Teaching Professionals and Students Proper Weightlifting Form

Columbus Weightlifting has been around since 1999 and provides coaching, training, facilities, and other benefits for eligible athletes. They have hosted the Arnold Weightlifting Championships since the competition’s inception a decade ago. Having begun as a local competition, the Arnold is now recognized as one of the world’s premier international invitational weightlifting competitions. Columbus Weightlifting is known for teaching explosiveness through Olympic Lifts.

As one of the original sports contested in the first modern 1896 Olympic Games, Weightlifting is now one of the most popular Olympic Sports internationally. As the sport evolves, athletes seek out ways to become more efficient throughout their lifts. We had the opportunity to sit down with Drew Dillon at Columbus Weightlifting to discuss their teaching curriculum for Olympic Lifts.

2012 Olympic Trials at the Arnold Weightlifting Championships hosted by Columbus Weightlifting

From amateur to professional, the Columbus Weightlifting team teaches athletes all over the world. After asking what motivates them to teach, the answer was simple, “The opportunity to share the sport”. With twenty years of experience under his belt, President and Head Coach, Mark Cannella, has developed the foundation of the curriculum from experience. The team has created several other courses based on experience including, specific coach training and mobility topics.

Columbus Weightlifting uses Coach’s Eye three different ways. During training, the team will record athletes’ lifts to help them see the errors in their technique. During courses, they record lifts beforehand and review to help understand proper technique. After that, Coach’s Eye is used to help coaches understand how they can improve their instruction. Lastly, during remote coaching, athletes will send their video to the team to evaluate. After critiquing technique with Coach’s Eye, the video is sent back to the athlete. With athletes all over the world, they receive video from some very unique places. Drew mentions, “Probably the most interesting location of all is from an individual working in Afghanistan”. The team also travels to different parts of the globe to teach courses, noting that the most interesting place was Chiang Mai, Thailand (photo below).

Columbus Weightlifting clinic in Thailand at CrossFit Chiang Mai

Head Coach Mark Cannella built the Arnold Weightlifting Championship from the ground up, which is viewed by many as one of the top annual weightlifting competitions in the world. Drew mentioned that coaching an Olympic caliber athlete can be a bit different, “At the Olympic level, technique and flaws are often much more subtle. Using video to analyze these subtle issues is very important”.

Mark Cannella, Holley Mangold, and Drew Dillon at the 2012 London Olympics

The Coach’s Eye team is very excited to see where Drew and his team will go in the future. He explained that Columbus Weightlifting will continue to add curriculum around the needs of the athletes. The team envisions continuing to connect those who want to learn the Olympic Lifts to good instruction, and those who have a high potential to succeed in weightlifting, to a world full of resources. Drew explained, “Coach’s Eye has removed a barrier to great coaching, and athletes anywhere in the world can now receive feedback from their coaches”.

An example of Columbus Weightlifting instruction:

Thank you to Drew and the Columbus Weightlifting team for using Coach’s Eye and running a fantastic program! If you would like to engage with Columbus Weightlifting, please visit the site below and engage on their Facebook Page.

Columbus Weightlifting

Columbus Weightlifting Facebook