:36.709 have national games, huge event. It's, would 00:07:36.709 --> 00:07:39.709 you say comparable to Olympics in status? A high. 00:07:39.949 --> 00:07:42.750 Well, here, this is the Chinese Olympics. That's 00:07:42.750 --> 00:07:45.949 what I call it. But I believe in size. It is 00:07:45.949 --> 00:07:48.490 much bigger than the Olympics. Because if you 00:07:48.490 --> 00:07:51.490 imagine for, like, say Worlds, that just happened. 00:07:51.589 --> 00:07:53.689 We sent our junior athletes from our province. 00:07:53.730 --> 00:07:56.149 Like, the females were from our, like, hey, you 00:07:56.149 --> 00:07:57.370 guys haven't had a chance to go international. 00:07:57.689 --> 00:08:00.050 All our A -team are peaking for national games. 00:08:00.149 --> 00:08:02.069 So why don't you guys go to Worlds? Like, Worlds 00:08:02.069 --> 00:08:03.970 was kind of, like, it's kind of an annoyance. 00:08:04.110 --> 00:08:06.550 So the national games is the absolute priority. 00:08:06.689 --> 00:08:08.370 It's every four years, just like the Olympics. 00:08:08.470 --> 00:08:10.899 So, yeah. It's just monstrous because it's for 00:08:10.899 --> 00:08:13.079 weightlifting, for example, at the international 00:08:13.079 --> 00:08:15.980 stage, I say most people know maybe 10 athletes 00:08:15.980 --> 00:08:19.139 from China. There's got to be 200 per province 00:08:19.139 --> 00:08:21.959 that are close to that level. So you're looking 00:08:21.959 --> 00:08:24.040 at like over a thousand athletes, people I've 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:26.279 never heard of that are better than most athletes. 00:08:26.459 --> 00:08:29.680 So it's a really steep, deep talent pool that 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:32.620 this national games can pull out. Not all thousand 00:08:32.620 --> 00:08:35.320 would be competing, but it basically it's yeah, 00:08:35.379 --> 00:08:37.700 it's pretty crazy to think like all of these 00:08:37.700 --> 00:08:40.039 people. from one country and just i'm coming 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:42.539 from canada where our system it just doesn't 00:08:42.539 --> 00:08:44.980 have the depth that the system has so very interesting 00:08:44.980 --> 00:08:47.039 preparation for national games so that's the 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:49.860 the main goal of a professional athlete in weightlifting 00:08:49.860 --> 00:08:52.460 they want to do well at this particular event 00:08:52.460 --> 00:08:55.580 and now how do they go from getting to province 00:08:55.580 --> 00:08:58.399 training center to the stage at the national 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:01.120 games so walk me through how they would well 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:04.159 so the national games the like the national games 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:06.039 would say If I want to think about it, it's like 00:09:06.039 --> 00:09:09.019 province versus province. And it's simply who's 00:09:09.019 --> 00:09:11.879 the best in your category or your province are 00:09:11.879 --> 00:09:14.519 going to go to national games. So they had qualifying 00:09:14.519 --> 00:09:17.940 for the last, I would say almost two years. They 00:09:17.940 --> 00:09:20.340 started talking about qualifying two years ago. 00:09:20.500 --> 00:09:22.779 The qualifications involved some international 00:09:22.779 --> 00:09:24.620 competitions. Like they want to see, can you 00:09:24.620 --> 00:09:27.779 compete? Are you someone who doesn't choke? Are 00:09:27.779 --> 00:09:31.120 you able to perform? Then they had a lot of qualifying. 00:09:31.980 --> 00:09:34.379 competitions within china so making sure like 00:09:34.379 --> 00:09:37.919 you are outperforming other provinces so a lot 00:09:37.919 --> 00:09:40.779 of What China does really well is they're very 00:09:40.779 --> 00:09:44.820 smart on athlete selection for competition. They 00:09:44.820 --> 00:09:46.700 are not, someone's like, you're good in this 00:09:46.700 --> 00:09:48.879 category, so you should go. It's more like, okay, 00:09:48.940 --> 00:09:50.840 you're good at this category. If you have six 00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:52.340 spots to send someone, they're going to be like, 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:54.580 well, which category should we send someone in? 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:56.340 Which one are we most likely going to win the 00:09:56.340 --> 00:09:58.379 gold medal in? Which one? So they're, they're 00:09:58.379 --> 00:10:00.419 like spying on each other, provinces and dealing 00:10:00.419 --> 00:10:02.480 with, okay, what, how are they doing right now? 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:04.419 Okay. What are they able to lift? What can our 00:10:04.419 --> 00:10:06.740 guy look? Okay. Let's compare. Let's see what, 00:10:06.779 --> 00:10:10.230 what chances. have to maximize and then that's 00:10:10.230 --> 00:10:12.169 that's the kind of the selection process which 00:10:12.169 --> 00:10:14.590 i'm not part of i'm just making sure that they 00:10:14.590 --> 00:10:16.429 don't hurt and that if they're injured they're 00:10:16.429 --> 00:10:19.070 getting back to training but i've seen parts 00:10:19.070 --> 00:10:21.470 of it and it's fascinating how much they consider 00:10:21.470 --> 00:10:24.409 i've seen a mind like a common mantra but like 00:10:24.409 --> 00:10:26.370 a like a chart of all the things that can you 00:10:26.370 --> 00:10:29.129 know hundreds of things so it was it's pretty 00:10:29.129 --> 00:10:31.269 it's pretty intense how they select but it's 00:10:31.269 --> 00:10:33.669 qualifying just like anything else so it basically 00:10:33.669 --> 00:10:36.049 comparing it to the olympics is appropriate because 00:10:36.049 --> 00:10:38.129 like the olympics You have to qualify to the 00:10:38.129 --> 00:10:39.870 Olympics. You need to meet a certain standard. 00:10:40.009 --> 00:10:42.809 You need to succeed against other people sufficiently 00:10:42.809 --> 00:10:45.509 enough to qualify to go to this major competition. 00:10:45.730 --> 00:10:47.769 So they do the same thing, but within China and 00:10:47.769 --> 00:10:50.070 they do consider the international competitions 00:10:50.070 --> 00:10:52.889 as well. So for the province, is that each province 00:10:52.889 --> 00:10:57.730 has one competitor per weight class or? No, they'll 00:10:57.730 --> 00:11:00.350 have many. I think that's where you have to qualify. 00:11:00.730 --> 00:11:04.110 So if we take, for example, the 49, it's confusing 00:11:04.110 --> 00:11:06.090 with the new categories. So they're still doing. 00:11:06.120 --> 00:11:09.779 45, 49. And the reason it's confusing, like now, 00:11:09.899 --> 00:11:11.720 like the new categories, but then also like, 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:15.539 so like Audrey Equay, who won in the women's, 00:11:15.539 --> 00:11:19.720 the 49 that took Paris. So if you win a medal 00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:21.960 at the Olympics, you get automatically qualified 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:24.539 for the national games. But her province probably 00:11:24.539 --> 00:11:26.539 also has a few other people in her category. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:29.639 And if they meet, if they qualify through competition, 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:32.580 they would also still go. So it's, I don't, they 00:11:32.580 --> 00:11:35.159 don't cap it if it's like one per one category. 00:11:35.340 --> 00:11:38.200 it's going to be who met the qualifying standards 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:40.779 at that level. You guys are all clear to go. 00:11:40.940 --> 00:11:42.559 So that's why it means like it's a really big 00:11:42.559 --> 00:11:45.419 one. And then I think there is a number cap. 00:11:45.539 --> 00:11:48.639 I didn't actually learn about it. No one ever 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:50.559 talked about a number cap because we're sending 00:11:50.559 --> 00:11:53.360 a lot. All of our, say, our female team for weightlifting, 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:55.639 we're sending 12 girls to the national games. 00:11:55.799 --> 00:11:58.059 And it was never about what category. It was 00:11:58.059 --> 00:11:59.860 just, did they qualify to go? So I think it was 00:11:59.860 --> 00:12:01.879 more, did you do well enough? Then you can go. 00:12:01.980 --> 00:12:05.259 But imagine, they can't just send. everyone like 00:12:05.259 --> 00:12:07.159 if everyone's really good that would just be 00:12:07.159 --> 00:12:10.360 like what 18 different rounds of weightlifting 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:12.480 for one category would be too long so that is 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:15.820 actually sure exactly that it puts the full qualification 00:12:15.820 --> 00:12:18.639 standards this is mind -blowing i'm gonna to 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:21.659 give you an idea of how big this is is the national 00:12:21.659 --> 00:12:23.639 games are going to be held in guangdong province 00:12:24.939 --> 00:12:27.960 And like one sport will take an entire city. 