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SONNY WEBSTER | From Zero To Rio: A Life's Journey To The Olympic Games

Sonny Webster is an Olympic Weightlifter who represented Great Britain at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Sonny is one of the best known names in the world of strength and fitness in the UK. But before the hundreds of thousands of followers and seminar tours all over the world, he had to learn his craft. Today we get to hear his story. From overcoming massive injuries as a child to leaving home at 16, having qualifying day catastrophes and no money to eat to walking out at the Olympic Opening Ceremony next to Andy Murray, we get to learn about his entire journey. Discover his pre-lift routine, his thoughts on CrossFit in the lifting community and why he's endangering his life with a barbell almost daily in videos on Instagram. This will be the first of many podcasts as there is a lot to go into about Sonny's career and mindset, but for now, enjoy Chapter #1. Follow Sonny Online: https://www.instagram.com/sonnywebstergb http://www.sonnywebster.com/ - Video editing & production by Dean Hindmarch https://www.deanhindmarch.com/ https://www.instagram.com/deanhindmarch - Listen to all episodes online. Search "Modern Wisdom" on any Podcast App or click here: iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/modern-wisdom/id1347973549 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0XrOqvxlqQI6bmdYHuIVnr?si=iUpczE97SJqe1kNdYBipnw Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/modern-wisdom - I want to hear from you!! Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Email: modernwisdompodcast@gmail.com

Chris WilliamsonhostSonny Websterguest
Aug 20, 20181h 52mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 2:01

    Meet Sonny Webster: Olympic weightlifter turned global coach

    1. CW

      (wind blowing) Look, he's learning already. He's learning to not put the can down too hard on the table. This is a man who's watched some podcasts.

    2. SW

      (laughs)

    3. CW

      Anyway, bang! Everyone who's listening, welcome back. Sonny Webster's joined me today. How are you?

    4. SW

      Very well, thank you.

    5. CW

      What's happening? Long drive today.

    6. SW

      Long drive, five hours in the car, decent training session, considering.

    7. CW

      Very decent training session, and worth it, obviously, to see me.

    8. SW

      Of course. I'm looking forward to-

    9. CW

      (laughs)

    10. SW

      ... the later part of tonight's antics.

    11. CW

      Yes. Of course. Um, those of you who know what I, uh, how I perceive drinking, I'm gonna suspend my drinking habits, or my lack of drinking habits for one evening. I can talk about-

    12. SW

      Bear in mind, when I met you-

    13. CW

      I was still in-

    14. SW

      ... you were almost six months sober.

    15. CW

      ... a six-month sobriety stint. Yeah, exactly.

    16. SW

      And we still went out, and you were there, like, itching. (laughs)

    17. CW

      Itching. It was difficult. But that was at the end of it. That was, like, uh, like, two weeks to go.

    18. SW

      Mm-hmm, like, two weeks ago. Yeah, fair.

    19. CW

      It was not easy. But yeah, that was, um, that was still a really fun night at Bodhi, at BodyPower in Birmingham.

    20. SW

      So good, 'cause we literally met, like, a few hours before that as well, and we just, like, click.

    21. CW

      Yeah. It's cool, man. It's awesome.

    22. SW

      Lovely. Mm-hmm.

    23. CW

      So, anyone who's watching on the brand new Modern Wisdom YouTube channel, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. If you don't know what Sonny does, Video Man Dean will make it appear here, and here, and also here.

    24. SW

      (laughs)

    25. CW

      So, Sonny is, uh, an Olympic weightlifter, represented Great Britain at Rio.

    26. SW

      Yep, 2016.

    27. CW

      Um, and now you are traveling the world doing weightlifting seminars and coaching people, doing a lot of PT work.

    28. SW

      Having a lot of fun.

    29. CW

      Having an awful lot of fun, and being a big-dick Instagram swinger, and-

    30. SW

      (laughs)

  2. 2:01 – 5:58

    Sporty childhood, golf influence, and the first Olympic spark (London 2012 bid)

    1. SW

      Yeah, well, I guess I have to take you right back to me even as a kid, and go back and talk about, I guess, um, what got me into sport. Like, I mean, I've always been a sporty kid. You know, you got those kids that are the sporty kids, and then you got the kids that are more, like, artistic, et cetera. I was always a sporty kid. Um, my dad was always into golf. So, like, naturally, before I could pretty much walk, my dad had golf, uh, covered my hands. And I even remember, like, he's still got videos, like, on, you know, the old video recorders, like, the tapes-

    2. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    3. SW

      ... of him trying to teach me, and he was so brutal with me, like I'm, "My golf swing's pure," and he's like, "That's wrong, it's bad." And I'm there, like, "Ugh," like, like all set.

    4. CW

      Three years old.

    5. SW

      Yeah. So, um, my dad was, like, was pushing me with my sport, um, and going back to sort of, like, year ... When do you start, like ... Primary school? Year-

    6. CW

      Five. You're five years old.

    7. SW

      Yeah, so from primary school, really, up to, and that goes up to, what, year six, doesn't it? So, during that time of school, um, I was all, in, like, all the sort of school clubs, like gymnast, gymnastics, um, you know, athletics. The cricket ball throw was my event, um-

    8. CW

      Nice.

    9. SW

      ... 80-meter sprint until you get to year six, and it became 100, and I'd, like-

    10. CW

      That last 20 meters just kill you.

    11. SW

      (laughs) It just killed me. I was always, like, little, like, stocky, like, 'cause obviously my mum's from New Zealand, so I've got a bit of Maori in me.

    12. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    13. SW

      So like, got that stocky sort of build, and I'd be, like, pssh, off for, like, the first, like, 40, and then I'd hang on for the 80 meters.

    14. CW

      (laughs)

    15. SW

      As soon as it became, like, 100 meters, I was finished. And it was always about being the fastest kid at school as well, wasn't it?

    16. CW

      Yeah.

