A night at the Woking Centre of Excellence.

Well tonight I finally did it. I’ve been trying to get there for a while but kept coming up with excuses of one type or another. Tonight I went down to the Woking Centre of Excellence in… Woking!

I’ve mentioned this Weightlifting gym with head coach Brian Hamill in the past. A good mate of mine Mark Hill trains there, I’ve written about one of their best lifters Chris Chea, I’ve even posted an article by another of their lifters David Woodhouse. So as I’ve referenced, begged, borrowed, stole and used them for writing material in the past it was about time I made my down there to train with these guys.

Now the studio is in London and Woking is in Surrey, a lot of people commute and know which trains to get, I however messed this up and I ended up on a train that stopped at every station between Waterloo and Woking .So instead of the anticipated 35minute trip, it nearly took me an hour from Waterloo alone.

Anyway upon my arrival at the Woking Centre of Excellence; which is a small room tucked away at the bottom of Woking Leisure Centre behind a sports hall, with Mark Hill, I was greeted by a couple of familiar faces Brian and Chris. Now the room is like a throw back to what gyms should be, there’s not a machine in sight! There are plenty of discs in stacks, Olympic bars, dumbbells, a few pull up and dipping bars, plus some portable benches. In the middle of the room and on the floor is- space!

The Woking Centre of Excellence in action:

Scattered about the place was an assortment of individuals in a varied state of dress and undress. With all the banter about each others training kit at one stage I wasn’t sure if I was mistakenly at the London Fashion school. However after a few short seconds I was no longer under any illusion as to where I had turned up. There was encouragement, lifting chalk, screams, smelling salts, bodies, bars and plates flying all over the place.

The lifters varied from the very experienced and elite, Chris Chea is the current British 70kg champion, to the novice and early teen. Brian the Head Coach spent time attending to everybody- including me. I was a little nervous lifting in this environment. Hell last week I wrote about taking myself out of my comfort zone and here I was lifting with some of the best in the country.

Anyway after a Snatch warm up I started to load the bar. I soon had people shouting instructions at me “Tighter at the start!”, “Pull high”, “Drop under”. How could I perform under this type of pressure? I worked my way up to a respectable single and also missed a couple.

The ones I missed were almost the most pleasing as I threw myself under the bar and at least lost the bar over my head as opposed to not even trying to get under it. My take home points are that I need to: finish the pull; get tighter at the start and; commit to get under it!

I’ve not cleaned in a while and to be honest seeing people attempt and get numbers in the range of 140- 150kg I wasn’t that sure I wanted to. Mark thought otherwise and using the same teaching points I had picked up in the Snatch I again worked up to decent singles and even ended up Cleaning 105kg. My best ever when I was training the lift was 115kg. I feel with the one session after one session at this place I now have the tools to reach above and beyond my previous best.

All in all it was a brilliant session and reinforced to me that taking yourself out of comfort zone and having a go really is worth it!

Thanks to everyone at the Woking Centre of Excellence, if I get the trains right I may see you all again soon!

Filed Under: Weightlifting