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:31.139 So like weightlifting is in one city. Track and 00:12:31.139 --> 00:12:33.299 field is in another city. Mountain is another 00:12:33.299 --> 00:12:35.940 city. So they're spreading it out, which is more 00:12:35.940 --> 00:12:39.480 like just population control, but also to include 00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:41.740 everyone. I'm sure there's background politics 00:12:41.740 --> 00:12:44.320 behind it. But if you want to go to the busiest 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:47.139 place possible, go to Hong Kong and it's going 00:12:47.139 --> 00:12:49.700 to be absolutely wild. They're flying people 00:12:49.700 --> 00:12:52.580 just to do like performances for entertainment. 00:12:53.080 --> 00:12:55.019 Let's move to that. selection for the olympics 00:12:55.019 --> 00:12:57.299 yeah so for the olympic teams the national they 00:12:57.299 --> 00:12:59.059 call them their national teams weightlifting 00:12:59.059 --> 00:13:01.960 for example was mostly held in beijing but also 00:13:01.960 --> 00:13:04.799 did some other provinces they they'd like to 00:13:04.799 --> 00:13:06.519 move around they don't like to just always stay 00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:09.659 in one place but the at the province level who's 00:13:09.659 --> 00:13:11.460 you're really good who's doing really well who's 00:13:11.460 --> 00:13:14.080 performing internationally very well and then 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:16.340 it'll kind of go through stages actually everything 00:13:16.340 --> 00:13:18.539 here is i didn't talk about stages part but everything 00:13:18.539 --> 00:13:20.279 is kind of like let's send a bunch of people 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:22.179 see who's performing better let's take away people 00:13:22.179 --> 00:13:25.149 so at the national teams that say two years before 00:13:25.149 --> 00:13:28.169 harris there would have been four squads kind 00:13:28.169 --> 00:13:31.210 of like a squad b squad c like tiers shouldn't 00:13:31.210 --> 00:13:32.990 say squad because each coach has a squad but 00:13:32.990 --> 00:13:35.470 it's like kind of like a level b level c level 00:13:35.470 --> 00:13:38.129 d level so the provincial levels that did really 00:13:38.129 --> 00:13:40.110 really good or like best provincial levels they 00:13:40.110 --> 00:13:42.789 might go to d level c can they hack it and they 00:13:42.789 --> 00:13:44.389 compete against the others if they're not doing 00:13:44.389 --> 00:13:46.250 well enough or they don't want to be there they 00:13:46.250 --> 00:13:48.610 go back but then as you get closer to the olympics 00:13:48.610 --> 00:13:51.730 like okay so you have your a b c d a d and c 00:13:51.730 --> 00:13:54.929 will stay there as kind of backups before you 00:13:54.929 --> 00:13:58.289 have specifically this person going to the Olympics. 00:13:58.509 --> 00:14:01.690 And then once you start selecting people or which 00:14:01.690 --> 00:14:03.809 categories you're going to be going for, then 00:14:03.809 --> 00:14:05.710 those people start disappearing. And then they 00:14:05.710 --> 00:14:07.730 go back to the provinces. And then as you get 00:14:07.730 --> 00:14:10.289 closer, whoever's performed the best and who's 00:14:10.289 --> 00:14:12.789 going to be the most likely to win at the Olympics 00:14:12.789 --> 00:14:15.909 stays on. So it was like 30 athletes on the national 00:14:15.909 --> 00:14:17.929 team. Then it went down to 20. And then it went 00:14:17.929 --> 00:14:20.570 down to the squad that ended up going to Paris. 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:23.480 Within that squad, they'll probably keep one 00:14:23.480 --> 00:14:25.980 or two other athletes, kind of just to have training 00:14:25.980 --> 00:14:28.559 partners. So otherwise, like, it got quiet. Like, 00:14:28.580 --> 00:14:30.299 the hall is big. It's not a small hall, I suppose. 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:32.159 It's like a big hall, and there's 30 athletes 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:34.460 lifting. It's really loud, and it's fun. And 00:14:34.460 --> 00:14:36.779 as the guy goes, it's, like, kind of quiet. Like, 00:14:36.779 --> 00:14:38.860 I don't know. Some of us were not really liking 00:14:38.860 --> 00:14:41.480 it. Like, me, Diane, he's a very playful guy. 00:14:41.659 --> 00:14:43.399 And you could tell, like, he was just, like, 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:46.639 I don't like quiet sometimes. Or from my, from 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:48.980 me watching it, it's, like, I could, it felt 00:14:48.980 --> 00:14:50.840 like, you know, it's, like, a little quiet. here. 00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:53.000 But yeah, so then you end up with that final 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:55.139 squad and then who goes is going to be based 00:14:55.139 --> 00:14:57.519 off of that politics of who's more likely to 00:14:57.519 --> 00:14:59.820 win. So if I give a good example, it would be 00:14:59.820 --> 00:15:03.159 from our province of Jianghui. In 12 years at 00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:06.100 world level, like top level, her and Mo Zhijie 00:15:06.100 --> 00:15:08.360 have basically gone up and over each other. They 00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:10.539 both won world records over each other. They've 00:15:10.539 --> 00:15:12.759 kept fighting. They've always been the same level. 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:15.240 But then it'll always come to, the leaders will 00:15:15.240 --> 00:15:17.539 be like, this competition matters. And then who 00:15:17.539 --> 00:15:20.139 did better in that one goes. So even though for 00:15:20.139 --> 00:15:23.580 Paris, I'm biased, I would have liked Jean -Claude 00:15:23.580 --> 00:15:27.419 to go. But she won like two or three international 00:15:27.419 --> 00:15:30.419 competitions before, I think it was Asia Champs. 00:15:30.419 --> 00:15:34.480 But then Ho won at the Asia Champs. I might be 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:35.759 getting the name of the competition, but she 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:37.759 won the one that the leaders cared about. So 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:39.320 then she went. And then they might've looked 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:42.080 at the training history. Maybe Ho has a, like, 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:43.970 she's a. feet years competitor like honestly 00:15:43.970 --> 00:15:47.070 she's incredible so they might just be like we 00:15:47.070 --> 00:15:50.029 trust her and then they pick her so even if the 00:15:50.029 --> 00:15:52.389 athletes are like like they were literally lifting 00:15:52.389 --> 00:15:55.009 the same in general like well at times higher 00:15:55.009 --> 00:15:57.549 but if they go like you know what i trust this 00:15:57.549 --> 00:15:59.549 athlete so i'm gonna send them or like who knows 00:15:59.549 --> 00:16:02.289 what politics goes on behind as well but it's 00:16:02.289 --> 00:16:04.590 uh yeah it's a very fierce battle but they're 00:16:04.590 --> 00:16:06.409 very friendly like they they're not like it's 00:16:06.409 --> 00:16:08.490 like they because it's their job they're like 00:16:08.490 --> 00:16:11.029 i'm here to work i'm here to get lift heavier 00:16:11.029 --> 00:16:13.720 and heavier If I go, I go. Some of them care 00:16:13.720 --> 00:16:17.080 a lot. Others, no. Like when I ask, because as 00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:19.779 a foreigner, like a Canadian, like Olympics to 00:16:19.779 --> 00:16:21.899 me is the big one. And I'll talk to them. It's 00:16:21.899 --> 00:16:23.679 like, oh, like right now, I'm always like, we're 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:25.580 getting ready for LA, right? Like we're getting 00:16:25.580 --> 00:16:27.580 ready for, and they're like, I don't care. I 00:16:27.580 --> 00:16:29.620 was like, what? How do you not care? They're 00:16:29.620 --> 00:16:31.320 like, it's too far away. I was like, I'm just 00:16:31.320 --> 00:16:34.539 doing this. I was like, okay. So it got sidetracked 00:16:34.539 --> 00:16:37.059 there. But basically, this selection is forming 00:16:37.059 --> 00:16:38.980 within each other. And they start with a bigger 00:16:38.980 --> 00:16:41.799 number. And they bring it down to the top ones. 00:16:41.899 --> 00:16:43.639 And then depending because of the restrictions 00:16:43.639 --> 00:16:46.259 at the Olympics, it was six spots. So then it 00:16:46.259 --> 00:16:48.139 was very competitive. If they didn't have that 00:16:48.139 --> 00:16:50.000 restriction, they would have had a lot more people 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:52.649 to go, which would have been good for me. You 00:16:52.649 --> 00:16:55.149 mentioned that coaches have squads. Could you 00:16:55.149 --> 00:16:58.289 expand a little bit on that? And also, is the 00:16:58.289 --> 00:17:02.450 coach assigned to the level? So if I'm national 00:17:02.450 --> 00:17:06.789 coach, I always coach A -level athletes. How 00:17:06.789 --> 00:17:08.990 does that part work? Oh, that's a good question. 