Training Olympic Champion Weightlifters With Coach Steve Fauer

In 2000, the Olympic Committee welcomed women’s weightlifting into the Games, and the U.S. celebrated when Tara Nott-Cunningham won gold in the 106-pound division. During the next five Olympics, however, the U.S. did not produce a single Olympic champion in weightlifting, either in the women’s or men’s divisions. That slump ended when Olivia Reeves stepped onto the platform at the Paris Olympics.

On August 9, 2024, not only did Reeves win Olympic gold in the 156-pound bodyweight division, but she broke the Olympic record in the snatch. Along the way, her best official lifts are a 264-pound snatch and a 332-pound clean and jerk, which are American records. And for powerlifting fans, consider that Reeves has back-squatted triple bodyweight below parallel without the supportive gear used in powerlifting competitions.

Reeves is an Olympic champion, but a gold medal for coaching should go to Steve Fauer. Fauer has been Reeves’ coach since she took up the sport at age 12. A former strength coach at the University of Nebraska and Vanderbilt University, Fauer left the collegiate world to coach in the private sector. Today, he owns Tennessee Speed and Strength, an athletic training facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Although Fauer enjoyed coaching at the collegiate level, he switched to the private sector so he could give his athletes more individual attention.

In this exclusive interview, Fauer shares his gold medal ideas on how weightlifters and other athletes can achieve physical superiority.

Freelap USA: What training system do you use for weightlifters and other athletes? 

Steve Fauer: For speed and power development, I train all my athletes using the Olympic lifts. I have yet to find a more beneficial way of training lower body power—as measured by vertical and broad jumps—than by utilizing the Olympic lifts. There is a relationship between the strength lifts and the power lifts that I try to keep in balance. If an athlete isn’t cleaning around 60-65% of their back squat, we don’t see the gains on our jump tests. I strive to meet this relationship between the strength/power lifts for all my athletes with my more skilled weightlifters able to clean 70%+ of their back squat.

In my younger days, I was heavily influenced by Dragomir Cirosolan. He won a bronze medal in the 1984 Olympics and became the national coach at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. His methods still play a large part in how I program my weightlifters. His adage, “If you want to lift heavy weights, you have to lift heavy weights!” is so true for a competitive lifter.

Dragomir didn’t count any reps under 80% when calculating volume, and I have heard from other international coaches that they don’t count reps under 82%. The issue when constantly dealing with such large loads is the amount of rest needed to recover. It takes years to condition an athlete to perform 300-500 reps/week at 80% and above, which typically requires 6-9 training sessions/week. The benefit is simple—the more reps an athlete can get with big weights, the better their performance. While I used to successfully subscribe to this method (and most coaches still do), I have taken a different approach over the past several years.

I can get more reps at 90%+ if I take the training frequency to 3 or 4x per week. Since these are the weights we attempt in competition, it offers more opportunity to identify technical errors that only show at near-max attempts. Share on X

I found I can get more reps at 90% and above if I take the training frequency down to 3 or 4 times per week. And, since these are the weights we’ll be attempting in competition, this offers me more opportunity to identify technical errors that only show themselves at these near-max attempts. In addition, athletes begin to feel more comfortable with these weights since we have them on the bar more often. Finally, by reducing the weekly volume and allowing more time for oneself, I hope to prolong an athlete’s career by avoiding burnout and reducing the risk of overuse injury.

Freelap USA: What do you think of the trend of athletes performing partial-range exercises, the so-called weightlifting derivatives?

Steve Fauer: I admit I’m ignorant of the research comparing the benefits of the full movements vs. partial movements, but I understand these coaches are trying to focus on the most explosive part of the lift with these exercises. In the 90s, while I was in Nebraska, our athletes performed hang cleans.

I teach athletes the full movements at my training center, high schools, and the small colleges I work with. However, if you’re a strength coach who is uncomfortable teaching the full lifts, teaching from the hang positions is a great alternative. Conversely, you may be an extremely competent strength coach but find yourself working with a team where the head coach isn’t comfortable watching his athletes perform a full clean or snatch. It can certainly be a compromise between your abilities as a coach and those who you work with.

I should add that I am not a fan of high pulls for athletes in contact sports. I suggest coaches who use high pulls or jump shrugs incorporate the catch phase of the clean or snatch for these athletes. Athletes in contact sports need to understand how to absorb a force as much as they need to understand how to produce it.

