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

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (wind blowing) Look, he's learning…

   1. CWChris Williamson0:00

      (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. SWSonny Webster0:14

      (laughs)

   3. CWChris Williamson0:15

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

   4. SWSonny Webster0:21

      Very well, thank you.

   5. CWChris Williamson0:22

      What's happening? Long drive today.

   6. SWSonny Webster0:24

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

   7. CWChris Williamson0:29

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

   8. SWSonny Webster0:32

      Of course. I'm looking forward to-

   9. CWChris Williamson0:34

      (laughs)

   10. SWSonny Webster0:34

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

   11. CWChris Williamson0:36

       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. SWSonny Webster0:48

       Bear in mind, when I met you-

   13. CWChris Williamson0:50

       I was still in-

   14. SWSonny Webster0:50

       ... you were almost six months sober.

   15. CWChris Williamson0:51

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

   16. SWSonny Webster0:53

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

   17. CWChris Williamson0:56

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

   18. SWSonny Webster1:01

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

   19. CWChris Williamson1:02

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

   20. SWSonny Webster1:06

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

   21. CWChris Williamson1:10

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

   22. SWSonny Webster1:12

       Lovely. Mm-hmm.

   23. CWChris Williamson1:12

       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. SWSonny Webster1:34

       (laughs)

   25. CWChris Williamson1:34

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

   26. SWSonny Webster1:39

       Yep, 2016.

   27. CWChris Williamson1:40

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

   28. SWSonny Webster1:47

       Having a lot of fun.

   29. CWChris Williamson1:48

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

   30. SWSonny Webster1:52

       (laughs)
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   (laughs) …

   1. SWSonny Webster15:00

      of getting, like, working, watching the scoreboard going, "What is going on here?" (laughs)

   2. CWChris Williamson15:04

      (laughs)

   3. SWSonny Webster15:04

      Like, "Am I in the right category?" Like, "Surely there-"

   4. CWChris Williamson15:07

      You'd got my name, you'd got my name right.

   5. SWSonny Webster15:07

      There was women out-lifting me, the whole shebang, and I was like, "Shit."

   6. CWChris Williamson15:11

      Wow.

   7. SWSonny Webster15:12

      So, uh, yeah, one of the best things that happened to me though, so early on as a kid, in sport, because I very quickly realized that it wasn't about being the best kid in your country or the best at your age. You had to look so much further past being the best in your pond if you wanted to compete at the highest level.

   8. CWChris Williamson15:33

      Mm-hmm.

   9. SWSonny Webster15:34

      And yeah, like I said, one of the best, uh, one of the best lessons I learned really early on. Um-

   10. CWChris Williamson15:39

       Humbling, I suppose, when you said you, you were kind of big-dicking it for a little while.

   11. SWSonny Webster15:42

       Mm-hmm.

   12. CWChris Williamson15:42

       And yeah, bringing yourself back down to earth was probably what, what you needed to, to recover.

   13. SWSonny Webster15:46

       Yeah. But at the time, obviously you don't notice it, but I look back and reflect now on my career, because, I mean, I've been doing it 12, 13 years. I've had a lot of years lifting in me and there's cer- definitely certain points of my career that I pinpoint and go, "That was a turning point," or, "That was when things went to the next level."

   14. CWChris Williamson16:02

       So how did you react once that had happened? What happened to your training? And what happened to your approach to the sport overall?

   15. SWSonny Webster16:07

       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.

   16. CWChris Williamson16:31

       Okay.

   17. SWSonny Webster16:32

       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.

   18. CWChris Williamson16:45

       How old are you here?

   19. SWSonny Webster16:46

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

   20. CWChris Williamson16:52

       Right.

   21. SWSonny Webster16:54

       And, yeah.

   22. CWChris Williamson16:54

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

   23. SWSonny Webster16:58

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

   24. CWChris Williamson17:03

       Oh.

   25. SWSonny Webster17:03

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

   26. CWChris Williamson17:06

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

   27. SWSonny Webster17:08

       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.

   28. CWChris Williamson17:15

       Huge part of your life.

   29. SWSonny Webster17:15

       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-

   30. CWChris Williamson17:58

       Dehydrated?
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Yeah. …

   1. SWSonny Webster30:00

   2. CWChris Williamson30:00

      Yeah.

   3. SWSonny Webster30:00

      And, um, I walked into reception and I said, um, to my coach, Andy, who was behind the bar. I said, uh, "Andy, who's, uh, who's car is that parked in the car park?" He goes, "His name's Geoff. He's in the main gym, in the bodybuilding gym." So I thought, "All right, fine." And, uh, walked off into the main gym, kicked the door open and I just shouted, "Who's Geoff?"

