Off the Platform

Episode 13 features a conversation with Spot Barbell Coach Julia Falamas now a New Brooklyn Barbell athlete. Coach Blanco finds himself with an opportunity to experiment and develop a new coach/athlete relationship. With Julia’s unique capacity to perform as both coach and athlete Coach Blanco finds himself a new person to learn from.

Episode 12 features a special conversation with 2016 Olympian, Morghan King. Her incredible and star-studded resume has always been an inspiration to us and the Weightlifting community at large. Morghan's frank and honest demeanor gives way to an insightful and vulnerable conversation about her evolution of mastery, the pressure from fame and expectation and how her return to play and camaraderie to reconnect back to the sport. We thank Morghan for this unique opportunity and hope you appreciate the laughs and conversation.

Kim and Coach Blanco are back with some favorite Weightlifting themes: the mechanics of adaptability and learning from exposure. We cover how the gym exists as a playground for learning ourselves, social media's role in creating deeper coach/athlete relationships and how focusing on the process really does work.

Episode 10 features Kim and Coach Blanco in conversation with nationally-ranked powerlifter and Squats & Science Coach, Jacob Lynch. Jacob’s articulate voice, stemming from an extensive athletic background and competition résumé, is a natural alignment to our cerebral discussions. We cover experiences of affecting change within our local communities, the mental tools we’ve learned from coaches and existing without material distraction. Lastly, we touch on the resonance of both fragility and empowerment that we're feeling from the current global pandemic. We hope you'll find this episode refreshingly honest and relatable.

We discuss the impact of COVID-19 on our personal Weightlifting community and how we are channeling our experiences to find hope and resilience in unforeseeable times.

In part 2, we continue the conversation about mastery. We focus on the process of becoming a high-level Weightlifting coach and the inspiration we've found from Kevin Doherty and Hassle Free Barbell. We share what we've learned from our youth athletes, our personal struggles in changing perspective and learning resilience through advocating for yourself as an athlete and coach.

Coach Blanco & Kim discuss the micro/macro views of mastery and the opportunities for the bar to move your mind.

Morgan Vozobule joins us for competition and conversation. We dive deep about the monotonous grind towards success in Weightlifting, working against five years of habit change, accidentally achieving her dreams and accepting that your truest guide is yourself.

We talk to director Adam Scheiner about his 2013 film vignette, "The Artist & The Olympian" (featuring Donny Shankle) and his latest feature film project, "The Weight". Adam dives into his inspirations for the film and we discuss the story arc, PEDs, the drama of Weightlifting and confronting masculinity.

We sit down for an honest and vulnerable conversation about the mental investment and emotional boundaries of being a coach. Framed through American Open Series 3, we discuss the performance of individual athletes while covering the challenges of coaching and leadership.