    17. SW

      So, uh, yeah, that finished me there. I tried high jump. Obviously these little stumps are no good at that. Uh-

    18. CW

      (laughs)

    19. SW

      ... long jump was okay, but again, not great. And slowly realized that I was a kid that was good at lots of things, but great at nothing.

    20. CW

      Yep.

    21. SW

      Um, and I always tell this story, 'cause it's, there's one, like, key point for me in, I guess, my Olympic journey, if you like, that stands out for me. I dunno what it is about this moment, but it still, like, sticks in my head. But I remember being sat in maths class in school, year, I would've been, whoa, year five probably, um, and it's, I'm gonna say 2000 and, um, maybe it was 2002. And I'm sat in maths class doing maths, and, um, in the, the way that my school was, it was, like, three classrooms and they were divided by, like, sliding doors. And the PE teacher came running in, burst open one of these sliding doors and was like, "Stop! We've got to turn the TV on," and there was only one TV in, um, in the school. And so we were like, "Right, fine."

    22. CW

      Sounds good.

    23. SW

      Like, better, better than maths, we'll watch a bit of TV.

    24. CW

      Yeah.

    25. SW

      And, uh, Miss Cousins, I think the PE teacher name was, and she flicked the TV on, and it was right at the moment when David Beckham and Kelly Holmes were jumping up and down hugging each other. Do you know that, what I'm on about?

    26. CW

      No.

    27. SW

      Okay, so it's right when we won the bid for London 2012 Olympics, 'cause obviously them two were, like, key figures-

    28. CW

      Ambassadors.

    29. SW

      ... yeah, of, like, the, um, of the ...

    30. CW

      Campaign.

  3. 5:58 – 10:39

    New school in Devon: loneliness, the weightlifting gym, and a chance introduction

    1. SW

      ... knew nothing about what, you know, any Olympic sports.So we learned all that and, um, I guess then we got into year six and again I continued with the sports that I was doing and, you know, pundled sort of along. And then, um, we ended up moving down from year six to year seven, down to a school in Ivybridge so this is back in Reading, um, down to Ivybridge which is a little town in, um, Devon, near Plymouth. And, um-

    2. CW

      So you are at the arse end of the country, there.

    3. SW

      Yeah, so-

    4. CW

      Like, you're as far away from here as possible.

    5. SW

      Well, you can go further. You can go to Cornwall.

    6. CW

      Oh, yeah, true. True.

    7. SW

      But yeah, longer south.

    8. CW

      Pretty south.

    9. SW

      Yeah, so started for year six, um, year seven then at this new school and naturally when you start a new school and you don't know anyone, you're kind of like that loner and at the time I was living with my dad when we moved down there, when he first went down there. And I remember like my first day at this school and like you know how like your mum makes you packed lunches and she can 'cause it's your mum-

    10. CW

      (laughs) Yeah.

    11. SW

      ... and they know how to make a packed lunch.

    12. CW

      Yeah.

    13. SW

      And then it was like my dad was making me this packed lunch and like bless him, he tried to be hard but at the same time he didn't give a fuck what you was doing.

    14. CW

      (laughs) So he'd just roll you into school with a single baguette and like...

    15. SW

      (laughs) Yeah, pretty much like, uh, "Yeah, go in the shop and get what you want." And you're like, "N- no, I like to slice my sandwiches in triangles, Dad."

    16. CW

      (laughs)

    17. SW

      So, I just remember that first day being like absolutely horrendous, wanting to cry like-

    18. CW

      Shit packed lunch.

    19. SW

      Yeah. (laughs) Shit packed lunch. Starting this new school and just being like, "Oh, God, this is horrendous."

    20. CW

      Fuck.

    21. SW

      Yeah, fuck. New school and it was a big school as well.

    22. CW

      Okay.

    23. SW

      And it was, it was Ivybridge Community College and it's really well renoun- known for its sport.

    24. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    25. SW

      Which is half the reason why we went there.

    26. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    27. SW

      Um, and it's like, um, a community college. So it was like a normal public school.

    28. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    29. SW

      Not private.

    30. CW

      Yep.

  4. 10:39 – 13:13

    Rapid progress and perfectionism: training volume, early competitions, learning styles

    1. SW

      Um, so then it became something that we'd do, get up and go and do an hour before school and then it became like before school, lunchtime and after school and, um, yeah. I mean, within the first... I remember my first competition which was about six months after I started and it was actually at my school and, uh, I remember crying because I didn't, uh, didn't get all my lifts. I think I got five out of my six lifts and started crying like...

    2. CW

      A perfectionist at an early age then.

    3. SW

      Yes. Always. So, um, yeah, that's I guess from me, childhood to initially finding weightlifting.

    4. CW

      Yeah. That's interesting. What I think's really interesting is that you've said about, um, your capacity to be able to look and then turn the movement just from visually seeing someone else do it. I think that's definitely the mark of a good athlete.

    5. SW

      But everyone learns differently and I find this even as a coach now, where sometimes I can say something to one of the guys I'm coaching and they go, "Yeah," bang and do it.

    6. CW

      Yeah.

    7. SW

      Someone needs you to show them a visual cue of them like, you know, you actually doing a demonstration-

    8. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    9. SW

      ... for them to understand. Some people need to see themselves in order to-

    10. CW

      Yeah.

    11. SW

      ... be able to interpret what they need to do rather.

    12. CW

      Some people just don't get it at all, as well.

    13. SW

      Yeah. (laughs) But that's the thing and everyone learns differently and I think I've always been very visual in the way that, that I learn like.

    14. CW

      Yeah. The ability for your, the proprioception to understand where your body is from having just seen something-

    15. SW

      Mm.

    16. CW

      I think is definitely the mark of someone that has a natural athletic talent and I think...... the fact that you've started so young doing the golf swing. Golf's very fine-tuned movement-

    17. SW

      Very technical, yeah.

    18. CW

      ... yeah, exactly, very precise. And I can say the same for myself, to a degree. I did cricket for 10 years and that's exactly the same.

    19. SW

      Really?