00:17:09.069 --> 00:17:11.829 Yeah, because it is. Each country kind of does 00:17:11.829 --> 00:17:14.549 their coaching different. The coaches here at 00:17:14.549 --> 00:17:17.250 the provincial level are mostly athletes, ex 00:17:17.250 --> 00:17:20.069 -athletes. Typically, to become a coach, it's 00:17:20.069 --> 00:17:22.529 not like you pass a coaching and you become a 00:17:22.529 --> 00:17:25.450 coach. You're usually an athlete who does well, 00:17:25.549 --> 00:17:27.589 and then you pass the coaching certificate to 00:17:27.589 --> 00:17:30.809 say you're good enough to coach. And it does 00:17:30.809 --> 00:17:32.990 actually relate kind of to you. So at the National 00:17:32.990 --> 00:17:34.769 Games, this is one of the reasons why I keep 00:17:34.769 --> 00:17:37.640 bringing it back. but if the athlete wins at 00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:39.700 national games they're guaranteed a coaching 00:17:39.700 --> 00:17:42.259 job like if they want to be a coaching job at 00:17:42.259 --> 00:17:45.400 a major city depending on availability but they 00:17:45.400 --> 00:17:47.779 get it so our head coach coach towel right now 00:17:47.779 --> 00:17:50.140 he is the national game champion he's the head 00:17:50.140 --> 00:17:52.099 of the men's team he's also very good as a coach 00:17:52.099 --> 00:17:54.599 which allows him to stay here for very long he's 00:17:54.599 --> 00:17:58.130 been here for a while So him as a coach, he is 00:17:58.130 --> 00:18:00.670 actually a national team team because his athletes 00:18:00.670 --> 00:18:03.109 have done well enough to make it to the national 00:18:03.109 --> 00:18:05.450 team. So if the athletes have won the competitions 00:18:05.450 --> 00:18:08.190 or are selected to national team, they keep their 00:18:08.190 --> 00:18:11.250 coach. So that coach can go up with them to the 00:18:11.250 --> 00:18:14.230 national team or national team coach can take 00:18:14.230 --> 00:18:16.170 them because some coaches don't want to go to 00:18:16.170 --> 00:18:18.410 national team. Our city is a lush, beautiful, 00:18:18.509 --> 00:18:21.009 tropical paradise. It's hot, but it's beautiful. 00:18:21.289 --> 00:18:25.029 They have families. They have lives here. You 00:18:25.029 --> 00:18:26.950 don't necessarily want to go to Beijing where 00:18:26.950 --> 00:18:29.170 it's cold, the snows and the pollution is a little 00:18:29.170 --> 00:18:31.490 bit stronger. So they might say, I don't want 00:18:31.490 --> 00:18:35.170 to go to Beijing. So coach you or coach someone. 00:18:35.390 --> 00:18:37.869 Can you take my athlete? Can you coach them on 00:18:37.869 --> 00:18:39.609 from here? And then they'll go up there. In the 00:18:39.609 --> 00:18:41.890 province and the national team, a coach will 00:18:41.890 --> 00:18:44.710 have more than one athlete normally. And I would 00:18:44.710 --> 00:18:47.849 say typically between around four athletes. I 00:18:47.849 --> 00:18:50.250 think I've seen up to six, but they'll have their 00:18:50.250 --> 00:18:53.730 squad and they'll be a mix. So they'll usually 00:18:53.730 --> 00:18:56.460 have... one or two like a level but they're also 00:18:56.460 --> 00:18:58.579 developing the younger athletes so like i said 00:18:58.579 --> 00:19:00.440 once they went to the provincial level like those 00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:02.420 younger athletes are there too so they're training 00:19:02.420 --> 00:19:05.640 with the top tier at the same time which is awesome 00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:07.579 because you see this amazing lifter and you're 00:19:07.579 --> 00:19:09.059 right there and you're not there yet you're like 00:19:09.059 --> 00:19:10.920 oh i'm good and you're learning from them so 00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:14.660 it's it's usually four people i would say and 00:19:14.660 --> 00:19:18.160 usually one or two top and then some lower and 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:20.529 sometimes they'll have Extra athletes come in 00:19:20.529 --> 00:19:22.049 when they're doing selections. They'll bring 00:19:22.049 --> 00:19:24.150 in like a few extra, whether it be like summer 00:19:24.150 --> 00:19:25.849 break. So as they are from a normal school and 00:19:25.849 --> 00:19:27.009 they're trying it out and they think they'll 00:19:27.009 --> 00:19:28.690 be good, they might come for a summer training 00:19:28.690 --> 00:19:30.690 block. That happened this year. There's, I think, 00:19:30.690 --> 00:19:33.569 eight extra female athletes and another 10 extra 00:19:33.569 --> 00:19:35.630 male athletes that came here. They're training 00:19:35.630 --> 00:19:37.750 for a few months and then they're gone. Unless 00:19:37.750 --> 00:19:39.390 that they're good enough that already they stuck 00:19:39.390 --> 00:19:41.369 around. I think maybe one or two athletes stuck 00:19:41.369 --> 00:19:44.309 around after that. But the coaching in that squad 00:19:44.309 --> 00:19:47.490 allows for really good teamwork. They kind of 00:19:47.490 --> 00:19:50.069 act like a family. all kind of stay close in 00:19:50.069 --> 00:19:52.210 the dormitory they train together all the time 00:19:52.210 --> 00:19:54.390 sometimes they just walk everywhere together 00:19:54.390 --> 00:19:56.230 but that's just more that they're friends you're 00:19:56.230 --> 00:19:58.430 not and a national team same thing they'll have 00:19:58.430 --> 00:20:00.210 but a national team will be a little different 00:20:00.210 --> 00:20:04.009 the coach will have top tier to lower tier until 00:20:04.009 --> 00:20:06.369 they start pairing people away and then the coach 00:20:06.369 --> 00:20:08.309 will have like just the top tier like those who 00:20:08.309 --> 00:20:09.930 are going to the olympics or going to worlds 00:20:09.930 --> 00:20:12.609 or whatnot so their team will shrink but that's 00:20:12.609 --> 00:20:14.130 where i was talking about before they might keep 00:20:14.130 --> 00:20:15.589 some of the other athletes just so they have 00:20:15.589 --> 00:20:18.460 training partners so like stay here come hang 00:20:18.460 --> 00:20:20.740 out come bless with us make sure everyone's happy 00:20:20.740 --> 00:20:22.779 kind of thing so unless if you coach you who 00:20:22.779 --> 00:20:27.019 was Tantav's coach he just every single person 00:20:27.019 --> 00:20:30.059 he has is unbelievably amazing so his team was 00:20:30.059 --> 00:20:32.920 just stacked all the time he had no B's he did 00:20:32.920 --> 00:20:35.559 have like a B level athlete but he was still 00:20:35.980 --> 00:20:38.500 world level amazing so it's kind of like a strange 00:20:38.500 --> 00:20:41.200 it's like okay just superstars all over but then 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:44.940 everyone is equal so i guess on the day -to -day 00:20:44.940 --> 00:20:47.779 basis that might actually work pretty well because 00:20:47.779 --> 00:20:51.039 they are peers so probably you can feel don't 00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:53.740 feel what we view from outside no i would say 00:20:53.740 --> 00:20:56.579 like the only real competitions is if there is 00:20:56.579 --> 00:20:58.900 anything is between province but it's more so 00:20:58.900 --> 00:21:03.059 in the organization aspect of things in the sense 00:21:03.059 --> 00:21:05.839 that there's a money aspect behind everything. 00:21:06.039 --> 00:21:08.319 So if you win at national games, what's cool 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:11.920 here is, so say I'm a coach. Well, I don't get 00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:14.480 any bonuses, but a coach who has an athlete win 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:17.380 at national games, the athlete will get a cash 00:21:17.380 --> 00:21:20.059 bonus plus credibility to get higher level jobs 00:21:20.059 --> 00:21:22.720 after they retire. The coach will get a bonus. 00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:26.059 The province will get a bonus. Any coach that 00:21:26.059 --> 00:21:27.680 ever worked with the athlete will get a bonus. 00:21:27.900 --> 00:21:30.619 So even like that city level, all the levels 00:21:30.619 --> 00:21:32.740 below. they all get bonuses because they want 00:21:32.740 --> 00:21:34.960 to show like even at the city level just because 00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:36.880 you're at the lower level doesn't mean that you're 00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:39.140 not helping the system so they will also get 00:21:39.140 --> 00:21:41.940 bonuses as well but there's this everyone gets 00:21:41.940 --> 00:21:44.500 everyone wins when the athlete wins the specific 00:21:44.500 --> 00:21:47.000 number of the bonuses i don't know the details 00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:50.920 how did you end up in the job you have how did 00:21:50.920 --> 00:21:55.269 you get there oh uh luck Luck mostly. I think 00:21:55.269 --> 00:21:58.109 it all started with my friend, Dr. Brenna McPhail. 00:21:58.150 --> 00:22:01.950 She saw a post on Facebook about someone hiring 00:22:01.950 --> 00:22:04.569 for a national team in China. And there was just 00:22:04.569 --> 00:22:06.789 this big influx where they wanted to hire law 00:22:06.789 --> 00:22:09.049 foreign experts to help them with rehab, help 00:22:09.049 --> 00:22:10.490 them with performance training, help them with 00:22:10.490 --> 00:22:12.789 technical coaching, kind of a model of let's 00:22:12.789 --> 00:22:15.160 hire the best. Let's copy what they do so that 00:22:15.160 --> 00:22:17.779 we can do it better and then not need them anymore. 00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:21.099 And I applied and I applied for track and field 00:22:21.099 --> 00:22:23.680 initially. But then through like, oh, we actually 00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:26.359 have this province job. It sounded more interesting 00:22:26.359 --> 00:22:28.839 to me because there was less one team or managing 00:22:28.839 --> 00:22:32.900 a whole program. And then I applied. But the 00:22:32.900 --> 00:22:35.900 experience I had before, I've worked, I volunteered 00:22:35.900 --> 00:22:39.480 for like 10 years. with rugby, American football, 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:43.640 soccer, with basketball. I was strength and conditioning 00:22:43.640 --> 00:22:45.900 coach for a while. I did first responder work. 