   4. CWChris Williamson30:21

      (laughs)

   5. SWSonny Webster30:21

      And the room's like, I'd probably say like six times the size of this room.

   6. CWChris Williamson30:24

      Yeah.

   7. SWSonny Webster30:24

      It's quite a big long hall and there's everyone in there, like I said, is serious training in there.

   8. CWChris Williamson30:29

      Massive. Yeah.

   9. SWSonny Webster30:29

      ... and, uh, they've all sort of stopped because they've come in and said that it was Jeff. And Jeff's on the other end of the room, um-

   10. CWChris Williamson30:36

       (laughs)

   11. SWSonny Webster30:36

       ... sat there doing bench press and he sat up and he goes, "What do you want? I'm Jeff."

   12. CWChris Williamson30:40

       (laughs)

   13. SWSonny Webster30:41

       And I just said, "Fancy sponsoring me?" First thing I said to him, like. And, uh, he goes, "Well, um, how much is it gonna cost?" And like I said, at the time, I was living off £200 a month and, um, I was like, "He's obviously got a few quid, I need to be here two more months, um, extra hundred quid, get some trainers, £500." He said, "£500?" And he went, "What? A month?" And my jaw sort of like hit-

   14. CWChris Williamson31:08

       (laughs)

   15. SWSonny Webster31:08

       ... the floor at that point, bearing in mind I was living off £200 a month.

   16. CWChris Williamson31:11

       Yeah.

   17. SWSonny Webster31:12

       Everyone in the gym probably only just about earned £500 a month and this guy is gonna give it to me, the little kid. So everyone stopped what they were doing, they scrapped their sessions and they're just watching this conversation just go back and forth now. And I went, um, "Yeah, okay then." And he just went, "Sound," and just led back down to carry on bench pressing.

   18. CWChris Williamson31:29

       (laughs) What a story.

   19. SWSonny Webster31:31

       And I'm just kind of like, "Has that really just happened?" But, okay-

   20. CWChris Williamson31:35

       Yeah.

   21. SWSonny Webster31:35

       ... walked out and got on with my session. And then about an hour later, Jeff's come out and he'd gone, uh, "Here, lad, what's your bank details?" So I give him my bank details and sure enough, the next month, £500 had come into my account. And, uh, I rang my dad up and I said, "Dad, I'm staying in Bristol. Fuck golf." I'm-

   22. CWChris Williamson31:53

       Yeah, exactly.

   23. SWSonny Webster31:54

       "... gonna try and go to the Olympics."

   24. CWChris Williamson31:55

       He's gonna throw your baguette down the b- down the drain.

   25. SWSonny Webster31:57

       Yeah. And, um, I guess after that, me and my dad didn't really speak so much-

   26. CWChris Williamson32:03

       (laughs)

   27. SWSonny Webster32:03

       ... for a while. Um, our relationship definitely, like, sort of went- went apart, but-

   28. CWChris Williamson32:07

       You think he was predicting that you were going to end up going back home?

   29. SWSonny Webster32:10

       Um, I don't think so. I think he knew that I was very determined to do what I wanted to do. Um, but because we sort of drifted, and I'll go back and tell you a little bit more about Jeff, because he's kind of a really big part to my success and my story. Because from that moment on, um, so I'll go back and tell you about Jeff anyway. So Jeff used to race BMX as a kid and he was a really good BMX racer. And, um, he was European number two and good enough to go to America to turn pro. Um, but unfortunately his, um, his parents didn't have enough money to send him out to America, so he subsequently ended up quitting and, uh, stopping his sport. But off the back of that, he ended up setting up a telecoms company and now is an extremely successful telecoms company-

   30. CWChris Williamson32:59

       In his own right.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Mm-hmm. Can you, can…

   1. SWSonny Webster45:00

      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-

   2. CWChris Williamson45:30

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

   3. SWSonny Webster45:33

      Yeah.

   4. CWChris Williamson45:33

      ... before you do a lift?

   5. SWSonny Webster45:34

      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?

   6. CWChris Williamson46:14

      From first person.

   7. SWSonny Webster46:14

      Yeah.

   8. CWChris Williamson46:15

      Yep.

   9. SWSonny Webster46:15

      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."

   10. CWChris Williamson47:01

       (laughs)

   11. SWSonny Webster47:01

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

   12. CWChris Williamson47:05

       Yeah. (laughs)

   13. SWSonny Webster47:05

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

   14. CWChris Williamson47:10

       Yeah.