    20. CW

      It's very technique-based. And when I started with Jordan at Reebok CrossFit Tyneside, I was able to pick up ... Like, the first time that he taught me to do a muscle-up, I got a muscle-up. The first time he taught me to do toes-to-bar, I got a toes-to-bar.

    21. SW

      'Cause you have an awareness of your body and, like-

    22. CW

      Yeah.

    23. SW

      ... what, what it's being asked to do.

    24. CW

      100%. And I think that people don't like to hear that there's a lot of natural ... uh, a, a big natural component in success within sport because it takes away someone's hard work capacity to get to the top.

    25. SW

      Mm-hmm.

    26. CW

      But the bottom line is that some children and adults that start sports will naturally be able to learn faster.

    27. SW

      Yes, they are.

    28. CW

      They'll be able to pick it up more quickly. So you've started your weightlifting. You're doing it up to, what, three hours a day now?

    29. SW

      Yeah. So, um, yeah, I was doing up to, I guess-

    30. CW

      What, what do you lift?

  5. 13:13 – 16:07

    Dominating the UK, then getting humbled in Europe

    1. SW

      I can go ... I can tell you sort of what I was lifting at 12. I would've been snatching around 70 kilos, 12, 13, about 70 kilos, clean jerking around 90.

    2. CW

      At 12 and 13 years old?

    3. SW

      Yeah. 55.

    4. CW

      There's CrossFitters up and down-

    5. SW

      Yeah.

    6. CW

      ... the country that are listening to this that are burying their head in their hands right now.

    7. SW

      At 55 kilo body weight or something like that.

    8. CW

      (laughs) .

    9. SW

      I used to compete in the 56-kilo class.

    10. CW

      Hang on. You were 55 kilos at 12 years old?

    11. SW

      (smacks lips) Yeah. No, no, I would've been ... I started ... When I first started, I was 46, and then went up to 45. The lightest men's category is, uh, 56 kilo.

    12. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    13. SW

      So that was, like, my category that I competed in.

    14. CW

      (laughs) .

    15. SW

      So yeah, I suppose then we're nearly two years in, um, and it was about, yeah, two years in. So I'm ... maybe I would've been 13 when I did those weights.

    16. CW

      Yep.

    17. SW

      And, um, I'd won everything. Like, the British under-13s, British under-16s, under-17s. I broke the records, thought I was the dog's bollocks.

    18. CW

      (laughs)

    19. SW

      I was now gone from, like, barely no mates in school to really obviously popular kid in school-

    20. CW

      The jock.

    21. SW

      Yeah. Like ... And, uh, I got selected for my first, um, international.

    22. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    23. SW

      Then I would've been, like I said, 13, 14. It was a European under-17s in Pavia.

    24. CW

      So you're competing against 17-year-olds-

    25. SW

      Yeah.

    26. CW

      ... at the age of 13 or 14?

    27. SW

      Yeah, but that didn't bother me. I was like, "I'm gonna smash this as well."

    28. CW

      Bring, bring it on then.

    29. SW

      I'd never lost, so I was like, "That's the ... I'm gonna win this as well."

    30. CW

      (laughs)

  6. 16:07 – 20:07

    Severe back injury at 14: diagnosis, scare, and the rehab decision

    1. SW

      Yeah. So over the, the next couple of years of coming back from that, I decided that I needed to work much harder in my training and, you know, the ... I just started working a lot harder than the other guys. But, at the same time, straight after that, so 2000 and ... coming into 2008, shortly after that first international, um, I actually ended up, um, having my back injury.

    2. CW

      Okay.

    3. SW

      So, um, it started off just being, like, a nervy pain in my back when I was lifting, and I was like ... It just didn't feel comfortable. But it progressed to the point where I couldn't walk, I was in that much pain.

    4. CW

      How old are you here?

    5. SW

      So 2008, so that's 10 years ago now, so it would've been like, yeah, 14 years old.

    6. CW

      Right.

    7. SW

      And, yeah.

    8. CW

      That's a young age to be having a t- what feels like a severe problem.

    9. SW

      A severe problem, to the point where I ended up having crutches for eight weeks because-

    10. CW

      Oh.

    11. SW

      ... to help me walk round school, because, like, couldn't do anything else.

    12. CW

      You weren't able to train? You weren't able to walk without crutches?

    13. SW

      Nothing. Nothing. And obviously that made me, like, extremely upset, even at that age, because, like, I was training every day and that was my life.

    14. CW

      Huge part of your life.

    15. SW

      Yeah. Already, at that age. So, um, we went to see a physio, um, and it was actually Tom Daly's physio at the time, Amanda Booth. 'Cause my coach when I first started, Michaela Briese, was a Commonwealth me- uh, gold medalist. She'd been to the Olympic Games. She was my first coach. Um, so she took me to see this Amanda Booth and, um, she was like, "God. It's bad, though. Not seen anything like this before. Go and see a doctor." Um, so then we went up to Bath University from Devon to, uh, see a back specialist there, and had the scan. And obviously the scan came back, and it was like ... At the time I only had two dehydrated discs. I'd, I'd had one extra by Sids' sad luck. Two dehydrated discs-

    16. CW

      Dehydrated?

    17. SW

      Yeah. So basically, obviously you've got fluid in your disc-

    18. CW

      Okay.

    19. SW

      ... and it's gone overfill and it's, like, compressed, so-

    20. CW

      Okay.

    21. SW

      Dehydrated discs. So instead of them being like that thick, it was like that. So I already had that, like, compression of my discs. Um, and then-... basically, um, sacrum, first vertebrae were fused together. So, um, that put pressure then on the disc above, 'cause obviously you'd have an extra disc there normally-

    22. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    23. SW

      ... that if you imagine when your back goes into flexion, gives you a nice-

    24. CW

      Curve.

    25. SW

      ... curve. But because mine was like this to begin with, and you'll still see when I'm back, when I set my back, the first bit of it stays flat-

    26. CW

      (laughs)

    27. SW

      ... and then I get my curve. But obviously that disc-

    28. CW

      Like someone shoved a rod in it.

