Coach Hank
Photo Credit: @LiftingLife
My athletic CV is fairly broad. I’ve had the opportunity to compete in multiple sports and events - from regional CrossFit competitions to Ironman triathlons. I’ve thrown myself at each event despite having no formal education or background in any of those sports. But I love to learn, and I love to understand why we do what we do, how we challenge our own assumptions about ourselves, how we make decisions, and how we redefine and adjust who we who we are along the way. That’s what weightlifting is to me - a constant negotiation between body and mind, luck and ability, belief and confidence. I’m fortunate enough to have had coaches who have helped me navigate that journey, and I’d be honored to be part of yours.
Now that the formal stuff is out of the way, let’s get a little more personal…
I grew up just down the mountain from Asheville, NC. My primary focus during my elementary years was running up our staircase as fast as I could, usually by bounding over as many steps as I could. My mom loved it.
In 8th grade I hung up my soccer cleats for shoulder pads when my small (very small) school started a football team. I think we had 14 kids on the team and we won one - yes, one - game that year. In fact, we lost most games by 50+ points. But my coaches were always looking for an edge and never let us believe that we didn’t have something that the other team lacked. It’s one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever been given.
After college (Go Friars), I started coaching at a friend’s CrossFit gym. I didn’t have enough money for the CrossFit certification, so I signed up for USA Weightlifting’s L1 Sports Performance seminar. Within a few months, I had ditched yet another pair of shoes (R.I.P Nano’s) for weightlifting shoes and joined Robinson Weightlifting Team where I spent the next several years developing as a coach, athlete, and teammate. Eventually I accomplished my goal of qualifying for and competing in the American Open Finals. And guess what I did after that?
….I hung up those shoes too. I ran a marathon (literally just out my door for 13.1 miles, turned around, and barely finished after run-walking the last 9 miles with no water, gels, or nutrition)….then I completed an Ironman….then a half-Ironman…and I was about to sign up for a 100k ultramarathon when I decided to take my USAW L2 and remembered that I LOVE COACHING WEIGHTLIFTING.
And that’s it in a nutshell.
“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.”
Richard Feynman