   15. SWSonny Webster47:10

       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.

   16. CWChris Williamson47:32

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

   17. SWSonny Webster47:34

       Yeah.

   18. CWChris Williamson47:35

       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.

   19. SWSonny Webster47:52

       Yeah.

   20. CWChris Williamson47:53

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

   21. SWSonny Webster47:56

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

   22. CWChris Williamson47:59

       Okay.

   23. SWSonny Webster47:59

       So I get out the top with my clean, my foot comes in, feel the weight on my heels, three, two, one, bang, go, jerk. So exactly the same thing for a consistency.

   24. CWChris Williamson48:10

       That's awesome.

   25. SWSonny Webster48:11

       Yeah.

   26. CWChris Williamson48:11

       That's a lovely little framework for people to use, and it sounds so stupid that I've stepped up to the bar, like, in-

   27. SWSonny Webster48:17

       Mm-hmm.

   28. CWChris Williamson48:17

       ... workouts or even, like, going for max lifts, and I've just, like, ap- approached the bar, like, gripped it-

   29. SWSonny Webster48:23

       Mm-hmm.

   30. CWChris Williamson48:24

       ... hoped for the best, but I don't have a, I don't have a process.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:14:02

   What, for his second…

   1. SWSonny Webster1:00:00

      I thought, "Fair play." And you know he's come out on like 182, which is like his PB. I thought, "Whoa."

   2. CWChris Williamson1:00:05

      What, for his second lift?

   3. SWSonny Webster1:00:06

      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.

   4. CWChris Williamson1:00:15

      Mm-hmm.

   5. SWSonny Webster1:00:15

      And then he's gone like 189.

   6. CWChris Williamson1:00:18

      (laughs)

   7. SWSonny Webster1:00:18

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

   8. CWChris Williamson1:00:22

      Yeah.

   9. SWSonny Webster1:00:22

      And, um, he's come out and done 189. So he's like ahead now again on body weight. I'm thinking, "Bastard."

   10. CWChris Williamson1:00:28

       (laughs) Shit the bed.

   11. SWSonny Webster1:00:29

       So now on my second lift, and I've hit 190, and I thought, "Oh, that's it now. There's no way, like, he's got another lift in him." And sure enough, he comes out 193 and makes it. He's made a 12 kilo PB on his final lift.

   12. CWChris Williamson1:00:45

       (laughs)

   13. SWSonny Webster1:00:46

       And he's like... For some reason, the way the numbers were, I thought that didn't matter that he got 193. I thought I was still in, in the lead.

   14. CWChris Williamson1:00:54

       Yeah.

   15. SWSonny Webster1:00:55

       And I'm in the back like chilling like this. I don't even need to do my last lift of one. And my coach comes out and he goes-... so you need to make this lift. You need 193." And I was like, "No, no, put 194 on, it's fine."

   16. CWChris Williamson1:01:08

       (laughs)

   17. SWSonny Webster1:01:09

       And he's like, "You only need 193 to put 194 on, no problem." And I put my hat on and I spun my hat back round, 'cause I'd taken my hat off 'cause I always lift in my snapback.

   18. CWChris Williamson1:01:17

       Mm-hmm.

   19. SWSonny Webster1:01:17

       Put it back on and off I went out. Like, nothing had fazed me and, like, everyone is, like, on the edge of their seats, like. And it was for, like, a British record. And I've come out and I've cleaned the weight, 194. As I'm standing out of it, I threw up in my mouth.

   20. CWChris Williamson1:01:32

       Why?

   21. SWSonny Webster1:01:32

       Swallowed... I don't know, just swallowed it down and then just nailed the jerk and it was like, that was the only way that day was gonna go, like.

   22. CWChris Williamson1:01:41

       (laughs)

   23. SWSonny Webster1:01:41

       Regardless of the scenario and this is what I say, like, when you prepare for something that well, it, it didn't matter how good the outcome for me for that day.

   24. CWChris Williamson1:01:49

       Wrong kit, wrong shoes.

   25. SWSonny Webster1:01:50

       Didn't matter.

   26. CWChris Williamson1:01:51

       All of the worry before, all the anxiety before, thrown up in your mouth.

   27. SWSonny Webster1:01:56

       Yeah.

   28. CWChris Williamson1:01:56

       Some guy's lifted his 12 kilo PB-

   29. SWSonny Webster1:01:58

       Yeah.

   30. CWChris Williamson1:01:59

       ... but because you've greased the groove that hard-

Episode duration: 1:52:07