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:49.420 So I was within sport and had a lot of experience 00:22:49.420 --> 00:22:51.400 with different sports. I worked with a team to 00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:55.200 make a pickle at Penn Relays. So I had experience 00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:58.140 with the sports, which was good for the application. 00:22:58.579 --> 00:23:01.720 So if you're ever looking to get a job working 00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:04.240 high performance in China, they really want to 00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:06.039 make sure that you have a legitimate degree because 00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:08.839 there's a lot. of fake degrees out there. Make 00:23:08.839 --> 00:23:10.960 sure you have the paper copy of your degree. 00:23:11.099 --> 00:23:12.779 At no point when I was going through school, 00:23:12.839 --> 00:23:14.819 I was like, I really need this physical paper. 00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:16.559 And I came here and was like, if you don't show 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:17.940 me your physical paper, I don't believe you. 00:23:17.980 --> 00:23:20.259 Mom, dad, help me. So you need a physical degree, 00:23:20.460 --> 00:23:23.000 real, and then you need experience. A lot of 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:24.880 the jobs here are like, oh, we want you to have 00:23:24.880 --> 00:23:27.180 five years of experience with Olympic athletes. 00:23:27.400 --> 00:23:29.380 But we're like, yeah, outside of China, that's 00:23:29.380 --> 00:23:31.339 not that easy. But the more experience you have 00:23:31.339 --> 00:23:34.099 with teams, the more experience you have working 00:23:34.099 --> 00:23:36.220 in sport, even if it's not paid, it's just... 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:38.099 Like as long as you're working, like you're doing 00:23:38.099 --> 00:23:40.039 stuff with sports, that's what they cared a lot 00:23:40.039 --> 00:23:41.619 about. And that's what I always did. That was 00:23:41.619 --> 00:23:44.039 my back. Like that was my weekends and stuff. 00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:46.579 I always went to competitions and stuff. So that 00:23:46.579 --> 00:23:49.579 helps me quite a bit. And then the reason I got 00:23:49.579 --> 00:23:52.519 chose here was because of the list of certifications 00:23:52.519 --> 00:23:55.299 and things that I had. The leader who ran this 00:23:55.299 --> 00:23:58.339 place recognized one of the certifications I 00:23:58.339 --> 00:24:00.500 had. I forget which one she even cared about. 00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:02.500 But it was just because her English wasn't that 00:24:02.500 --> 00:24:04.359 great. But she's like, I know that one. And then 00:24:04.359 --> 00:24:06.450 she's like, if I know it. probably good so like 00:24:06.450 --> 00:24:08.750 that was just a pure luck like i happen to like 00:24:08.750 --> 00:24:11.470 know the system that she likes and then she asked 00:24:11.470 --> 00:24:14.029 for me out of the list of candidates so it was 00:24:14.029 --> 00:24:17.369 like luck comes in part but that came from having 00:24:17.369 --> 00:24:20.289 a lot of different experiences so yeah that's 00:24:20.289 --> 00:24:21.990 why i like to say it's like it's kind of more 00:24:21.990 --> 00:24:24.720 luck like i didn't envision I want to go to China. 00:24:24.819 --> 00:24:27.079 It was just, I took advantage of the opportunity 00:24:27.079 --> 00:24:28.700 when it showed up. How long have you been there 00:24:28.700 --> 00:24:30.960 for? This is my seventh year. It's been a while. 00:24:31.140 --> 00:24:33.660 Wow. That's very impressive. All right. So you're 00:24:33.660 --> 00:24:37.299 a seasoned specialist and let's... Talk a little 00:24:37.299 --> 00:24:40.700 bit about the training, how the weightlifter 00:24:40.700 --> 00:24:43.680 training looks like day to day or throughout 00:24:43.680 --> 00:24:46.400 the year. I would say that if you pick a name 00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:48.519 out of a hat, some will have a four -year plan, 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:50.140 some will have a two -year plan, some will have 00:24:50.140 --> 00:24:52.380 a today plan. This is where the system is not 00:24:52.380 --> 00:24:55.000 a system here. They each on the national team, 00:24:55.059 --> 00:24:56.900 for example, definitely they're planning ahead. 00:24:57.220 --> 00:25:00.299 When they put the team together, like I said, 00:25:00.339 --> 00:25:02.299 the national team for weightlifting is not really 00:25:02.299 --> 00:25:05.380 put together. There is a group, but it's usually 00:25:05.380 --> 00:25:07.609 more junior. or people they're thinking of adding 00:25:07.609 --> 00:25:09.730 onto the team. But after this national games, 00:25:09.829 --> 00:25:11.789 it'll likely be built fairly quickly. They'll 00:25:11.789 --> 00:25:13.750 get the coaches that they want and then they'll 00:25:13.750 --> 00:25:16.289 probably put in a plan to LA. Like it'll be, 00:25:16.289 --> 00:25:19.910 this is... our competition plan to LA and they 00:25:19.910 --> 00:25:22.930 will plan like, okay, LA is obviously the key. 00:25:23.089 --> 00:25:25.069 They'll do all the politics of which categories. 00:25:25.130 --> 00:25:27.549 That's the big thing here. We're all small categories 00:25:27.549 --> 00:25:30.230 here. So they're like, LA, the Americans like 00:25:30.230 --> 00:25:32.230 bigger sizes, so they might not want our smaller 00:25:32.230 --> 00:25:34.930 sizes. So it's a concern for some. They'll plan 00:25:34.930 --> 00:25:36.990 backwards that way. What are the major competitions 00:25:36.990 --> 00:25:39.390 they're going to need to perform at? And then 00:25:39.390 --> 00:25:40.710 they'll decide which ones are qualifications 00:25:40.710 --> 00:25:43.910 and they'll do all that. So the national team 00:25:43.910 --> 00:25:45.559 level, they are going to. They're going to plan 00:25:45.559 --> 00:25:48.019 out, but they, at the provincial level, because 00:25:48.019 --> 00:25:49.740 a lot of those athletes will still be training 00:25:49.740 --> 00:25:52.380 at the provincial level, they will probably at 00:25:52.380 --> 00:25:54.799 least plan out the year, have a good idea of 00:25:54.799 --> 00:25:56.839 like the year, which one, which competition is 00:25:56.839 --> 00:25:58.579 going to matter more, which ones do we want to 00:25:58.579 --> 00:26:00.299 peak for versus which ones do we just want to 00:26:00.299 --> 00:26:02.259 show up to. You don't always have to peak for 00:26:02.259 --> 00:26:04.259 competition. I think that's, that's a misunderstanding. 00:26:04.440 --> 00:26:06.500 A lot of people go like, I have to peak for every 00:26:06.500 --> 00:26:08.880 competition, but if you did that, man, your body 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:10.980 would break so quickly. Because peaking is like, 00:26:10.980 --> 00:26:13.640 you're priming to get the mess out of your body 00:26:13.640 --> 00:26:16.460 and that. Or sometimes the athletes are like, 00:26:16.579 --> 00:26:19.920 I'm peaking for Asia champs. And it will depend 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:22.759 on the athlete. So if, say, an athlete's a junior, 00:26:22.859 --> 00:26:24.519 they're going to obviously peak for junior competitions. 00:26:24.599 --> 00:26:27.579 But maybe this junior athlete is transitioning 00:26:27.579 --> 00:26:30.339 to senior. They're going to peak for maybe like 00:26:30.339 --> 00:26:33.579 Asia champs or worlds. That'll be their... ultimate 00:26:33.579 --> 00:26:36.700 goal so i know aim for that and they won't be 00:26:36.700 --> 00:26:38.380 aiming necessarily for the olympics until they 00:26:38.380 --> 00:26:40.779 can reach that with first goal right so that's 00:26:40.779 --> 00:26:43.380 just generally like it's very it fluctuates depending 00:26:43.380 --> 00:26:45.420 on the athlete depending on the coach depending 00:26:45.420 --> 00:26:48.059 on their level that they're training at it it's 00:26:48.059 --> 00:26:51.559 going to be very unsystematic in around the country 00:26:51.559 --> 00:26:54.180 but each person will have their own plan and 00:26:54.180 --> 00:26:56.839 i've never seen them go like here's a two -year 00:26:56.839 --> 00:27:00.160 plan with the the graphs and and like intensity 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:03.079 volume stuff like that i think that is very much 00:27:03.079 --> 00:27:06.059 specific to the coach and i think that they prefer 00:27:06.059 --> 00:27:09.740 to use a system of training like this is my weekly 00:27:09.740 --> 00:27:12.140 system or like like maybe like they have blocks 00:27:12.140 --> 00:27:14.920 but they're not like so much like undulating 00:27:14.920 --> 00:27:17.779 periodization fancy calculations it's it's more 00:27:17.779 --> 00:27:20.700 i need to get this like this is weak right now 00:27:20.700 --> 00:27:22.950 let's get this one up Okay, next one. Okay, what's 00:27:22.950 --> 00:27:25.269 weak now? Let's focus on that. It's more adapted 00:27:25.269 --> 00:27:27.230 to what they're showing up