All in Attitude!
Weightlifting is a major sport in the Olympic program. It holds one of the highest forum ratings under the five interlocking circles. Barbell movements are used in training in almost all sports. Why then are the weightlifting gyms empty, while at the same time several people line up for the equipment in the fitness gyms at peak hours?
Ivan Ivanov - the coach of the national team, Olympic champion from Barcelona'92, gave the answer in the educational studio of NSK Olimp "We will meet at the top"
"This trend is true for many places around the world. It's nice at the gym. You do it voluntarily. You can stop. When you start professionally, you can't stop and give up. However, 190 countries are members of the International Weightlifting Federation. This is a good indicator," says Ivanov.
The 49-year-old Shumen citizen is a four-time World and five-time European champion. He has been at the head of the representative team since 2011. And at the last continental championship in Moscow, our men's team won the team title.
This is the country's best ranking in 17 years. The last time we had more than two champions was in 2004 in Kyiv.
With the excellent performance in the Russian capital, Bulgaria almost certainly secured the maximum of two men's quotas for this summer's Tokyo Olympics.
Ivanov says that in weightlifting, a week without training is disastrous. "Back in the day, the coaches taught us that if you rest one day, you go back three. With two days off, you are behind by three. And so on…. You either train or you don't. There is no middle ground," explains Ivanov.
In the pursuit of high goals, it is important for him to get as close as possible to the competitive atmosphere. Before the European Championship in Moscow, he recreated the future forum in detail for his athletes in Asenovgrad.
He did it on a big podium by announcing the initial burden. The athletes are competing wearing tricot. There are monitors, an audience, a speaker.
"So the weightlifters could feel the thrill of the competition itself, as they would worry less, since three attempts are three attempts. If you fail, everything ends," explains Ivanov.
He strictly follows the system of the Barbell Pope Ivan Abadjiev, adding the innovations of the other coaches he learned from.
"We train as much as possible and approach only what is ahead of us in competitions. We do repeated rehearsals to prepare ourselves physically and mentally. I apply additional exercises and where we make mistakes, corrections follow. The movement is done in parts. The goal is to put the whole exercise together"
For Ivanov, who has worked in Spartan environment throughout his career, the biggest challenge is to create discipline.
"Unfortunately, this quality is lacking in many of the athletes. Sometimes the tone is raised, just to maintain discipline. Nothing can happen without it. I use a proven methodology introduced by Ivan Abadjiev. The bad thing is that it cannot be practiced as it used to be. There are many reasons. Generations are different. They are influenced by social networks, or something. The way of the very life is radically different, it's all commercial. It never occurred to us that we would strive for a lot of money at all costs. Back then I just wanted to be like the best. Commercialization is good, but the star sickness kills the athletes.”
"As a competitor, I had arguments with Ivan Abadjiev on a professional level, and not personally. In order to acquire this system, Abadjiev first tried everything on himself back in the 50s, and achieved something incredible. I don't know a person who doesn't use his methodology. He introduced the two-time training, then the three-time training, which fell out over time. He drew beautifully. He was listening to classical music.”
ABOUT THE WE WILL MEET AT THE TOP SHOW
The educational program "We will meet at the top" is being broadcasted twice a month (one week apart) on Wednesday evening at 20:00, live on our Facebook and YouTube channels
All shows in the series ‘We will meet at the top’ (see here)