    29. SW

      Yeah. But obviously that disc then above where the two are fused-

    30. CW

      Has to take more-

  7. 20:07 – 23:21

    Rebuilding from the ground up: technique reset and long-term payoff

    1. SW

      we went back to working, um, on low level core stuff and I'd go see her three times a week for rehab, et cetera, and, um, at the time, after a little while, I started just when I could walk, et cetera, again and was in very little pain, started snatching just with a five kilo bar.

    2. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    3. SW

      And again, this is one of like the things that I think, and I mean, Ben Bergeron did a really good talk about injury, like a while back and, you know, about when I, in his talk, he's talking about how when his daughter broke her, uh, tore her LCL in a lacrosse thing and it's like that really like made me realize back at the same point when this back injury happened to me, it gave me a point to actually correct things that were wrong in my lifting because although I was a really good lifter, there was, I was making like little technical mistakes. Like my knees used to come in when I used to clean. I wasn't really strong enough for how good I was technically.

    4. CW

      Yep.

    5. SW

      And the bar used to crash on me, et cetera, my arms were like little spindles.

    6. CW

      Yep.

    7. SW

      And it gave me time to sort of as I was rehabbing and coming back, I spent a year snatching just 15 kilos.

    8. CW

      Just working on fundamentals and technique.

    9. SW

      Technique, ingraining it, which is like why I think now nearly 10 years on, my technique's really good and really consistent.

    10. CW

      Greed and proved.

    11. SW

      Because I had that time to correct those issues earlier on that a lot of people don't, 'cause they keep going, keep going, keep going-

    12. CW

      And then you get a big-

    13. SW

      ... they get a bad injury and then that's it.

    14. CW

      Yeah.

    15. SW

      Or you just never be able to progress because those technical patterns are-

    16. CW

      So this is-

    17. SW

      ... ingrained.

    18. CW

      ... an, an interesting segue there. So I started boxing, uh, about three, four years ago.

    19. SW

      Mm-hmm.

    20. CW

      And it was originally to do a white collar boxing fight against another promoter who's a good mate and, um, I- I loved it. I actually, I really, really enjoyed it and decided, "Oh, fuck it, I'm gonna continue." And went out to Thailand and went to Thailand to do kickboxing and Muay Thai and stuff like that and I absolutely loved it. What I found was that because I'd spent so long doing bodybuilding, that, I mean, you can hear, that little click there, that's my wrist. (snaps fingers)

    21. SW

      Yeah.

    22. CW

      Which I- I swear that I didn't mean for it to happen at the right time, but... (laughs)

    23. SW

      (laughs) Full pay for the ... (laughs)

    24. CW

      Yeah, exactly. Um, just gonna pop it away from the mic or else it makes that beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep and I get annoyances off the audience. So I'm boxing and what I found was that because of the years of doing like chest press and stuff like that, my power of being able to throw punches was super, super high, but because my technique wasn't there, I actually ended up-

    25. SW

      Causing your-

    26. CW

      ... injuring my wrists-

    27. SW

      Pain, yeah.

    28. CW

      ... so badly. And I'm like, "No, this can't be the way, like it can't be that I'm too powerful for my own body. I don't even know how to throw a punch properly yet." But that was the case and it sounds like the same for you, you were almost too strong for your own biomechanics?

    29. SW

      Yeah.

    30. CW

      Like you were able to lift weights that your body wasn't able to support.

  8. 23:21 – 26:27

    Coach conflict, golf vs lifting, and the leap to Bristol at 16

    1. SW

      And yeah, came back 2009, so this is... I had well, I can remember doing another Europeans, another juniors and I was successful in those years up to the point where I finished, um, coming up to year five or six and, um, I think through having done that, having, having that injury, I started to question, um, I guess bits of what my coach was getting me to do, 'cause I was going to competitions and nationals and seeing other guys that were far stronger than me lifting differently to me and I was like to my coach, "Why won't we doing so much deadlifts and pulls and squats as the other guys?"

    2. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    3. SW

      And the coach was like, "Oh, you don't need that. It's all about, you know, speed and technique." And I was like getting to the point where I was lifting as much as she was and I guess I got to the point where I believed that I needed someone who was lifting-... more weight-

    4. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    5. SW

      ... to understand what it takes to lift that weight.

    6. CW

      Yep.

    7. SW

      And now being in that position on now, like, you know, 10 years on, I, I think it was the right choice that I made.

    8. CW

      Yeah.

    9. SW

      So, uh, we did have a bit of disagreement, a bit of a falling out, and it got to year six, where you decide sixth form, college, et cetera.

    10. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    11. SW

      And I was still playing golf at this point, and I was playing to a good level. I mean, I was playing off, like, four, three or four handicap, alongside my weightlifting.

    12. CW

      Wow.

    13. SW

      Like, so, um, I was good, and, uh, my dad was obviously really wanting me to crack on with, um-

    14. CW

      Golf.

    15. SW

      ... my golf. And, um, I had to make a decision what I was going to do, basically. So I ended up finding a weightlifting coach in Bristol called Andy Suter, and it was a really well-renowned weightlifting gym. It was the closest to, um, Plymouth as we could find home, and one of my friends was going to university there. So I was like, "Well, I'll move to Bristol and go join this weightlifting gym," and off we go.

    16. CW

      Were you gonna go college as well, like sixth form or whatever? Or were you just gonna go to weightlift full time?

    17. SW

      To weightlift, like, that was it. I was doing that.

    18. CW

      Single-minded?

    19. SW

      Yeah. And, um, I had good GCSEs. I had, like, six A stars, six As, and four Bs, four Cs, like. Did all, like, the triple awards and all the extra ones. So I had good GCSEs. Um, and so I said to my dad, "Dad, I want to move to Bristol to, uh-"

    20. CW

      Weightlift.

    21. SW

      "... come weightlift there."

    22. CW

      At the age of 16.

    23. SW

      And he just looked at me like, "Are you dumb? (laughs) You're not doing that."

