Ep 145 | Girl's weightlifting: Building strong bodies & confidence

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I think for a lot of the girls, I can see their confidence grow. You know, weightlifting has a lot of benefits, just enhances your mood, your mental health is better, you're more conscious of what you're doing and putting into your body when you feel better. And confidence is the main thing I noticed with my students.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Strong women. We've heard this quote often: imagining strong character, strong minds, strong opinions. But my next guest is building strong bodies. She's the girls' weightlifting coach at Escambia High School, and today she's going to share how the small yet mighty group of girls are building confidence and camaraderie in and out of the gym. Booker T. Washington graduate, iron leader and muscle mentor Alicia Gifford. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Okay, so just from a practical standpoint, can you kind of paint a picture of a day in the life of a teenage weightlifter?

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Well, we have practice after school. So we tend to practice four days a week, Monday through Thursday. I like to give them Fridays off. So it starts at 3:30 and we go until 4:30. So they have about an hour of lifting each day. Some of the weightlifters also take a weightlifting class, which is an elective. So I don't teach those. Those are the PE teachers that teach those. So they can sign up for that as well just to get some extra conditioning in, but it's not necessary.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Okay, that's really interesting. I think in my mind, I've actually blended those two things together. I didn't realize that they were similar.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

A lot of students do. Yeah, a lot of students do as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Okay. Well, since we're already myth busting, and let's just go dive into the myth busts because a lot of adult women that I know, when you talk about weightlifting, you know, they see images of CrossFit and strongman competitions, and they are afraid that they're gonna be bulky and, you know, not beautiful in their own eyes. Is that something that the teenagers are dealing with, or is that just an old lady outlook?

SPEAKER_00 2:33

So I've been coaching three years. I've noticed this year that hasn't came across as much as the first year. It was hard recruiting girls the very first year I started because that was a common thing. I don't want to get bulky. I don't want to, but you're not unless you purposely try to, you're only going to build more lean muscle bat mass and get more tone. Men have testosterone, which is, or they have more testosterone, which is very important, to build muscle mass. And because women have less of that hormone, it is not possible to just get bulky by lifting alone.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

From 3 30 to 4 30 on a Tuesday afternoon. Yeah. Okay.

unknown 3:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

What about injuries? That might be another concern that parents would have.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Weightlifting, there's actually a low rate of injury. So the National Institute Health data has shown that 15.5% of those who participated in another sport reported injuries compared to the 11% who engaged in only weightlifting. So weightlifting can actually prevent injury in other sports if you do both together. So, like soccer and weightlifting. And because some of the sports listed with the highest injury rate were basketball, football, and soccer.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

But if you incorporate weightlifting, that's going to reduce your injury rate. Because the more muscle mass you build around your joints, that's going to help protect those joints and tendons and ligaments.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

And think if you could just prevent one ACL injury, that's a big deal. That's the one that affects people their whole lives. You always hear about it. So the form, you talked about the weightlifting class versus the weightlifting club. Form looks different on everybody because we've got different length torsos, different centers of gravity, their arms are different lengths. How do you navigate that with the girls who are not taking that class?

SPEAKER_00 4:28

So, like you said, form looks different for everybody. We just take time to go through each part of the movement before we put the full movement together because we focus on the clean and jerk, snatch, and bench. So with clean and jerk and snatch, especially snatch, they're nervous to put the bar straight over their head from the ground. When we start training, it's very specific, like, okay, we're only going to do the first part, which is pulling the bar up to your knee and then pulling the bar up to your hip. And then you put the whole movement together. We start with an empty bar or even a broomstick just to practice the movement before we add weight.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Okay, that makes so much sense. And I could see the benefit also for the girls participating, that mind-body connection of, you know, understanding, okay, I feel strong in this moment, I feel less strong in this moment. And that's such a great skill to have.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

So do you consider this like a team sport or an individual sport?

SPEAKER_00 5:27

So we are a team, but they are working individually. So you have a team score, but they also have their individual scores based off of their weight group. You're talking about the competitions.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Okay. So tell me more about those competitions because again, this is like me never having done this in high school, but my parents owned a gym, but somehow I just never ended up in this class. I probably should have been. So in my mind, I didn't even realize that you could go and compete as a team and win together.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Yeah, so we have a handful of meets throughout the year. Our season is from mid-October through the end of January, or that's the main part of the season. So we typically have meets on Thursday evenings. That just seems to be we can plan it for any day, but we have to coordinate with the other high school weightlifting coaches in the district. So a lot of times it's on a Tuesday evening or Thursday evening. And with the weightlifting meets, we start with snatch, then they go to clean and jerk and bench, and they're all in a different weight group. So the weight groups go from, you know, 101 weight group, and then there's 119, 29, 39, and so forth. So we have those weightlifting meets and then districts, which is like the big meet, so the whole district meets at one location, which changes every year. That's the end of January. And then they pick it's first and second place for the team, and then first through third per weight group. Okay. And how how are we doing? How's the team? Pretty good. Districts this past year in the 101 weight group. One of my students was third place in her weight group. And then I have a couple other that placed fourth and sixth. So that sounds like a really big really great. Yeah, the first year we didn't have you know any one place. So it's yeah. And that's another thing. We started with just three, and this past year is 15. So I'm hoping it continues to grow.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

