Build a great program with these 5 tips.
By Coach Joey Paladino – Head Coach of 3P Weightlifting | Owner of 3P Fitness & SRC Fit – Pace & Milton, FL
Fresh off an incredible performance at USA Weightlifting Nationals, our team at 3P Weightlifting secured second place finishes in both the Junior Girls and Junior Guys divisions, earning us the honor of being named the Strongest Junior Team in the Nation.
Now that we’ve reached this milestone, I want to share some key insights that I wish every high school weightlifting coach had access to—especially those just starting out or trying to take their program to the next level.
Tip #1: Foster a Winning Culture
A championship program starts not with the medals, but with the mindset. You must build a team culture that prioritizes accountability, support, and community—for every athlete, no matter their level.
In our gym, the loudest cheers are always for the newest athletes. Why? Because walking into a weight room can be intimidating. It’s our job to create an environment where every lifter feels safe to grow, fail, and try again.
That culture doesn’t just happen. You must set the tone from day one, and one of the most powerful tools you can use is a team commitment letter. This document outlines expectations and helps every athlete understand they’re part of something bigger than themselves.
📄 Sample Commitment Letter: High School Weightlifting
High School Weightlifting Commitment Letter
I fully recognize that as a selected athlete representing (Your School) Weightlifting, I am an ambassador for my team, my coaches, my community, and my high school.
I therefore commit to uphold the core values of our program:
Inspire, Motivate, and Encourage others through weightlifting. I will demonstrate integrity, leadership, and commitment to excellence, and strive to meet our shared objectives:
- Developing skills
- Building character
- Raising leaders
I commit to the following code of conduct:
- Respect the authority of the Program Director, Coaches, and Officials.
- Be present and punctual at all training sessions, functions, and meets.
- Notify the coaching staff if I must miss a session for any reason.
- Wear the official team uniform to all sessions and events.
- Treat all equipment and facilities with care and respect.
- Maintain respectful and sportsmanlike conduct on and off the platform—including during travel.
- Avoid foul language, bullying, or inappropriate behavior.
- Abstain from smoking, drinking alcohol, or using banned substances.
- Follow all rules during training and competition without arguing or disrespecting officials.
- Maintain at least a 70% grade average in all classes and avoid office referrals to remain eligible.
I understand that violating this code of conduct may result in dismissal from the program at the discretion of the coaching staff.
Signatures:
Athlete Name & Signature | Coach Signature | Parent/Guardian Signature
✅ Why This Works:
This letter isn’t just about rules—it’s about buy-in. When athletes and parents see your program as structured, disciplined, and values-driven, they’re more likely to stay committed and treat it with the seriousness it deserves.
Tip #2: Get Certified and Keep Learning
Let’s be real—most high school coaches wear a thousand hats. You’re probably coaching multiple sports, teaching classes, managing paperwork, running the weight room, and still trying to grow young athletes. Weightlifting, unfortunately, often gets labeled as “just” strength training for other sports. But if you want to build a great Olympic weightlifting program, it has to start with education and credibility.
Coaching weightlifting at a high level takes more than experience in the weight room. It requires technical knowledge, progressions, injury prevention, and an understanding of how to peak an athlete safely and effectively. This is why certification matters—it builds your foundation as a coach, and it establishes your authority to your athletes, parents, and administration.
📚 Why I Believe in Getting Certified
Personally, I’ve invested in multiple certifications through both USA Weightlifting and CrossFit. These certifications haven’t just boosted my coaching skills—they’ve given me the language, tools, and confidence to build a national-caliber program.
Now, I’ll be honest—I’m not certified in powerlifting (deadlift, bench, low bar squat), and I don’t coach athletes for powerlifting meets. Do I teach those lifts in class? Absolutely. Do I use them to support my Olympic lifters and CrossFitters? All the time. But when it comes to competing in powerlifting, that’s not my expertise—and that’s OK.
Instead, I lean on trusted colleagues who are subject matter experts in that field. When I need powerlifting-specific advice, I call them. When they need help with Olympic lifting, they call me. That’s how great coaching networks are built—on mutual respect and shared learning.
🧠 Lifelong Learning Makes You a Better Coach
If I ever decide to take athletes to powerlifting meets, the first thing I’ll do is get certified and educate myself the same way I did with weightlifting. Because I want to show up with the best version of myself for my athletes.
Even after 13+ years in this sport, and coaching at multiple USA Weightlifting National Championships, I’m still learning. I still make mistakes. I still take notes. I still ask questions. That’s not a weakness—it’s what makes us coaches, not just trainers.