    24. CW

      (laughs)

    25. SW

      Um, so anyway, I went away for a couple of weeks and I went on the computer, did a bit of research and stuff, and, um, ended up finding a golf academy in Bristol.

    26. CW

      (laughs)

    27. SW

      So I went back to my dad. I said, "Dad, you know what? Scrap weightlifting, like. I want to join this golf academy." And he was like, "I'm not stupid," like.

    28. CW

      (laughs) Aw.

    29. SW

      He was like, "Right, I'll let you go, but on one condition." I said, "Okay, go on." He said, "I'll give you £200 a month for six months, and if you don't find your own way in six months, you have to come back home."

    30. CW

      Mm.

  9. 26:27 – 35:02

    The Empire gym, hard lessons, and asking for sponsorship (meeting Geoff)

    1. SW

      Yeah. So at 16 off I went. Like, I hardly knew how to wipe my own bum. Went to Bristol and, um, my mate was obviously just started uni there, and, um, slept on his uni hall floors for the first two months of being in Bristol.

    2. CW

      Wow.

    3. SW

      As you can imagine, Freshers' week, went out, got hammered, had my mate's ID. Like-

    4. CW

      (laughs)

    5. SW

      ... made every mistake you could make as a 16-year-old moving out from home and having no responsibilities. Just-

    6. CW

      Yeah.

    7. SW

      ... do what you want. Um, but at the same time, like, great, I had so much fun. I got to the b- I managed to get to stay there to the point when, um, someone actually dobbed me in for being 16 to the security guard.

    8. CW

      (laughs)

    9. SW

      For reasons that we won't mention. (laughs)

    10. CW

      (laughs) Yeah.

    11. SW

      Um, and I ended up having to find a room then to rent. But obviously living off £200 a month was very difficult, £50 a week-

    12. CW

      (laughs) Yeah.

    13. SW

      ... like, food, everything, like, and it was tough. And, um, I used to get the bus down from North Bristol down to, um, the center of town, to, um, walk to the gym. And the gym was in St. Paul's, which is a notoriously, like, bad area, rough area. It's got a bad stigma behind it, like.

    14. CW

      Okay.

    15. SW

      And, not now, but at the time it did. Um, but the Empire Sports Club were there and like I said, this was a proper gym. Like this is an old church, and anyone who went to the Empire, it was known everywhere, you trained properly. There was weightlifting in there, there was boxing. We had like world champion boxers coming out of there. Mr. Universes, bodybuilding-

    16. CW

      Ev- everything was done to a high, a high degree.

    17. SW

      Yeah. Precious McKenzie trained there, like, the lot.

    18. CW

      Yeah.

    19. SW

      Um, so if you went there you were serious. And used to, I'd get off the bus and I used to walk down to this, um, to the gym. And, um, I guess it got to mo- month five of being in Bristol and, uh, just having a whale of a time, like, I kind of, you take for granted all those things that your parents do for you. Washing up, washing your clothes.

    20. CW

      Sandwiches, and cut, cut the corners.

    21. SW

      Cut s- (laughs) cut sandwiches.

    22. CW

      Yeah.

    23. SW

      Et cetera. And, uh, yeah, I had to grow up really quickly, I guess. And it was coming up to, I guess now we're looking about a year out from London 2012.

    24. CW

      Yeah. Was that in the back of your mind? Were you thinking-

    25. SW

      Of course, like-

    26. CW

      ... when you first started, were you, was that the goal? Was it London 2012? "I want to compete in my home nation"?

    27. SW

      Of course. That's what I mean. My dream was always to go to the Olympic Games and that was definitely in the back of my mind. And, um, even in my coach's, that there was a good chance. Because when you're at the Olympics in your home country, you get quota spots. So the qualification isn't like how it is now, where it's, you have to be like top 10 in the world and it's really difficult.

    28. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    29. SW

      This is like you have, um, you have to, um... Yeah, so you get quota spots. This is like you ha- you don't have to be top 10 in the world. So there are three spots basically, so it's much easier to qualify.

    30. CW

      Mm-hmm.

  10. 35:02 – 42:48

    Missing London 2012 by 1–2kg, then Commonwealth 2014 mindset lessons

    1. SW

      The- the... All of that stuff. And I mean, like from that moment on, you know, we- we went on and I actually ended up missing out on the, um, London 2012 Olympics by one kilo. It's heartbreaking for me at the time.

    2. CW

      By one kilo?

    3. SW

      Yeah. By one, two kilos I missed out on it. But... and, you know, it was heartbreaking for me. And again, like you- you learn from that experience and, you know, Jeff went to me, "Well, you know what?" Like, "Why don't we just carry on with the sponsorship deal and you try and qualify from," um, "try and qualify for Glasgow 2014?"

    4. CW

      What's... What was that? Is that-

    5. SW

      That's the Commonwealth Games.

    6. CW

      Yep.

    7. SW

      So that's like your next biggest thing really in weightlifting so the Olympics and... I guess for me that moment, that heartbreak, that failure and the disappointment, I still remember how it felt. That was like my catapult to make sure that for the Commonwealth Games, that wasn't gonna be the same thing. I wasn't gonna miss out on being there. Um, but it kind of worked both ways for me because I made sure that, you know, I stepped up my training, et cetera, and made sure I hit the qualification total and I did and it was great. And I went to that competition to take part. That's exactly what I did. And I had no aspiration for anything more than just to be there.

    8. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    9. SW

      And that was, again, another big learning curve for me because it made me actually think of the psychological side of how you approach, um, competition, performance and events. And, like, for me, like- like I said, I... all I had was the aspiration to be there. I ended up lifting-... weights that I was capable of, um, and finishing in fifth place. And I think, what if I had fucking tried and actually gone into that competition believing that I could win? And if I'd lifted out of my skin, reached PB heights, there probably would have been a good chance that I could have maybe snatched a bronze medal. But because I didn't believe that I was gonna do any better than just be there, that's all that happened.

    10. CW

      Do you think that that was an artifact of not making it to 2012?