with. At least what 00:27:27.230 --> 00:27:30.029 I see from the coach here, Coach Dung, who was 00:27:30.029 --> 00:27:34.470 a national team coach before the Tokyo Olympics, 00:27:34.650 --> 00:27:37.029 but she came back to run the team here. So I 00:27:37.029 --> 00:27:39.730 see some of her planning and it seems to be more 00:27:39.730 --> 00:27:42.470 like weak point trainings. Like, let's get this 00:27:42.470 --> 00:27:45.109 number up for you. And then they have a general 00:27:45.109 --> 00:27:48.579 flow of the weekly training. weekly, monthly 00:27:48.579 --> 00:27:51.079 training. How many for weightlifting team you 00:27:51.079 --> 00:27:54.019 have at your province? How many athletes roughly 00:27:54.019 --> 00:27:57.799 and how many coaches? And obviously you are responsible 00:27:57.799 --> 00:28:01.660 for all the sports. So how the rehab and prehab, 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:05.299 how that builds in? Who is responsible for what 00:28:05.299 --> 00:28:07.619 and how many people are involved? That's what 00:28:07.619 --> 00:28:11.079 I'm asking about. So our program is, I would 00:28:11.079 --> 00:28:13.720 say there's about eight to 10 coaches on the 00:28:13.720 --> 00:28:17.559 men's side, six coaches on the female side. GMO 00:28:17.559 --> 00:28:22.450 side, probably 30 -ish athletes. Inside 40, a 00:28:22.450 --> 00:28:24.509 little bit more. Actually, no, that number might 00:28:24.509 --> 00:28:25.930 be too high. I'm thinking of when they're summer. 00:28:26.089 --> 00:28:29.069 But basically, on the base, it'd be maybe between 00:28:29.069 --> 00:28:31.890 50 and 80 athletes, depending on the season, 00:28:32.049 --> 00:28:34.390 like if they have more UBs or not. I would say 00:28:34.390 --> 00:28:37.349 that's kind of standard. I would say some provinces 00:28:37.349 --> 00:28:40.029 have more, like the Beijing team, I think, has 00:28:40.029 --> 00:28:43.170 more. But each area, depending on, I guess, how 00:28:43.170 --> 00:28:44.930 many people are doing well, they might have a 00:28:44.930 --> 00:28:48.069 bigger number or just based on budget, if they 00:28:48.069 --> 00:28:50.910 can afford to have more people. Recovery aspect. 00:28:50.970 --> 00:28:53.529 So I like to break down the Chinese system into 00:28:53.529 --> 00:28:57.009 they have the coaching technical staff. They 00:28:57.009 --> 00:28:59.589 have the recovery team. So they call them doctors 00:28:59.589 --> 00:29:02.009 here. Not all doctors are all doctors. Sometimes 00:29:02.009 --> 00:29:04.599 massage therapist is a doctor. But this recovery 00:29:04.599 --> 00:29:07.319 team is basically, they'll usually have at least 00:29:07.319 --> 00:29:10.460 one medical, like real legit medical doctor or 00:29:10.460 --> 00:29:13.660 team who is going to be like any like, if they 00:29:13.660 --> 00:29:16.220 need to consider surgery, any injections, medicines, 00:29:16.640 --> 00:29:20.339 they usually have a doctor on base, several doctors. 00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:22.740 We have a hospital on base, but there's could 00:29:22.740 --> 00:29:24.480 be like for your like, if you have colds and 00:29:24.480 --> 00:29:26.160 flus and stuff, there'll be doctors there to 00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:28.279 help the athletes. There'll be sports scientists 00:29:28.279 --> 00:29:31.119 who here typically just mean like they analyze 00:29:31.119 --> 00:29:33.329 your blood. So because they do all. their internal 00:29:33.329 --> 00:29:35.869 testing make sure the athletes are healthy that 00:29:35.869 --> 00:29:37.390 everything's going well so that they're testing 00:29:37.390 --> 00:29:39.470 the blood there and then they're when once they're 00:29:39.470 --> 00:29:42.009 international athletes then they follow the water 00:29:42.009 --> 00:29:45.480 and they continue their testing Then they have, 00:29:45.559 --> 00:29:47.700 so the team doctors on team, they'll probably 00:29:47.700 --> 00:29:51.980 be weightlifting has six on the female side and 00:29:51.980 --> 00:29:55.579 another six on the men's side. And those doctors 00:29:55.579 --> 00:29:59.339 basically are your, I hurt here. Okay, come and 00:29:59.339 --> 00:30:02.559 massage it or accuate or do something. And that 00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:04.839 will be before training or after training or 00:30:04.839 --> 00:30:07.200 at night. So athletes basically have access to 00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:10.000 care any day, whenever they need. Those doctors 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:12.140 will be at the training hall. So if they are 00:30:12.140 --> 00:30:13.599 training, then the athlete's like, you know, 00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:15.859 my shoulders. a little tight they'll go they'll 00:30:15.859 --> 00:30:18.480 rub it they'll do like the like spot massage 00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:20.759 like okay go back so they'll they'll have that 00:30:20.759 --> 00:30:22.900 treatment throughout the training which is incredible 00:30:22.900 --> 00:30:25.640 they'll also do a lot of stepping massage before 00:30:25.640 --> 00:30:28.359 training so the team doctor will get some sticks 00:30:28.359 --> 00:30:31.619 stand on you step on all the areas that are tight 00:30:31.619 --> 00:30:34.740 that aren't what the athlete wants to relax and 00:30:34.740 --> 00:30:37.400 after training they'll they usually have a good 00:30:37.400 --> 00:30:39.220 treatment room with ac because it's hot here 00:30:39.220 --> 00:30:42.059 so they'll go to another room have ac on they'll 00:30:42.059 --> 00:30:45.170 have five to eight treatment beds and then athletes 00:30:45.170 --> 00:30:47.819 just come in. file into a bed that's free. Team 00:30:47.819 --> 00:30:49.799 doctor massages whether they ask them to massage 00:30:49.799 --> 00:30:52.940 or if they have an acupuncturist, the acupuncturist 00:30:52.940 --> 00:30:54.480 will do it. Sometimes they'll do cupping. It's 00:30:54.480 --> 00:30:56.559 kind of like dealer's choice for the doctor or 00:30:56.559 --> 00:30:58.119 for the athlete. If the athlete goes, I want 00:30:58.119 --> 00:30:59.740 acupuncture, they'll go to the person they like 00:30:59.740 --> 00:31:02.059 their acupuncture, get acupuncture. If they like 00:31:02.059 --> 00:31:03.940 cupping, they'll go cupping. So that's all in 00:31:03.940 --> 00:31:05.579 the team. Does that make sense? So they have 00:31:05.579 --> 00:31:08.599 the team doctors, sports doctors, they have sports 00:31:08.599 --> 00:31:11.519 scientists at the blood work. The sport hospital, 00:31:11.779 --> 00:31:14.440 so kind of think more centrally now, has rooms 00:31:14.440 --> 00:31:17.039 for more teams. doctors. But these ones aren't 00:31:17.039 --> 00:31:19.319 specific to teens. They're just doctors to do 00:31:19.319 --> 00:31:21.299 treatments. So this is where like if your team 00:31:21.299 --> 00:31:23.160 doctor is too busy or your timing just wasn't 00:31:23.160 --> 00:31:25.660 good, you had to go eat and you missed the treatment 00:31:25.660 --> 00:31:27.720 time, you'd go to the hospital and then they 00:31:27.720 --> 00:31:29.700 have a whole bunch of people there to help treat 00:31:29.700 --> 00:31:31.859 on any other issues. That's where they'll have 00:31:31.859 --> 00:31:35.279 modalities, so many modalities. If it has a fancy 00:31:35.279 --> 00:31:39.960 name, it's electric, magnifier, microwave, elective 00:31:39.960 --> 00:31:42.640 input, blah, like any modality you could think 00:31:42.640 --> 00:31:44.779 of, they have it. They usually get the athletes. 00:31:44.880 --> 00:31:46.559 to do it themselves, but they will have what 00:31:46.559 --> 00:31:49.119 they call physiotherapists. A physiotherapist 00:31:49.119 --> 00:31:52.279 is a modality monitor. So physiotherapy here 00:31:52.279 --> 00:31:54.880 means just modalities. No, not what we consider 00:31:54.880 --> 00:31:57.019 physiotherapy in other countries. A physiotherapist 00:31:57.019 --> 00:31:58.980 is the person who just runs the machines and 00:31:58.980 --> 00:32:01.180 tells people right inputs and stuff. Then centrally 00:32:01.180 --> 00:32:04.460 here, we have our performance center, which is 00:32:04.460 --> 00:32:06.680 our strength and conditioning coaches, which 00:32:06.680 --> 00:32:08.859 in China they call performance coaches. And then 00:32:08.859 --> 00:32:11.420 we have our rehab specialist team, which is the 00:32:11.420 --> 00:32:13.859 team I run. And we both work in a separate building. 