✅ Practical Application
- Get your USAW Level 1 if you haven’t already. It’s the foundation of Olympic lifting coaching.
- Attend seminars, shadow experienced coaches, and ask questions.
- Join communities of weightlifting coaches online or in-person.
- Be humble enough to learn and confident enough to teach.
💡 Key Takeaway:
“Get the knowledge you need to answer the hard questions. And when you can’t—ask for help.”
Tip #3: Know how to Progressive Overload
💡 What Is Progressive Overload?
Progressive overload is one of the most important principles in strength training—and it’s how athletes get stronger over time. The basic idea is this:
To get stronger, an athlete must gradually increase the stress placed on their muscles and nervous system during training.
In simple terms:
✅ You must do a little more over time—more weight, more reps, more sets, or move better/faster than before.
🏋️♂️ Why It Works
When an athlete trains—let’s say squats 3 sets of 5 at 100 lbs—their muscles are being challenged. The body responds by repairing and adapting, making them a little stronger.
But if they keep doing 3×5 at 100 lbs every week, the body no longer has a reason to adapt. There’s no new challenge. That’s where progressive overload comes in—you intentionally increase the challenge bit by bit to force the body to grow stronger.
📈 Ways to Apply Progressive Overload
You can overload the body in a few different ways:
- Increase the weight – Add 2.5 to 5 lbs weekly or biweekly.
- Example: Week 1: 100 lbs → Week 2: 105 lbs
- Add more reps or sets
- Example: Week 1: 3 sets of 5 → Week 3: 4 sets of 5
- Improve bar speed or technique
- Same weight, but done with more control or speed = progress!
- Reduce rest time
- Shorter rest means more work in less time (though be careful in weightlifting where rest is crucial)
🧠 How to Use It with High School Athletes
- Start by tracking their lifts (weight, sets, reps). This is essential.
- Build a weekly plan that gradually increases intensity.
- For example, a 4-week squat cycle:
- Week 1: 3×5 @ 70%
- Week 2: 3×5 @ 75%
- Week 3: 4×4 @ 80%
- Week 4: 3×3 @ 85%
- For example, a 4-week squat cycle:
- Always prioritize good technique first. Only increase weight if form is solid.
- Use small jumps! Especially for beginner or lighter athletes, 2.5 lb plates are your best friend.
🚨 What NOT to Do
- Don’t max out every week. That’s not overload—it’s burnout.
- Don’t increase everything at once (weight + reps + sets + volume).
- Don’t skip deloads or recovery weeks—they’re part of the process too.
🗣️ Coaching Tip:
“Progressive overload is about getting just a little better every week. Not huge leaps—just consistent, smart progress.”
Tip #4: Understand Your Athletes’ Needs – It’s Not About Maxing Every Week
One of the biggest and hardest lessons to learn as a high school weightlifting coach is this:
You don’t need to lift heavy or max out every single week.
And honestly—you shouldn’t.
🏋️♂️ Here’s the Reality:
In Florida and many other states, the high school weightlifting season is packed with weekly meets. It’s tempting to treat every meet like it’s a championship and have your athletes go for max lifts each time.
But doing that burns them out, increases the risk of injury, and keeps them from making long-term progress. Your athletes aren’t machines. They’re growing, learning, and adapting—and your job is to guide that process strategically.
🧠 Progressive Overload + Peaking = Long-Term Success
This is where understanding progressive overload and peaking cycles comes in (see Tip #2 for more on progressive overload). The goal is to build strength and confidence throughout the season—not hit a wall in week 4.
A well-structured season should include:
- Building Phases (higher volume, moderate intensity)
- Development Phases (moderate volume, increasing intensity)
- Peak Phase (low volume, high intensity leading into Districts, Regionals, States)
By intentionally managing how much stress you put on the body each week, your athletes stay fresh, recover better, and hit their biggest lifts when it matters most.
⚡ Central Nervous System (CNS) – The Secret Player in Lifting
Weightlifting isn’t just about muscles—it’s also about the central nervous system (CNS). Heavy lifting, especially in Olympic movements like snatch and clean & jerk, puts a huge demand on the CNS.
Signs of CNS fatigue include:
- Feeling drained or sluggish under the bar
- Misses on lifts they usually make
- Mental fog, low motivation
- Poor bar speed and technique breakdowns
That’s why you can’t expect your lifters to PR every Friday. Even if their muscles could handle it, their nervous systemneeds time to recover and reload.
