Your Guru must come from at least one mountain away...

       Let me start this by saying I am extremely grateful for ever single person who I have ever coached. I am thankful every single day that I have made a living from coaching for the vast majority of my life. We have built a wonderful club with wonderful athletes who I am impressed with more and more everyday. I wake up everyday pumped and thankful I have the opportunity  to teach people to move barbells for a living. From time to time I can lose sight of this and when I do I try to remind myself of one of our seminars we held last year. 
      Last Year while teaching at a Weightlifting Seminar I confided(complained) to the owner of the gym who hosted the clinic about how I couldn't understand why people in the city of Pittsburgh where so hesitant to have us help their athletes with their Olympic lifting. My wife and I had been coaching and lifting ourselves for a few years now , I was getting ready to attend my second USAW National Championship (I had qualified for 3 but didn't attend the first year), my best lifts at the time were 146kg(320lbs) snatch and a 177kg(390lbs) Clean and Jerk, I  think I was ranked around 15th in the country at the time in my weight class. More importantly for most of that time Maggie and I were learning and Coaching ourselves . We were doing a ton of coaching hours, we had spend the last year prior teaching clinics for free at as many of our friends Gyms that would accept us just to get experience, and competing in 10+ meets over those first few years . I was frustrated and pissed. We just wanted to get in front of people and share what we had learned and I couldn't figure out where the disconnect was.
​            She had given me advice that I still have to remind myself to this day. She said "Our guru's must come from at least on mountain away." .  Then Judy went on to explain that when we become familiar with each other it is easy to forget how exceptional those in front of us are. I know I am as guilty of this as anyone and I need to be more conscious  of supporting the amazing coaching community in Pittsburgh as well. . It can be easy for me at times to get frustrated because I LOVE weightlifting , I love training , I love competing, and I really really love teaching the sport.  That conversation has stuck with me since the day we have had it . 
          Flash forward to today, I still find myself at times getting frustrated with the same situation. However, I have learned that my situation is not unique and I am extremely blessed to have the amazing group we have assembled at PFP Barbell. I would love to continue to add to the team . If you think that competing in Weightlifting is something that would be fun email: [email protected] to set up a Weightlifting Assessment (its FREE) and give weightlifting a shot. 

Tom Duer 
Head Coach