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GOHEAVY.COM Olympic Weightlifting Forum
Re: First Casey and now Donny? *LINK*
Posted By: Matt Foreman (66-53-72-187.phnx.mdsg-pacwest.com)
In Response To: Re: First Casey and now Donny? *LINK* (Dan Bell)
Date: Saturday, December 9, 2006, @ 10:28 a.m.
I'm pretty far removed from weightlifting gossip these days, so I didn't know that either of these guys had been kicked out of the OTC. It's obviously surprising because they're two of the best lifters in America right now.
The situation with an OTC coach is a tough one. On one hand, the athletes who come into the OTC are already pretty well developed and successful. As you said, they're not kids. Considering this, these athletes are often going to be loyal to the system that got them to a high level in the first place. It can get even more complicated when there's a personal coach that the athlete left behind who feels like he/she is more capable than the OTC coach, feels bitter about losing an athlete, is chirping in the athlete's ear about "you shouldn't be doing what they're telling you out there..." or whatever the situation is (and I'm definitely not saying Mike or Glenn are doing that). Taking somebody who has been successful and asking them to change what made them successful is a prickly predicament.
However, the flip side of the coin is that the OTC coach is just that...a coach. Every successful coach I know has their own methods and ideas, and expects their athletes to do what they're told. If Paul is the OTC coach, I'm sure he expects his authority to be respected, and as a coach I'd feel exactly the same way. If every athlete who comes to the OTC is allowed to continue training the way they always have in the past, the OTC coach becomes a glorified "gym monitor" with little input or actual coaching being done. The athletes will come to the OTC to take advantage of the free housing, food, sports med, etc., but their training will be at their own discretion, presumably with long-range coaching from their personal coach back home.
Neither of these are perfect situations. There's been head-butting between OTC athletes and coaches for a long time, going back to when Dragomir was in charge. I personally witnessed a couple of pretty ugly blowups back in those days that almost came to a fistfight.
I think there has to be effective communication between OTC athletes and the OTC coach. Sit-downs are probably a must where everybody gets to say what they need to say and everybody listens. But at the end of the day, in my opinion, the coach is the one with the final say and his decision needs to be final.
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