Freelap USA: Olivia returned to train with you after spending a year attending school in Alabama. Why did she come back, and what were the challenges of distance coaching?

Steve Fauer: I was disappointed when Olivia left for Alabama but didn’t want to stand in her way. I’m not going to be the guy who says, “This isn’t right—I don’t think you should go.” Who am I to say that? Olivia needed to find out what was best for her.

When Olivia went to Alabama, I set her up with a friend of mine, Terry Grisham. Grisham had a gym off campus with platforms, Olympic bars, and bumper plates. She also would occasionally train at a local CrossFit gym for the atmosphere. I tried coaching her remotely, but it just didn’t work out.

I provided all her training programs, she videoed most sessions, and we communicated daily—it just wasn’t the same as being in the gym together. Olivia’s progress stagnated at a critical time in her career as we began to make a run for the Olympics. After her first year, she told me she was coming back to Chattanooga, and I can’t tell you how relieved I was to hear that!

Online coaching can be very profitable and effective for some coaches and athletes, but it’s simply not my style. I didn’t get any enjoyment out of online coaching, so I stopped doing it.

I teach athletes the full movements... However, if you’re a strength coach who is uncomfortable teaching the full lifts, teaching from the hang positions is a great alternative. Share on X

Freelap USA: With 27,000+ registered weightlifters and the popularity of weight training in the U.S., why doesn’t the U.S. dominate weightlifting, and how can we improve our position on the world stage? 

Steve Fauer: At Paris, we got one gold, one bronze, and two athletes placed in the top five. That’s pretty good and shows we’re headed in the right direction, especially on the women’s side, as Olivia won gold. However, we struggle with our men’s program because there are more opportunities for highly-skilled athletes to make a lot of money in professional sports. You probably shouldn’t go into Olympic sports if you have the talent and want to make money.

Another issue is a high attrition rate with our weightlifting coaches because they are not paid a dime. There’s no incentive to work with athletes for eight or 12 years to help them go to the Olympics when you have other ways to make money, such as working in a college strength program. For our athletes to improve on the world stage, we must take better care of the coaches.

Freelap USA: What are the major mistakes you see in strength coaches working with middle school and high school athletes?

Steve Fauer: The problem with many coaches and trainers is that they tend to train others how they like to be trained.

There was a distance runner at a high school that I worked with who coached the volleyball team. Since he enjoyed running, his warmup routine for each practice was to have his girls run 1 ½ to 2 miles. The problem with this is that training the aerobic system hinders the development of explosive power—which is exactly what his volleyball players so desperately needed. Many CrossFit trainers are also big offenders of training athletes the way they like to be trained.

A good coach not only understands the needs of the athletes they are charged with, but also knows that training outside of these demands can result in decreased athletic performance. Working hard doesn’t guarantee success—working smart does. Understand that the endurance and power systems cannot be trained to their maximum as training for one will negatively affect the other. Obviously, many sports, such as soccer and lacrosse, will require both systems to be developed, so a coach also needs to understand how much time to devote to the development of each system. A coach should ask themselves, “Why am I doing this?” If they can’t provide a sound answer and a measurable result, they should reconsider what they are doing.

A good coach understands the needs of the athletes they are charged with and knows that training outside of these demands can result in decreased athletic performance. Working hard doesn’t guarantee success—working smart does. Share on X

Unfortunately, strength coaches may find themselves working with team coaches who are completely ignorant when it comes to preparing athletes for competition. I was brought in to help with a high school football team once where the kids were training 3x/week, 90 minutes each session. Upon my arrival, I found that the average body weight of these athletes was higher than their average back squat! I had no idea what they had been doing 3x/week, but the coach loved his sleeveless shirts, so I could only imagine. Luckily, he allowed me to run the program as I saw fit without interference, which really turned things around. It ended up being a great job. But sometimes it doesn’t work out.

Years ago, I accepted a job as a strength coach at a private school. Shortly after my hire, the school hired a new football coach who wanted to run his strength program through me. The program he wanted me to oversee was devised by a bodybuilding friend of his and consisted of a long list of chest and arm exercises, with absolutely no leg exercise on the list! We immediately locked horns, and they stayed locked for nearly four miserable years until I was eventually fired. At that point, I decided to open my training center, and things couldn’t have worked out better. One of my many crown jewels has been Olivia Reeves winning a gold medal at the Paris Olympics. Sometimes, the most devastating thing that can happen to you can be a blessing!

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