Meet Day Handling at the Local Level: A Guide for First-Time Meet Day Coaching
Believe it or not, I handled at a meet before I had even done one myself. Back in 2018, I traveled out to New York to coach at an obscure gym called the G Box in which athletes warmed up in a room called the, “Gorilla Room”, I’ll let you interpret that how you wish.
I did a lot of things wrong that day and a few things right, but most importantly I committed to it and got better from that point, which I think is something to be proud of. With that, I want to pay it forward because this was the hardest niche in powerlifting to find good info on. First, I will go over that day and what I did wrong and then pull it into the larger theme of what you actually should and by all intents and purposes, need to do, in order for your athletes to be set up for the most optimal day.
So, to give a background, this was Team Hogan OG Andrew Graves first competition and although I was not really doing any programming for him at this point, I had overseen pretty much everything he ever done to that point. Andrew has always been realistic with himself and that has never been an issue when it comes to attempt selection.
When we began warming up for squats, I quickly realized there was no monitor in the warm up room and it was a decent trek into the room where the platform was. At first, I was running back and forth to see where he was in the flight and very quickly we figured it would be easier to have one of the other people with us relay the info to us in the back because I was sweating up a storm loading weights and running intervals.
This brings me to my first mistake, not being prepared for the worst possible conditions. As lifters, we tend to get spoiled with power bars, calibrated plates, etc… but the fact of the matter is not many local meets will pull all the bells and whistles and if you allow that to be a deterrent, that is on you. I was assuming this would be a high level set up and this was not the case at all.
From what I remember, on all 3 lifts we took too long and did not give him enough time from last warmup and opener to settle down and that was a learning experience in itself. You see, in a meet, unless you are on opposite ends of the strength spectrum (very, very strong or very, very week), it is probably unnecessary to have more than 5 weighted warmups, 6 including the bar. This number is not magic but I have found that no matter how big/small the meet is, you will always be able to get this amount in. Again, from what I remember, we easily had 7-8 warmups on each lift and not only was that too much to get through, it probably had a negative effect in actually expressing strength. This happened again at Northeast Regionals in which we had to skip 2 of his warmups to make sure he would get to the platform in time and even so he still had to rush.
I remember vividly Andrew pulling his last warmup on deadlift at this first meet and within 1 minute had to pull his opener. This was inexcusable, I could blame it on the lack of a monitor and for some reason I think this was pre-liftingcast, but man we could have bombed out with a lack of awareness like this.
Another thing, I had all the warmups and attempts on my phone, something I still do in case of emergency but I will be straight up in that having a physical paper is way easier than pulling up a smart phone for each and every attempt. Andrew found an attempt template that we have used since then that works very well and I now hand-write all the warmups on a notepad.
To branch off that, I am a strong believer in making sure you know how to put weights on the bar in a timely manner, not necessarily the physical aspect of loading but how to quickly configure what needs to be on there. More on this in the guide portion of this.
All in all, this day was a beginner day for the both of us and it is cool that we screwed a ton of stuff up for virtually 3 meets in a row, and now we are here with a well-oiled machine and honestly we might both agree meet day is actually the easiest portion of the entire experience for us, but you don’t get that without messing up a few times on the way to that point.
Now, on to the guide for meet day at the local level, I want to emphasize local level because at the national level these things are magnified and sometimes there are more intricate things you’d need that we can talk about at a later time.
Make sure you know what your lifter is capable of and what their goals are. If you have never seen someone lift and the first time is at the meet, you cannot accurately give input to what they should put on the bar. Ideally, you would want to see the lifters heaviest lifts in prep, this is assuming you are not coaching them in programming as well as the day of, so in essence this process should start about a month out. Furthermore, if a lifter expresses the goal is X total, and you find themselves reaching on a lift that if they miss, will totally erase the possibility of that total, you need to step up and reassure them what the original goal was. I have seen this so many times, people have goals of a certain total but X lift felt so good that they went off the plan and missed, creating a double negative in that they missed and their goal is now out of reach.