🔁 What to Do Instead:
- Plan your season with intentional loading (light, moderate, heavy weeks)
- Use weekly meets as technique-focused days, not always PR days
- Educate your athletes: let them know why they aren’t maxing every time
- Save the big pushes for championship meets—and taper into them
✅ Key Takeaway:
“Your job isn’t to make your athletes lift heavy every week. Your job is to make sure they’re ready to lift heavy when it counts.”
Tip #5: It’s Okay to Have Fun — Celebrate the Wins and Be There for the Losses
Let’s be honest—coaching is hard.
You get just as fired up as your athletes do. You feel every lift in your gut. You live every high and every low with them. And that’s what makes this sport so special: you’re in it together.
❤️ The Best Coaches Show Up — Always
One of the most important things you can do for your lifters is simple: be there. Not just physically, but emotionally and mentally. Whether they hit a massive PR or bomb out on their final clean and jerk, they need to know their coach has their back.
When I coached high school, we had a system that worked beautifully. We had three coaches and our lifters would often be spread out across five platforms. So, we set it up like this:
- One center coach who called attempts, managed warm-ups, and led energy.
- Two side coaches who rotated between platforms to ensure no lifter ever felt alone.
Even if you’re coaching solo—presence matters. Build a culture where lifters support each other and lift each other up. Let them be each other’s second coach. That’s how you create a program that thrives, even under pressure.
🙌 Foster a Culture of Support (Even Among Rivals)
Here’s something powerful:
In a strong culture, your girls will cheer for other girls—even the ones they’re competing against.
Because at the end of the day, while we all want to win, weightlifting is:
- An individual effort
- Within a team environment
- Fueled by community and shared passion
You’ll find yourself talking with rival coaches, swapping programming ideas, sharing what’s working and what’s not. And that’s what makes the sport better—not just for your team, but for every athlete who steps onto that platform.
🎉 Celebrate the Small Wins
Don’t just celebrate medals. Celebrate:
- A lifter hitting depth for the first time.
- A clean lift with perfect form.
- The lifter who didn’t bomb out this week.
- The girl who showed up even though she was nervous.
These are the wins that build lifters—and people—for life.
🧠 Key Takeaway:
“Wins feel better when they’re shared. Losses hurt less when you’re not alone. That’s the heart of coaching—and the soul of high school weightlifting.”
In Closing: Coaching Weightlifting Is a Craft — Treat It Like One
I love this sport. I love the pursuit of excellence. To some, Olympic weightlifting may seem like just another tool—something to keep athletes strong for their “real sport,” or a filler for off-season conditioning.
But to those of us who know it…
Weightlifting is so much more.
It’s a game of precision, strategy, and grit. It’s not unlike a game of chess. Every attempt is a move—every warm-up, every jump in kilos, every timing decision is about positioning your athlete for their best possible outcome. A great coach doesn’t just chase numbers—they plan moves, anticipate counters, and play the long game to checkmate the competition.
🧠 The Coach’s Role: More Than Reps and Sets
As a coach, your job isn’t just to count reps or call weights. It’s to:
- Create the thought process that drives decision-making
- Scout and develop talent
- Motivate with purpose
- Compete smart and lead from the front
It’s your responsibility to understand the rules, know the platform, and prepare your athletes mentally and physically for what lies ahead.
Because when you show up prepared—when you know your job and execute it with purpose—your athletes can focus on theirs:
Putting the bar over their head.
And the better prepared you are, the smoother and more successful their path becomes.
Pro Tip:
If you haven’t purchased equipment yet — or you’re getting close to needing new gear — consider buying kilo plates instead of pounds. Here’s why training in kilos is a smart move:
- They feel heavier. That means when your team goes to away meets (where pounds are used), the weights will feel lighter — a huge mental advantage.
- Smaller weight jumps. Since 1 kilogram is about 2.2 pounds, your athletes can make more precise jumps in training, helping them progress safely and effectively.
- Color-coded plates. Kilo plates come in standard colors, making it much easier to identify what’s on the bar at a glance.
- Reduced fear of numbers. At first, lifters won’t always know what’s on the bar — and that’s a good thing. Without overthinking the number, they focus on feel and execution instead of getting in their own heads.
Switching to kilos is one of the easiest ways to upgrade your team’s training environment.
💪 Final Word:
If you’re coaching high school weightlifting, you’re doing more than teaching lifts—you’re shaping competitors, leaders, and confident young people who learn what it means to fight for something and stand tall under pressure. Respect the sport. Study it. Build it.
Because weightlifting isn’t just a side job—it’s a calling.
-Joey