00:32:14.089 --> 00:32:17.490 and we're centralized but we'll also send two 00:32:17.490 --> 00:32:21.029 or three specialists per team to go to the training 00:32:21.029 --> 00:32:23.829 hall and do their like help them with their warm 00:32:23.829 --> 00:32:25.769 -ups if they need it or if they're hurt give 00:32:25.769 --> 00:32:28.829 them rehab after their training or if they can't 00:32:28.829 --> 00:32:31.069 train then they'll come here and do rehab here 00:32:31.069 --> 00:32:32.890 so that they can train and then they'll go over 00:32:32.890 --> 00:32:35.289 there kind of all over the place and then the 00:32:35.289 --> 00:32:37.690 performance side even weightlifting which is 00:32:37.690 --> 00:32:40.049 it took us a while to figure out how to make 00:32:40.049 --> 00:32:41.970 it work but the weightlifters will see strength 00:32:41.970 --> 00:32:44.089 and conditioning coaches as well And so even 00:32:44.089 --> 00:32:45.809 though weightlifting is strength and conditioning, 00:32:46.109 --> 00:32:48.589 like almost in complete nature, like weightlifting 00:32:48.589 --> 00:32:50.910 has good accessories, it has good mobility, it 00:32:50.910 --> 00:32:53.109 has everything. But the athletes will still go 00:32:53.109 --> 00:32:55.750 to the strength and conditioning team. And that's 00:32:55.750 --> 00:32:57.630 where we do a lot of our testing. So our strength 00:32:57.630 --> 00:32:59.670 and conditioning team do a lot of our objective 00:32:59.670 --> 00:33:01.630 measures, like how's your power output? How's 00:33:01.630 --> 00:33:03.430 your strength output? And then based off of that, 00:33:03.549 --> 00:33:06.430 they are spot tweaking the programming, not the 00:33:06.430 --> 00:33:08.250 weightlifting program, but they'll add one or 00:33:08.250 --> 00:33:10.589 two sessions a week to just work on areas that 00:33:10.589 --> 00:33:12.920 the performance coaches think need help. Or if 00:33:12.920 --> 00:33:15.400 they've been hurt and they're not injured anymore, 00:33:15.519 --> 00:33:17.279 they might just do extra work to make sure that 00:33:17.279 --> 00:33:18.680 they're not getting hurt again. So if I were 00:33:18.680 --> 00:33:21.220 to summarize that, basically we have our performance 00:33:21.220 --> 00:33:23.980 support team, which is strength and conditioning 00:33:23.980 --> 00:33:27.160 geared to improving your objective, like your 00:33:27.160 --> 00:33:29.980 testing data. We have a rehab to... help with 00:33:29.980 --> 00:33:32.660 extra treatment but managing injuries and restoring 00:33:32.660 --> 00:33:35.039 like your ability to train and then we have our 00:33:35.039 --> 00:33:37.400 recovery team which is just our general they're 00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:40.359 like general maintaining of their healthy tissues 00:33:40.359 --> 00:33:42.519 of their nutrition of their health and stuff 00:33:42.519 --> 00:33:44.779 so that's those are like the two big categories 00:33:44.779 --> 00:33:47.799 they have and they have access to it all the 00:33:47.799 --> 00:33:50.349 time the only limitation would be I can only 00:33:50.349 --> 00:33:52.130 treat a certain amount of people a day, same 00:33:52.130 --> 00:33:54.450 with our staff. So it's kind of, there'll be 00:33:54.450 --> 00:33:57.809 a prioritization on if an athlete is going to 00:33:57.809 --> 00:33:59.490 win at a competition, they're going to get first 00:33:59.490 --> 00:34:01.650 come, first served. So there is a little bit 00:34:01.650 --> 00:34:03.650 of a politics of the better you are, the more 00:34:03.650 --> 00:34:07.089 access you have. Yeah, fast pass. You get a fast 00:34:07.089 --> 00:34:09.250 pass if you win. And if you're going to win, 00:34:09.309 --> 00:34:11.030 you get a fast pass. And it's just literally 00:34:11.030 --> 00:34:13.690 a logistics thing because they have so many athletes. 00:34:13.730 --> 00:34:15.949 There's only so much staff they can afford. But 00:34:15.949 --> 00:34:19.420 what I would say is... like the evolution here. 00:34:20.010 --> 00:34:22.469 Where I first started off, I worked out of two 00:34:22.469 --> 00:34:25.989 medical examination rooms. Like if you picture 00:34:25.989 --> 00:34:29.329 going into a small closet room with a little 00:34:29.329 --> 00:34:31.429 bed on the side and a little desk, we had two 00:34:31.429 --> 00:34:33.389 of those rooms as our rehab facility when I first 00:34:33.389 --> 00:34:35.929 came here. And then because we were doing successful, 00:34:36.170 --> 00:34:37.730 then they're like, hey, we'll build you another 00:34:37.730 --> 00:34:39.889 room, which is a room that can fit like maybe 00:34:39.889 --> 00:34:41.610 four beds. And then they're like, you know what, 00:34:41.610 --> 00:34:43.110 you're doing well enough. Okay, we need more 00:34:43.110 --> 00:34:45.469 people. Let's hire, well, they hired 30 people, 00:34:45.590 --> 00:34:47.530 which was crazy. And it's like, okay, let's create 00:34:47.530 --> 00:34:50.329 another place here, 20 beds. And now we're in 00:34:50.329 --> 00:34:53.010 those. We have 30 beds, but we also have an entire 00:34:53.010 --> 00:34:56.289 training facility too with it. So they will adapt 00:34:56.289 --> 00:34:59.130 based on needs. So they notice that they need 00:34:59.130 --> 00:35:02.010 more, so they may give a few more. So I guess 00:35:02.010 --> 00:35:04.449 that's how it keeps evolving here. How much of 00:35:04.449 --> 00:35:06.949 the life of a professional athlete in China, 00:35:06.989 --> 00:35:09.670 in weightlifting specifically, is designed and 00:35:09.670 --> 00:35:12.289 prepared for them by the team, broadly speaking, 00:35:12.469 --> 00:35:16.110 and how much they have influence on what is happening 00:35:16.110 --> 00:35:18.530 day to day with their bodies and their training? 00:35:18.730 --> 00:35:20.809 Well, it's all scheduled here. It's very much 00:35:20.809 --> 00:35:23.820 every day. You're part of the team. Like a team, 00:35:23.860 --> 00:35:26.059 this is your full -time job. Mealtimes are certain 00:35:26.059 --> 00:35:28.980 time. Everyone goes to training same time. So 00:35:28.980 --> 00:35:32.099 here, we typically follow Monday to Saturday 00:35:32.099 --> 00:35:34.900 training schedule. Monday morning, well, this 00:35:34.900 --> 00:35:36.780 will depend on the block that there are. But 00:35:36.780 --> 00:35:38.760 Monday, Saturday, they're training. They always 00:35:38.760 --> 00:35:40.699 train at the same time, usually in the morning, 00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:42.460 sometimes in the afternoon if they have to change 00:35:42.460 --> 00:35:44.860 things up. But Wednesdays and Fridays, they get 00:35:44.860 --> 00:35:47.260 off. Sundays, they get off. Wednesday and Friday 00:35:47.260 --> 00:35:49.099 afternoons are off. Mornings, they still train. 00:35:49.300 --> 00:35:51.570 Sundays, they get the whole day off. expected 00:35:51.570 --> 00:35:55.929 to be on base they are the food is kind of controlled 00:35:55.929 --> 00:35:58.670 so they eat at the canteen depending on if they're 00:35:58.670 --> 00:36:00.570 going to like certain competitions so if say 00:36:00.570 --> 00:36:02.789 for example we have an athlete that's going to 00:36:02.789 --> 00:36:04.809 go to worlds who went to worlds she would now 00:36:04.809 --> 00:36:07.670 no longer be allowed to order food to get delivered 00:36:07.670 --> 00:36:10.690 she wouldn't be able to order bubble teas and 00:36:10.690 --> 00:36:12.730 like foods on the street because they want to 00:36:12.730 --> 00:36:14.789 make sure there's no contamination from outside 00:36:14.789 --> 00:36:17.690 could also be for weight management and sometimes 00:36:17.690 --> 00:36:20.309 they the higher level athletes might even have 00:36:20.309 --> 00:36:23.670 like a menu designed for them and they have the 00:36:23.670 --> 00:36:25.369 options like if they're hurting or they're not 00:36:25.369 --> 00:36:27.630 feeling good like they talk to the coach like 00:36:27.630 --> 00:36:29.570 you'll see them negotiate like what they should 00:36:29.570 --> 00:36:32.030 do and stuff but pretty much it's the entire 00:36:32.030 --> 00:36:35.269 day's planned for them like it's the same thing 00:36:35.269 --> 00:36:39.239 every time and in terms of the training all exercises, 00:36:39.500 --> 00:36:42.699 sets, reps, loading, everything is prescribed 00:36:42.699 --> 00:36:45.179 ahead of time or the coach decides will we watch 00:36:45.179 --> 00:36:47.599 the athlete or the athlete chooses the exercise, 00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:50.300 how that works. So typically they'll follow like 00:36:50.300 --> 00:36:53.619 a schedule. So I'll give you for example, Zhao 00:36:53.619 --> 00:36:55.480 Jinghong is nice enough to give me like what 00:36:55.480 --> 00:36:57.960 her current schedule is now. So she said basically 00:36:57.960 --> 00:37:00.880 currently they're doing a two week heavy, one 00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:04.179 week light rotation. So they go two weeks heavy, 00:37:04.340 --> 00:37:06.039 one week light, two weeks heavy, one week light 00:37:06.039 --> 00:37:07.920 and then soon they'll switch over to a peak. 00:37:08.110 --> 00:37:11.530 for the national game. But Monday is snatch from 00:37:11.530 --> 00:37:14.909 me, clean, panda paw, and wide grip deadlift. 