    11. SW

      Um, I, that thought process, I don't, I don't, because I'd never been in a position where I was competing in major championships like that. Um, so, but I definitely-

    12. CW

      You, did you, did you feel like you'd already accomplished what you wanted to accomplish simply by being there?

    13. SW

      Yeah, exactly.

    14. CW

      Okay. Yeah.

    15. SW

      And, you know, I think whether I'd lifted five kilo more or five kilo less, it wouldn't have made any difference to me because I just wanted to be there.

    16. CW

      Yeah.

    17. SW

      Because becoming, at the time, getting to the Commonwealth Games was a massive thing.

    18. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    19. SW

      And, um, I'm gonna sidetrack a little bit here because like, I think this is another like, valuable thing that I learnt from reflection on that, was that like, at points of my career, the things that I thought were of most importance, now I've got older, I've actually realized that they weren't, and like, if I could go back and change or change my thinking, it, it would be that.

    20. CW

      What sort of stuff?

    21. SW

      So for example, like, I used to hold my body weight down at like, 56 kilos or 77 kilos, or at certain weight categories far longer than I ever should, starve myself. I used to live off Jelly Babies and make myself sick so that my body weight wouldn't go up, 'cause I had no knowledge of any nutrition, in order to break a British under-17 record.

    22. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    23. SW

      Which, in the grand scheme of things, means absolutely fuck all. No one remembers who won the Youth Olympic Games 100 Meter Sprint, do they?

    24. CW

      Yeah.

    25. SW

      No one remembers seeing a thing. But at the time, as a kid, and growing up, you think it's the most valuable thing on earth, and you'd do anything to achieve it. And just like I did, get just getting to the Commonwealth Games.

    26. CW

      I think what's interesting there is that perspective is something you naturally get as your frame of reference is wider.

    27. SW

      Mm-hmm.

    28. CW

      And this is for everything, right? Like, your first breakup feels like your world's collapsing.

    29. SW

      Yeah. (laughs)

    30. CW

      Well, maybe not for you, but you know what I mean. Like, your first breakup feels like your world's collapsing, but ten years hence, you're like, par for the course. Like, easy come, easy go, so to speak. And you're totally right. I can remember playing cricket, and I got accepted to play for Durham Academy. And for me, like, I got to warm up with the Australian team when they were playing at Durham against England.

  11. 42:48 – 55:54

    Going ‘full robot’ for Rio: controllables, routines, and sports psychology tools

    1. SW

      ... swings and roundabouts. Um, so yeah, Commonwealth Games is gone, um, and now two years out from the Olympic Games, and obviously, um, that was well and truly then my next biggest focus. And don't even... The whole way through this, like I said, Jeff's still there supporting me with various bits and bobs. And it got to the point where I was about 15 kilos off after the Commonwealth Games, what I would need to do in order to qualify for the Olympic Games. And the last two years prior to that, I'd probably put, like, maybe four or five kilos on my total each year.

    2. CW

      Ooh.

    3. SW

      So a very small amount. Yeah, a tiny amount.

    4. CW

      Yeah.

    5. SW

      Um, so it was going to be difficult to sort of reach that, and I had to look at things. And like I said, my training was bang on, I was working super hard in the gym, all of that was good, but I had to look at things outside of just what I did in the gym that could potentially help me with my performance, and that's when I started to look at nutrition, started to look at, um, psychology, started looking my lifestyle-

    6. CW

      Sleep.

    7. SW

      ... lifestyle, recovery, all of these other aspects, and what I liked to see it as is like a spider's web, um, of my life and that could potentially contribute to, uh, my performance. And, um, I looked at, um... I guess we'll talk firstly about psychology, 'cause we're kind of on that, and, um, like I said, as a kid I'd had no belief at the, at all that some guy could help me actually put, improve.

    8. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    9. SW

      But I started working with this psychologist, one, my friend's dad, Martin Fricker, and two, David Riedl. Um, and they're both of the same school as sort of the Steven, Steve Peters, is it? Chimp Paradox, et cetera. And, um, I guess the key things I'm gonna extract that they, that helped me with my lifting, one was developing a process, um, for when I'm lifting, so a routine that I go through every single time before a lift in order to develop consistency, and also to be able to carry over any performance that I did in training into an environment like a major championships, 'cause commonly you see athletes that can do bang on bang in the gym, put them on a platform and go, do something different or lose their rhythm and don't actually deliver on the day. So, they talked me through having to do with a process. Um, and the second thing was only, like, worrying about the things that I could control, like, so again, like, outcomes were, they're just byproducts of whatever the process was, so. Um, I guess those two things, without going into too much depth, really helped me-

    10. CW

      Mm-hmm. Can you, can you explain what your process is-

    11. SW

      Yeah.

    12. CW

      ... before you do a lift?

    13. SW

      Okay, yeah, and this is something that's really independent to everyone, and I think the sooner you become aware of your individual process, the better chance you've got then of obviously being consistent. So for me, I pace up and down the bar, backwards and forth, I stand back behind the bar in I, what I like to call my think box. So this is where I'm thinking about the two, the technical side of things that my coach has taught me, whether it's to stay over, keep the bar close, et cetera, my technical cues there, and I visualize myself, um... This is always a good question, because people always ask this, do you visualize watching myself or in my own body?

    14. CW

      From first person.

    15. SW

      Yeah.

    16. CW

      Yep.

    17. SW

      So I visualise watching myself do it, and, um, executing the lift and it being a great lift, and, um... Yeah. So after that, then, um, I approach the bar, and that's when my, like, that's my trigger then to just go through my routine. So my routine is always right arm first, then left hand, and then I set my feet, I shape my arms, I get my breathing controlled, and then I set my s- I start counting then, three, five, four, three, two, one mutter it very quietly under my breath. When I hit one, I lock in and go. And for me, like, 'cause I always used to have that issue which a load of probably the listeners will as well, and anyone who does weight lifting, um, right before you come off the floor you think, "Fuck, this is going to be heavy."