What do you think is contributing to the growth?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

I think the girls appreciate having a female coach. Also, with social media and all the fitness influers, the myth about being bulky is kind of being debunked. And so more of the girls want to lift.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

So it's visibility, essentially.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

And also our track coach, Mallory Beck at Escambia High School, she talks most of her track students into lifting. She's like, You're gonna do weightlifting with Miss Gifford, and they're like, Okay. Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

I like how you guys are working together.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Yeah. So a lot of, well, I would say about half of my lifters do volleyball and track, and weightlifting is in between those two seasons. So it works out really well.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

That's a really interesting cross-training opportunity for injury prevention. So I could see why the other coaches would want you to be a part of that collaborative effort.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Because this is more of a niche activity. Do you find there's also collaboration between other weightlifting coaches at different high schools within the county?

SPEAKER_00 8:28

As far as helping each other out, uh yes. My first year, George Schillang from Washington helped me out a lot. I mean, he would call me all the time and I would have questions for him. And he walked me through that first year just on how to do everything as far as planning the meets and, you know, getting a bus and a driver and all of those little details. So he's been amazing. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

I feel like every sport has life lessons, and that's why it's so important for kids to be involved in some sport of some version, some kind, right? Because it's uh learning through doing, not just like the parent saying, Hey, you should do this. Right. What have you observed as far as life lessons that can be learned through weightlifting?

SPEAKER_00 9:13

I think for a lot of the girls, I can see their confidence grow. You know, weightlifting has a lot of benefits, just enhances your mood, your mental health is better, you're more conscious of what you're doing and putting into your body when you feel better. And confidence is the main thing I noticed with my students.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

So you mentioned nutrition. Is that a conversation that comes up? Only if they ask.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

I don't want to push anything, you know, that's not my place. I'm just there to coach them for lifting. But if they have questions, you know, what's better for me to eat, this or that? I'll be like, okay, well, this is for these reasons.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

But how awesome that this is a conversation that they're even having. Right, right. You know, that's that's incredible. Why do you think the weightlifting builds confidence? Because I feel like, you know, any sport could specifically build confidence or even any extracurricular activity. We always hear about how it's a confidence builder. Is there anything special about weightlifting that contributes to that?

SPEAKER_00 10:15

I think because it's so individually based, you have all of these goals. You know, I want to lift this much. This is my goal. So you make these little goals throughout the year, and you then you're really proud of yourself and it just makes you feel good. Your personal best. Yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Oh, that's interesting. Okay. Is girls' weightlifting at all different than boys' weightlifting?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

No, they do the same movements, it's the same. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

It's exact same. Absolutely the same. And who do the girls look up to in the space? Because every sport has, you know, the idols that they kind of admire. You mentioned social media. Are there other weightlifting women that the girls are talking about?

SPEAKER_00 10:55

They haven't talked about anyone. I think they just, you know, watch all the TikToks and different things. So some stuff I have to be like, well, that's not real, but this is, you know, like which it's actually a super good life lesson.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

So if you're like, that's that's artificial intelligence. That person is not human. And that's an important thing, also. Okay. So you talked about the importance of having a female coach for the girls. What's the significance to them of having a female coach?

SPEAKER_00 11:27

So I asked them just to get more personal responses of the importance of a female coach. And I was just, I was pleasantly surprised by everything they were saying. And I thought it was really great. One of my students said having someone who understands what you're going through on a deeper level, having a coach who can help and support you with where you're at with your own body and having a more comfortable place to openly talk about what we need to. Another student said it gives us a role model to look up to with a better understanding of how we feel. I noticed a lot of them talked about with a better understanding of how we feel. And so I think, you know, because females, you did there's just a certain way you connect, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Yeah. But I wouldn't have guessed that. I wouldn't have guessed like feelings to enter the conversation of weightlifting.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Or probably any sport, actually. But they are telling you that the perception that you understand their emotional feelings is important in their sport performance.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Yes, exactly. And I I've I see how that's important the more that I'm hearing it from them. Cause then another student said the significance of having a female coach is that they can understand and empathize with girls better on an emotional level.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

So Wow. So what's your hope for like what's next for the weightlifting girls team?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Well, I hope it continues to grow. You know, and I hope that the girls that are on it stay on it each year so it's more consistent and they can be there for their entire four years of high school.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah. Yeah. Well, this has been such a good conversation and an interesting insight into something that I don't think a lot of people would have an opportunity otherwise to learn about from a coach's perspective. And then also kind of hitting on those parent concerns for their for their students. So yeah, some cheers to Strong Girls in the Future. Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of the Scambia County Public Schools.