00:37:15.010 --> 00:37:16.849 So those are the exercises that I've been slept 00:37:16.849 --> 00:37:19.769 for her on Monday. The weight she goes to, if 00:37:19.769 --> 00:37:22.150 it's a heavy, she's going heavy. So she's going 00:37:22.150 --> 00:37:24.630 to try to go as heavy as she can. It's kind of 00:37:24.630 --> 00:37:27.190 more by feel. So if they feel good, they're going 00:37:27.190 --> 00:37:29.550 to go heavier. If they feel like they could get 00:37:29.550 --> 00:37:31.110 another rep out of there, they're going to get 00:37:31.110 --> 00:37:33.070 another rep. So it's not so much like we're going 00:37:33.070 --> 00:37:36.170 for three rep max. It's go heavy. If I got a 00:37:36.170 --> 00:37:38.059 weight and I'm like, I can. do two more reps 00:37:38.059 --> 00:37:40.039 of that it's like and then you're like this is 00:37:40.039 --> 00:37:41.739 heavy enough i'm gonna try to get as many reps 00:37:41.739 --> 00:37:44.000 as i can at the heaviest if they're like i can 00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:45.619 go heavier they're not gonna waste their energy 00:37:45.619 --> 00:37:47.239 giving more reps they're just gonna do like that 00:37:47.239 --> 00:37:49.340 one rep or two reps and then they're gonna keep 00:37:49.340 --> 00:37:51.039 going heavier until they get to the heaviest 00:37:51.039 --> 00:37:53.920 they can so they get to choose based on how they 00:37:53.920 --> 00:37:56.969 feel and all the athletes say it's like i treat 00:37:56.969 --> 00:37:59.650 like how do i feel i'm that's what i'm gonna 00:37:59.650 --> 00:38:02.670 do so if they can't do an exercise then the coach 00:38:02.670 --> 00:38:04.829 comes in to like okay let's like our focus is 00:38:04.829 --> 00:38:07.449 to smash so like like if it's not snatched from 00:38:07.449 --> 00:38:09.510 me like maybe let's put some blocks on there 00:38:09.510 --> 00:38:11.829 let's do some blocks snatches like so they'll 00:38:11.829 --> 00:38:13.710 modify it based on how the athlete's feeling 00:38:13.710 --> 00:38:16.110 rather than give lots of different variation 00:38:16.110 --> 00:38:19.510 of exercises to plan go so it's athlete chooses 00:38:19.510 --> 00:38:21.449 based on how they're feeling that day so i guess 00:38:21.449 --> 00:38:24.050 it's that variable is very strong and then coach 00:38:24.050 --> 00:38:26.460 kind of says like we need to go heavy or we're 00:38:26.460 --> 00:38:28.800 going lighter. But then the coach is helping 00:38:28.800 --> 00:38:31.199 monitor and coach their technique so that they're 00:38:31.199 --> 00:38:34.119 doing well. And that's kind of like what I see 00:38:34.119 --> 00:38:36.139 how they're doing their training. If you want 00:38:36.139 --> 00:38:38.860 to see kind of the full week, like Monday is 00:38:38.860 --> 00:38:42.400 like a snatch day, clean pan and pull, wide deadlift 00:38:42.400 --> 00:38:44.860 or snatch group deadlift. Tuesday is the jerk 00:38:44.860 --> 00:38:47.739 from rack, front squat, jerk dips. Wednesday, 00:38:47.940 --> 00:38:50.500 like high snatch or power snatch or high clean. 00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:53.139 I think it depends. I think that Wednesday is 00:38:53.139 --> 00:38:55.300 kind of variable depending on what the weak point 00:38:55.300 --> 00:38:57.760 is. Thursday, you're typically doing back squat. 00:38:57.940 --> 00:39:00.480 I think it's typically like a high back squat, 00:39:00.539 --> 00:39:03.920 like not high bar, like a quarter squat or half 00:39:03.920 --> 00:39:06.380 squat. They're not doing acid grass on that one. 00:39:06.420 --> 00:39:08.059 They're doing more of a higher one so they can 00:39:08.059 --> 00:39:10.320 add extra weight. And then they do really heavy 00:39:10.320 --> 00:39:13.039 like jerk holds just to build up their... It's 00:39:13.039 --> 00:39:14.960 kind of more of being able to handle heavy weight 00:39:14.960 --> 00:39:18.539 day. A Friday then becomes snatch. And usually 00:39:18.539 --> 00:39:20.940 they do like a narrow grip deadlift. which would 00:39:20.940 --> 00:39:22.639 be a deadlift for the rest of the world. But 00:39:22.639 --> 00:39:25.519 then Saturday, yeah, clean deadlift, narrow grip. 00:39:25.599 --> 00:39:29.039 And then Saturday. clean and jerks and back squats. 00:39:29.360 --> 00:39:31.980 So that would be an example of a week. But that 00:39:31.980 --> 00:39:35.440 is from one coach. Typically, each coach is following 00:39:35.440 --> 00:39:37.460 a general standard, but the specific exercise 00:39:37.460 --> 00:39:40.179 might change. Like Lisha Rial was doing, I guess 00:39:40.179 --> 00:39:41.579 like in the Western world, they would just call 00:39:41.579 --> 00:39:45.320 them Jefferson curls, like straight leg deficit 00:39:45.320 --> 00:39:47.699 deadlifts, but like going all the way, a full 00:39:47.699 --> 00:39:49.960 rounded all the way up. So they had that on, 00:39:50.099 --> 00:39:52.719 it was that, that was on, it was on Monday that 00:39:52.719 --> 00:39:55.420 each athlete or each coach might have different 00:39:55.420 --> 00:39:58.150 prescriptions. That would be based on the athlete 00:39:58.150 --> 00:39:59.929 coach, what they think is needed. So perhaps 00:39:59.929 --> 00:40:02.550 it was related to a weakness they think she had 00:40:02.550 --> 00:40:05.650 or whatnot. So very variable, but they always 00:40:05.650 --> 00:40:07.849 have like, this is the standard framework. That's 00:40:07.849 --> 00:40:09.769 awesome. Thank you. Now, what happens when the 00:40:09.769 --> 00:40:13.150 athlete is injured? Do they go back to the city? 00:40:13.269 --> 00:40:16.289 Do they stay and rehab there? Who is responsible 00:40:16.289 --> 00:40:19.869 for the rehab plan and how does it go? So rehab 00:40:19.869 --> 00:40:22.670 here is basically done in a few ways. First is 00:40:22.670 --> 00:40:25.230 how I hurt. Team doctor tries to treat it away. 00:40:25.369 --> 00:40:27.909 If it's managed by treatment, stops there. Just 00:40:27.909 --> 00:40:29.909 keep training, manage it by treatment. Keep training 00:40:29.909 --> 00:40:31.630 until it goes away. When I first came here, I 00:40:31.630 --> 00:40:34.170 was very appalled by how it kind of looked. But 00:40:34.170 --> 00:40:36.550 now I truly understand, like, keep training. 00:40:36.909 --> 00:40:39.929 is is huge here the the coach will modify like 00:40:39.929 --> 00:40:42.369 so we kind of have a rule it's like if if it's 00:40:42.369 --> 00:40:44.610 it's more painful when you go heavier and you 00:40:44.610 --> 00:40:47.610 start seeing that form get really ugly and stuff 00:40:47.610 --> 00:40:50.230 you're gonna go down to the level like they usually 00:40:50.230 --> 00:40:53.489 say like 70 so go lighter go 70 find the range 00:40:53.489 --> 00:40:55.289 where it's not hurting anymore where you have 00:40:55.289 --> 00:40:57.269 good form and they'll do like a few weeks of 00:40:57.269 --> 00:40:59.789 hypertrophy at that level like let's do lots 00:40:59.789 --> 00:41:02.530 of reps high volume six to ten sets of six to 00:41:02.530 --> 00:41:04.690 ten reps like or high reps depending on the athlete 00:41:04.690 --> 00:41:06.239 a lot of athletes don't like high reps they'll 00:41:06.239 --> 00:41:09.559 never go to 10 reps but they'll spend time there 00:41:09.559 --> 00:41:12.000 and then okay let's go back up and as you progress 00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:14.440 back out so a lot of the rehab is actually done 00:41:14.440 --> 00:41:16.619 just through the training We'll do similar kind 00:41:16.619 --> 00:41:18.780 of variations. If it's more of a fatigue thing, 00:41:18.860 --> 00:41:20.860 like if they're like feeling gassed and they're 00:41:20.860 --> 00:41:23.400 tired, they'll use more cluster sets. They'll 00:41:23.400 --> 00:41:26.659 use longer rest intervals or they'll just reduce 00:41:26.659 --> 00:41:28.559 the total volume so that they're not as gassed. 00:41:28.760 --> 00:41:30.719 And then if it's like a range of motion, they 00:41:30.719 --> 00:41:32.579 start, okay, let's do block pulls instead of 00:41:32.579 --> 00:41:35.719 from the floor. They'll do those tweaks in the 00:41:35.719 --> 00:41:37.960 training. So that's where a majority of the group 00:41:37.960 --> 00:41:40.699 rehab is happening. And then our team basically 00:41:40.699 --> 00:41:43.780 goes in and it's like we assess it and then we 00:41:43.780 --> 00:41:45.900 triage. injury, it's like you're not going to 00:41:45.900 --> 00:41:47.920 do that if you had a full rupture of a muscle. 00:41:48.019 --> 00:41:49.760 So a full rupture of a muscle, they're going 00:41:49.760 --> 00:41:52.579 to stop the training of that muscle and rehab 00:41:52.579 --> 00:41:54.800 is going to do the treatments, progressive overload 00:41:54.800 --> 00:41:57.829 of treatment and training of that. tissue itself, 00:41:58.050 --> 00:42:00.050 build up the tolerance of the tissue to handle 00:42:00.050 --> 00:42:02.210 training. Once they can handle training, the 00:42:02.210 --> 00:42:04.269 performance team, I was talking about performance 00:42:04.269 --> 00:42:06.510 coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, they're 00:42:06.510 --> 00:42:09.550 going to then reintroduce some training at heavier 00:42:09.550 --> 00:42:11.909 levels, make sure that they are meeting the objective 00:42:11.909 --> 00:42:13.969 measure standards that they had before. Like, 00:42:13.969 --> 00:42:15.789 are they back at baseline? If they're back at 00:42:15.789 --> 00:42:18.510 baseline, then they're, okay, this tissue is 00:42:18.510 --> 00:42:20.670 tolerating training well, like weightlifting 00:42:20.670 --> 00:42:22.510 is fully cleared. If they're like, this tissue 00:42:22.510 --> 00:42:24.170 is still not doing well, it won't be that they 00:42:24.170 --> 00:42:25.849 stop weightlifting, it'll just be more of that, 00:42:25.869 --> 00:42:28.340 well, I... extra exercises in weightlifting so 00:42:28.340 --> 00:42:30.260 it'd be like you know your hamstrings still hurt 00:42:30.260 --> 00:42:32.039 but you can still do your weightlifting lifts 00:42:32.039 --> 00:42:34.900 but to avoid you compensating let's add two or 00:42:34.900 --> 00:42:38.400 three sets to that hamstring to like rdls or 00:42:38.400 --> 00:42:40.739 hamstring curls something to work on that hamstring 00:42:40.739 --> 00:42:43.099 so that it builds up as you continue your training 00:42:43.099 --> 00:42:45.219 and then the strength coaches will kind of tell 00:42:45.219 --> 00:42:47.119 us like all right they're good like they've normalized 00:42:47.119 --> 00:42:49.099 or we still have a problem with small it's like 00:42:49.099 --> 00:42:51.400 something else and that's basically like a lot 00:42:51.400 --> 00:42:53.519 of our rehab is we there's so much treatment 00:42:53.519 --> 00:42:56.569 here already anyways so the rehab is about intelligently 00:42:56.569 --> 00:42:58.730 programming around the injury so that they can 00:42:58.730 --> 00:43:00.750 keep loading as much as they can keep the training 00:43:00.750 --> 00:43:03.469 high. Because if an athlete takes a break here, 00:43:03.530 --> 00:43:05.630 they're done. There's so much training. If you 00:43:05.630 --> 00:43:07.710 took like a month off training, you'd be so far 00:43:07.710 --> 00:43:10.849 behind everyone else like you feel. And they've 00:43:10.849 --> 00:43:12.849 been training so long, they don't even know what 00:43:12.849 --> 00:43:15.750 DOMS are. Kind of like when they have an injured 00:43:15.750 --> 00:43:18.289 area and I load it really well, I'm like, oh, 00:43:18.309 --> 00:43:20.309 so sore. I was like, yeah, that's what normal 00:43:20.309 --> 00:43:22.730 people feel like when we train. I was like, like 00:43:22.730 --> 00:43:25.239 we get these. these things called muscle soreness. 