    18. CW

      (laughs)

    19. SW

      Or, yeah. Well, you laugh because you know exactly what I'm going on about-

    20. CW

      Yeah. (laughs)

    21. SW

      ... and that doesn't change whether you're an Olympic athlete or it's your first day. (laughs)

    22. CW

      Yeah.

    23. SW

      You go, "Fuck, this is gonna be heavy," or, "I might hurt myself here." But again, they're negative outcomes, like, of whatever your process is. Um, for me, just by counting down before I lift and going like, one, like a gunshot at a race, it distracts your mind from thinking about those negative thoughts. So that worked really well for me. Um, so yeah, th- that's, that's how it goes.

    24. CW

      And that's the same for both snatch and clean and jerk?

    25. SW

      Yeah.

    26. CW

      Okay. And what about, 'cause I've always, I've always wondered this, once you count to one, and once the movement has begun, do you just let the training kick in, in the same way as a boxer doesn't think too much? But there must be a point, in snatch I can see that it's one more fluid movement.

    27. SW

      Yeah.

    28. CW

      There must be a moment once you've cleaned the bar and then you stand up?

    29. SW

      You do the exact same thing, but a shorter version of it.

    30. CW

      Okay.

  12. 55:54 – 1:02:14

    Rio qualifier drama in Coventry: forgotten kit, a rival’s PB, and the decisive lift

    1. SW

      Yeah. So going back to like what I was saying, like so the six, uh, the six months have gone. It's now competition day of the qualifiers for the Rio 2016 Olympics. Like my, my day of reckoning, D-day, whatever you wanna call it. Now I'd had special weightlifting shoes done that were black and gold that I made. I'd had a special Nike weightlifting suit that was black and gold. I had like a Nike track suit that had like my special logo stitched into it, brand new pants, brand new socks, like everything, snap back black and gold, like-

    2. CW

      You sound like a baller.

    3. SW

      Yeah, I was like... But this is exactly how I'd been envisaging it for-

    4. CW

      Yeah.

    5. SW

      ... months. This is my day and this is how it was gonna go.

    6. CW

      Yep.

    7. SW

      So all of this prepped and ready to rumble.

    8. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    9. SW

      And, um, anyway, Jeff's come to pick me up in his car, just like we'd planned, and we're driving up to the competition and, um-

    10. CW

      Where's the competition?

    11. SW

      It's in Coventry and, um, we're about an hour away, I guess, from the venue now. And um, I'm watching the competition on the live stream, like just seeing how my friends and people were getting on. And, um, the guy walked, a guy walked out. I thought, "Oh, he's got a similar weightlifting suit to me." And it was just as I had that thought, I went, "No." And I was like, "Jeff, pull the car over, mate. I need to check my kit bag." Went in the back of the car, bearing in mind I'd done 60, 70 competitions plus, big major competitions at this point. I'd left my weightlifting shoes and my weightlifting suit at home. To the biggest day of my life, to something I'd thought about every single day for six months. And I was like, "Fuck." Like we were too far away 'cause we would have missed the weigh-in to go back.

    12. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    13. SW

      Had to end up getting Jeff's wife to bring up one of his old weightlifting suits. And my coach just so happened to have one of my old pairs of weightlifting shoes in his car. So going from like the most prepped I'd ever been to exactly how this day was gonna go, to all of a sudden, like spanner thrown in the works, like my suit's not there. But do you know what? And this is why like when people ask me, "Do you, are you stereotypical about anything now or in competition?" I'm not. Because for me, I learnt from that day that regardless of what happens, if you've prepared well enough something, like you could have stuck me in a pink tutu that day and I would have still lifted the same, 'cause I was that prepared for the competition. So I've rocked up, dusted these boots off, got my suit on, weighed in, and the competition had began. Now it was a, there's a really good clip on YouTube, um, of the-

    14. CW

      Dean will make sure that the link is here or here.

    15. SW

      Of the actual-

    16. CW

      Somewhere.

    17. SW

      ... um, of the actual fight for the qualification between me and, um, another weightlifter called Owen Boxhall. Really good lifter. And, um-

    18. CW

      So you must have known going in that it was gonna be between you two for this.

    19. SW

      Well, for my weight category, definitely. And then my best friend who's in a lightweight category, Gareth Evans, was also in the mix, but it's done, it was done on like points. And, um, but I knew I had to beat Owen, like minimum requirement. And, um, notoriously when me and Owen have competed, it's been very like back and forth as to like I win, he win, et cetera. He always used to snatch more than me.

    20. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    21. SW

      Um, but I used to always clean and jerk more than him, so...

    22. CW

      The snatch comes first, right?

    23. SW

      Yeah. Um, so anyway, we've gone on to, um, gone on through the snatch and I've ended up, um, beating Owen by like a quite a f- I think it was like two kilos in the snatch, which is like unheard of. And I was like, "Whoa, this is a great start. Perfect." Snatched at 153, I think. And, um, I was like, "This is it. I've done this pretty much." And, uh, Owen's opener was like 175. My opener was like 185. And I was thinking like one, like I easily open 185. So I thought "I'm like 10K on the opens." And his opener's gone up. I thought, "Fair play." And you know he's come out on like 182, which is like his PB. I thought, "Whoa."

    24. CW

      What, for his second lift?

    25. SW

      No, for his first lift. I thought, "Fair play. He's going for it." And he came out and he did it. I thought, "Fair play, mate." Like I come out, did my 185. I'm put like four kilos ahead now.

    26. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    27. SW

      And then he's gone like 189.

    28. CW

      (laughs)

    29. SW

      And I'm, I was going 190 anyway, so I thought, "Yeah, no problem. Whatever."

    30. CW

      Yeah.

  13. 1:02:14 – 1:05:27

    Snapback identity, rule quirks, and making weightlifting more expressive

    1. CW

      That's amazing. Are you allowed to life in a snapback?

    2. SW

      I was the first person to start doing it and-

    3. CW

      'Cause I saw you-

    4. SW

      ... I'll explain my reasoning for doing it, because initially when I started doing it, a lot of the weightlifting community were like, "That's really bad, you shouldn't do that, it's disrespectful."