Be prepared for any and everything. So many times I see people handling lifters who have 1 of the following but not all of the possibilities that could arise on meet day. In my opinion, if you take this seriously, you should have all variables checked off just in case you have to adjust on the fly. If you were a football coach, you would not go into the game just kind of “feeling out” what plays to call, at least, I hope you wouldn’t, you would have a set plan with adjustments if things don’t work. Same concept in a sense. What I recommend is the following, be prepared for less than stellar equipment mentally and frame that in your head, with this you will be in a mindset that lifting is lifting and you don’t NEED an Ohio Power Bar and calibrated plates to warm up. Next, I would have all attempts written out either physically or in a template for quick and easy selection post attempt. My athletes and I use a system that is pretty simple, we have a planned opener, and then 2 paths to the next to attempt, if easy and if hard. I also have this in pounds and kilos for the lifter to see. Of course, sometimes we deviate from that if need be but it is much easier than trying to convert pounds to kilos then put an attempt in for that span of time. Next, I recommend having ALL warmups in pounds and kilos and to take it one step further, have what needs to go on each side of the bar to make things even quicker. For example, if an athlete’s planned warmups are 70kg and then 120kg, I would have written down, red for 70 kg (1 plate, one 10), and 2 reds for 120kg (2 plates, 2 10s) that way if someone else helps I can just say “add 1 red and 1 white” or “add 1 plate and one 2.5”, I promise you, this has made things SOOOOO much easier when a highly packed back room with limited racks is going. Lastly, I would be ready for all possible things such as adjustable racks, non-adjustable racks, and small/big flights.
Always ere on the side of warming up too early than too late. This is a bit of a double edged sword but if we are speaking in general, you want some time between your last warmup and your opener. If your heart is beating through your chest and you are winded, you probably either had to rush your warmups OR you started too late and the pace did not match your spot in the flight. You can get away with warming up later for bench since typically there is less warmups and it’s just not a taxing lift compared to the other 2. Take input from the lifter of course but I would say in general, we want 4-6 minutes before squat openers, 4 minutes before bench openers, and sometimes up to 5-7 minutes for deadlifts. Again, these are not absolutes and it is dependent on the person.
Know the rules. If you are in a certain federation, you should try your best to learn the rules as they can help you very well on the day. I did not know for a long time you could change your opener and that would have helped a few people in my opinion. I also did not know for a while you could change your third attempts and change your third attempt deadlift twice, that is 100% on me and there are always niche rules in every fed you can take advantage of that I recommend you look into.
Help others but recognize who you are there for and why you are there. Very rarely will you find yourself at a meet for no reason other than just to be there. I suppose if you are, help everyone who needs it. 97% of the time though, you are there for your own lifters or someone who hired you to handle them on the day. There is a fine line between not being an asshole if someone needs help and disrespecting someone who you are there for in favor of a random person. Most people will tell you, most meets I am at, I end up inheriting 1-2 more people who showed up without a handler. What I have found that works well is anyone who wants to work in with my guys/girls, I let them and will gladly help load their bar if they know what they need on it. However, the second one of my guys/girls is done warming up, I am now on the platform with them and do not help any more regardless if someone needs it or not. If someone either pays me to be there or I am their coach, it is very, very disrespectful to not give them the attention they need in favor of someone who did not pay you or is not your own lifter. I want to reiterate, do not be an asshole in the backroom. If you develop that aura, you will likely see the same 4-7 people at meets in your area and you WILL be known as the asshole. Treat everyone with respect as they paid their dues just like you, you or your lifter is not above anyone regardless of skill level. However, it is your job as a handler to assert yourself if need be.
If you are offered help, take it. I have handled 3 lifters at once in separate flights and although possible, it will always be easier to have help. It is not always feasible because other people have commitments and don’t want to spend 4 hours in a hot gym on a Saturday morning but sometimes people will reach out to you and want to help, take it. Last competition I had 2 guys in separate flights and calling attempts, taking videos, and warming someone up would be very, very hectic. Evan Wright if you read this you’re a real one, you helped out BIG time. I would recommend if you have not handled more than 1 lifter before, try to have help if you can swing it.
Lastly, do not be too proud to take advice and do not be afraid to fail. If someone knows this is your first time handling at a meet, they trust you and as such probably will not be as angry as you expect should you mess up. We are all human and sometimes we make mistakes along the way, not learning from these mistakes is where I draw the line as you should treat every meet you go to as a learning experience and doubly so if you intend to charge people for your services. If I did not go through the rough first couple meet stretch where I was not confident in my abilities, I probably would have never gotten into this. Now, I feel 100% comfortable and personally feel I am a very competent meet day coach. It’s also normal to be nervous for this, in fact I am WAY more nervous handling for my lifters than I am actually competing!
All in all, I hope this help some of you who want to get into meet day coaching and if you have someone who handles you but is missing some steps, if they’re open to advice, maybe you can take some aspects away from this to help them help you. I am not perfect and I am certain some aspects people who not agree with, like writing down what needs to go on the bar. It might seem minute but if you are confident you will know off the top of your head go for it. If there is one big takeaway from all this, it should be that if you intend on your lifters doing well at a meet, you need to be just as prepared as they are for your role on the day and showing up to a meet haphazardly treating the experience as a joke will reflect in your lifters performance.
Best,
Erik