00:43:25.260 --> 00:43:26.960 And it's really uncomfortable. And they're like, 00:43:27.019 --> 00:43:28.559 I've never had this before. It's like you did 00:43:28.559 --> 00:43:30.360 when you first started training. You had this, 00:43:30.380 --> 00:43:32.039 but you've been training so long, you don't know. 00:43:32.199 --> 00:43:34.460 But yeah, so we kind of follow like a training 00:43:34.460 --> 00:43:37.219 load monitoring, but rest like specific on like 00:43:37.219 --> 00:43:39.159 how much load stuff. It's more keep your training 00:43:39.159 --> 00:43:41.219 as much as possible. If we keep your training 00:43:41.219 --> 00:43:43.860 high and we add things, get your injury back 00:43:43.860 --> 00:43:45.940 up, the risk of re -injury is extremely low. 00:43:46.099 --> 00:43:48.579 But if we take you out, your chronic volume of 00:43:48.579 --> 00:43:51.159 training drops so much that you just trying to 00:43:51.159 --> 00:43:52.800 go back to your normal training is a strength. 00:43:52.840 --> 00:43:55.559 around your body and then we look at like the 00:43:55.559 --> 00:43:58.139 like the cascade of you got hurt take some break 00:43:58.139 --> 00:43:59.679 off you try to go back you get hurt again you 00:43:59.679 --> 00:44:01.780 go back you go there and then you just end up 00:44:01.780 --> 00:44:04.579 going down there in regards of what team you'll 00:44:04.579 --> 00:44:07.239 be on it depends on the competitive level so 00:44:07.239 --> 00:44:09.219 if you're a national team before olympics you 00:44:09.219 --> 00:44:10.980 get hurt you can't compete at the olympics you're 00:44:10.980 --> 00:44:13.059 just gonna be replaced if you're at the provincial 00:44:13.059 --> 00:44:15.400 level they care more about if you're performing 00:44:15.400 --> 00:44:17.440 so if you're performing you have the potential 00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:19.760 you're staying on the team you get all the resources 00:44:19.760 --> 00:44:22.320 to get better like if you miss like a year of 00:44:22.320 --> 00:44:24.860 competitions it's costing the government to have 00:44:24.860 --> 00:44:26.860 you there so they're probably like you got like 00:44:26.860 --> 00:44:29.280 let's go back the only time people really get 00:44:29.280 --> 00:44:31.420 kicked off the team is not about injury it's 00:44:31.420 --> 00:44:33.860 about if they can't perform so if if someone 00:44:33.860 --> 00:44:35.960 looks like they're promising they join province 00:44:35.960 --> 00:44:38.559 but they just never win they can't get any higher 00:44:38.559 --> 00:44:39.980 they're not performing well enough the coach 00:44:39.980 --> 00:44:41.780 is like this is athlete's peak they're not getting 00:44:41.780 --> 00:44:43.440 better that's when they would get to be sent 00:44:43.440 --> 00:44:45.820 back to a sports school or Just back to regular 00:44:45.820 --> 00:44:48.139 school. But it's not like you're fired. It's 00:44:48.139 --> 00:44:50.460 a little bit more like, let's try. Like they 00:44:50.460 --> 00:44:52.619 try really hard. And I've never seen an athlete 00:44:52.619 --> 00:44:54.960 here leave because of that. They're usually always 00:44:54.960 --> 00:44:58.199 trying to build up the potential. It's not cutthroat, 00:44:58.280 --> 00:45:01.000 like evil looking. It's pretty family oriented. 00:45:01.039 --> 00:45:03.119 Like, come on, buddy. Let's go. Fascinating. 00:45:03.260 --> 00:45:05.300 What do you really like about Chinese system 00:45:05.300 --> 00:45:08.039 and what other countries could pay attention 00:45:08.039 --> 00:45:10.860 to and possibly consider adopting, you think? 00:45:11.059 --> 00:45:13.760 I think what I like about the system here is 00:45:13.760 --> 00:45:15.840 that they have... have a system, but they're 00:45:15.840 --> 00:45:18.159 more loose with the rules. I think that it's 00:45:18.159 --> 00:45:20.019 really good for us to have a system, but we need 00:45:20.019 --> 00:45:23.239 to learn to adapt to specifics to specific situations. 00:45:23.539 --> 00:45:26.719 And they're not so serious about it here. I think 00:45:26.719 --> 00:45:28.460 a lot of people think the Chinese system is super 00:45:28.460 --> 00:45:30.420 serious and really intense, but people are pretty 00:45:30.420 --> 00:45:32.579 chill. like they're laughing quite a bit they're 00:45:32.579 --> 00:45:35.199 they're hanging out that's it's because they 00:45:35.199 --> 00:45:36.860 look at it as kind of like a job they don't go 00:45:36.860 --> 00:45:39.619 like oh it's do or die it's not it's not like 00:45:39.619 --> 00:45:42.559 if i like the the epic videos they make of like 00:45:42.559 --> 00:45:44.539 they're gonna make it like they're kind of like 00:45:44.539 --> 00:45:46.900 yeah i went to work chill out bro it's not it's 00:45:46.900 --> 00:45:49.679 not that intense like staying more relaxed about 00:45:49.679 --> 00:45:51.739 this i think helps them a lot because it just 00:45:51.739 --> 00:45:54.440 helps them make smarter decisions at times and 00:45:54.440 --> 00:45:57.010 i Like, I think that would help a lot of athletes. 00:45:57.090 --> 00:45:59.110 Like I think a lot of, especially in development, 00:45:59.530 --> 00:46:01.949 like if we go into that whole, like the parents 00:46:01.949 --> 00:46:04.630 want the kids to do super well in something and 00:46:04.630 --> 00:46:06.670 there's this pressure of doing well right off 00:46:06.670 --> 00:46:08.289 the bat, like that's just not here. And it's 00:46:08.289 --> 00:46:10.170 like, just go to your job, do your job well. 00:46:10.269 --> 00:46:13.730 If you get promoted, great. Like not having this 00:46:13.730 --> 00:46:15.710 incredible pressure of winning from the beginning. 00:46:15.769 --> 00:46:18.010 And I don't get that sense here at all. Like 00:46:18.010 --> 00:46:19.809 some of our athletes who went to world who didn't 00:46:19.809 --> 00:46:21.530 do so well, they came back and it's like, it's 00:46:21.530 --> 00:46:23.250 like nothing happened. Like we're all chill. 00:46:23.349 --> 00:46:25.340 We're all hanging out again. I think that is 00:46:25.340 --> 00:46:27.139 something to learn in sports that like, yeah. 00:46:27.219 --> 00:46:29.579 And so like in sport in general, like the athletes, 00:46:29.599 --> 00:46:32.280 like it's just a sport, obviously lives and lives 00:46:32.280 --> 00:46:34.820 and your livelihood is all related to it. But 00:46:34.820 --> 00:46:37.800 like, and she talked about like Kyle's physios 00:46:37.800 --> 00:46:39.539 and stuff like that. Like sometimes I see how 00:46:39.539 --> 00:46:42.139 intensely they argue about topics. And I'm like, 00:46:42.139 --> 00:46:44.159 dude, no one's dying. I was like, well, unless 00:46:44.159 --> 00:46:45.840 it'd be really messing up your job. But like, 00:46:45.860 --> 00:46:47.880 I'm just trying to make someone lift more or 00:46:47.880 --> 00:46:50.710 move faster or have less pain. pain but i'm not 00:46:50.710 --> 00:46:53.030 a heart surgeon like we can relax a little bit 00:46:53.030 --> 00:46:55.090 like let the like the people who do life and 00:46:55.090 --> 00:46:58.130 life and death situations to add this amount 00:46:58.130 --> 00:47:00.349 of stress like i feel like there's a lot of stress 00:47:00.349 --> 00:47:03.289 in this this sport and it's unnecessary very 00:47:03.289 --> 00:47:05.730 interesting thank you so much for answering all 00:47:05.730 --> 00:47:07.929 the questions two short questions to finish the 00:47:07.929 --> 00:47:10.610 first one is what is your favorite exercise what 00:47:10.610 --> 00:47:13.329 i like to say here is whatever exercise you're 00:47:13.329 --> 00:47:16.530 willing to do is my favorite exercise if i think 00:47:16.530 --> 00:47:18.710 part of my job is to be creative and adapted 00:47:18.710 --> 00:47:21.809 to what the athlete wants to do and what works 00:47:21.809 --> 00:47:25.389 for that athlete. And I will say, even if it 00:47:25.389 --> 00:47:27.530 doesn't even make sense in my head, if the athlete 00:47:27.530 --> 00:47:28.989 is going to do it and it gets the effect that 00:47:28.989 --> 00:47:31.070 I want, then I'm happy. Fair enough. Fair enough. 00:47:31.250 --> 00:47:33.409 And the last question is where people can find 00:47:33.409 --> 00:47:36.250 you if they want to follow what you're doing 00:47:36.250 --> 00:47:38.449 or get in touch, where should they go online? 00:47:38.670 --> 00:47:40.610 Right now, the main one would be my Instagram, 00:47:40.829 --> 00:47:45.090 Dr. Steph Performance. I am currently building 00:47:45.090 --> 00:47:48.880 some workshops based on some... demand that i've 00:47:48.880 --> 00:47:51.300 had and uh i'll have some youtube videos and 00:47:51.300 --> 00:47:54.000 stuff up for people to to see but instagram's 00:47:54.000 --> 00:47:56.340 the easiest thank you so much it was a pleasure 00:47:56.340 --> 00:47:57.119 thank you