    5. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    6. SW

      But for me, you watch weightlifting, a guy walks out, he lifts his weight-

    7. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    8. SW

      ... makes some sort of celebration sometimes, then walks back out the back. You get no understanding or connection to that person as an athlete, as a performer. It's going back to like we say, you don't see all that stuff that goes back.

    9. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    10. SW

      Whereas, like, I love what I do and I wanna show a little bit of my personality, a little bit of my charisma when I'm lifting, so yeah.

    11. CW

      So like a signature?

    12. SW

      Yeah. So this is me, this is me, snapback, a bit of me. And instantly when you see that, you get like a little inkling maybe-

    13. CW

      "Oh, that's the guy that, that's the guy that wears the snapback."

    14. SW

      ... about that person, just for seeing the red snapback.

    15. CW

      Yeah.

    16. SW

      And that was my reasoning for doing it. And yeah, it made me feel comfortable when I did it and I didn't care that people didn't like the fact that I wore it.

    17. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    18. SW

      It was me and, you know-

    19. CW

      It's cool that, um, it's cool that it, it's allowed in the...

    20. SW

      It's counted as part of your body, so if the bar was to touch it or if it was to fall off, it'd be a no lift.

    21. CW

      Okay.

    22. SW

      But yeah, it, it is what it is and, like, nowadays you'll see, there used to only ever be, like, when I started, one type of weightlifting shoe that would be the same color.

    23. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    24. SW

      There'd be one weightlifting suit. So everyone's in the same suit, the same shoes, coming out lifting the bar the same. Boring as shit.

    25. CW

      (laughs)

    26. SW

      Yeah? It's different now 'cause of CrossFit. Yeah, there is, like, multiple different weightlifting suits, multiple different shoes. So if you do have any sort of inkling of fashion sense, you could put together something that almost looks like a planned outfit.

    27. CW

      Yeah.

    28. SW

      So it's different and maybe you... But, like, yeah, that was my, that was my reasoning for doing it.

    29. CW

      That's cool. I think it's really, uh, it's really interesting. I've got, for the listeners at home, Johnny who is a nationals level powerlifter was making me laugh the other day as he said that he couldn't believe in powerlifting that when you deadlift, your socks aren't allowed to touch your knee sleeves. If your socks touch your knee sleeves...

    30. SW

      That used to be a rule in weightlifting but it's-

  14. 1:05:27 – 1:31:09

    From qualification to Rio: kitting out, holding camp, Olympic Village, and the platform moment

    1. SW

      Yeah. Wow, so, phew, I guess going there, like, going back and talking about kitting out, I guess, 'cause for me as a kid, like, as a athlete representing your country, getting your kit is like one of the proudest moments ever. And, um, it is one hell of an experience. Like I'd alw- I'd heard stories about people that had been to the Olympics, um, about what kitting out is like and, um, I was like, like kid in a candy store basically. I'd been to the Commonwealth one but it's never the same as like what the Olympics are, 'cause they absolutely go nuts for the Olympics.

    2. CW

      (laughs)

    3. SW

      Like, so you go into this big hall, it's the NEC, and, uh, you have a personal shopper and you go through, like, different sections. So you start off with, like, formal wear and you've had, like, this suit made for you with, like, you know, um, the Olympic crest on, et cetera, and every detail of it has got, like, really individual to you. And we wore that when we met, like, um, Princess Anne and any royalty, you wore your suit. And you get these cool shoes and then you go into, like, village wear.

    4. CW

      (laughs)

    5. SW

      And then this is stuff that you wear around the village. Do you know how many it is? Stacks and stacks and stacks of stuff, right?

    6. CW

      (laughs)

    7. SW

      And if you sh- d- you get, like, wea- weather gear for, like, Rio and it, we did actually need it in the end but like... (laughs) Um...

    8. CW

      Just senseless amounts of stuff.

    9. SW

      For any possible scenario and then you go into, like, um, training wear-

    10. CW

      Yeah.

    11. SW

      ... and then footwear and then-

    12. CW

      What were you most excited about?

    13. SW

      Um, whoa, probably the trainers or the footwear. Like it was all the, uh, the weird sort of thing. There was a few jumpers and stuff that I'd seen, um-... I can't remember what I said, my f- the, the certain top was my favorite piece that we got. But, um, you c- you get so much stuff and yeah, you get your accessories. But then the final bit is quite personal because you imagine, like, I was the only male weightlifter going, and there was one other female going. So when it comes to making what they, what you perform in, they're essentially making you an outfit for your biggest day of your life. And it's just you that's gonna have that.

    14. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    15. SW

      So obviously, for a weightlifter, your weightlifting suit and you go into this waiting room for a minute and they, um, have like a, um, (clicks tongue) a mannequin-

    16. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    17. SW

      ... of, you know, just normal mannequins. It's not obvious-

    18. CW

      Is it your, is it your dimensions because you are not-

    19. SW

      ... normal shape. No. But they have a manne-

    20. CW

      You are not the traditional dimensions of a person. (laughs)

    21. SW

      Yeah. So they have a mannequin of a human and it's like a big reveal, where you walk through and there's your lifting suit on a mannequin, like-

    22. CW

      Like when you get a new car and they pull the-

    23. SW

      Yeah.

    24. CW

      ... the drape back.

    25. SW

      Oh, and they've made it just for you. And they're so proud of it because obviously, they've done it from scratch to be, like, for you.

    26. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    27. SW

      And it's, it was really cool. And you do like some photos and stuff and then you go through ... 'Cause Audi sponsored it.

    28. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    29. SW

      So then, uh, you take all of your stuff onto ... The bags, the suitcases, they've got like six bags, like different suitcases and bags and all of this stuff. And, um, that was very special. (clicks tongue) And, um, that's when I guess it starts to feel real, that you're going.

    30. CW

      Does it kick in big style then?

Episode duration: 1:52:07

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