Meet The Coach - Charlie Stone
We want to introduce you to the Club Coaches & Officials. It is only fitting we start with Head Coach & Founder Charlie Stone in our first in the series of “Meet the….”
Discovering Olympic Weightlifting
After discovering strength training in my mid 20s I was quickly hooked. I was fascinated with the process of increasing my strength through barbell training.
After a year or so of basic training, I realised I wanted to progress. I Remember watching Weightlifters train on youtube, I knew I needed to have a go at it. I booked onto the nearest beginners Weightlifting course. This was run by Giles Greenwood (Commonwealth gold medalist who would go on to be head of coaching at British Weightlifting) at the renowned Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club, one of the oldest gyms in the UK. Not a bad start!
To this day, I can still remember the hairs standing up on the back of my neck as I approached the gym. A mixture of excitement and the sound of barbells being dropped from overhead. I soon realised I wanted to find out exactly how far I could push myself in the sport.
Not only did I want to compete but I wanted to introduce others to this massively rewarding and still relatively unknown sport.
My qualifications and experience
In 2011 I enrolled on a Strength and Conditioning undergraduate degree at the University of Gloucestershire. Graduating in 2014 with a 2:1.
Over the last 10 years I have gone on to refine my coaching skills, working in gyms and schools across Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. As well as coaching athletes in multiple British Weightlifting competitions.
In 2019 I set up Stone Strength Weightlifting a British Weightlifting affiliated club, I am also head Weightlifting Coach at Crossfit Cheltenham. My main objective is to help promote Weightlifting as a sport and to coach athletes of all ages; teaching people to lift focusing on quality of movement and supporting those with ambitions to compete at a higher level.
In my 10+ years training and coaching I’ve been lucky enough to have been influenced and coached by multiple top level coaches:
Giles Greenwood, former GB international Weightlifter and former head of coaching at British Weightlifting
Marius Hardiman former GB International Weightlifter and head coach and Oxford Power sports
Yasha Kahn US National medalist
Justin Holly head coach at Willpower Weightlifting
Competitive achievements
My highest Competitive achievements to date:
Silver medal at the English championships 2017 finishing with a 170kg clean and jerk in the -105kg class.
140kg snatch / 166kg clean and jerk at the MSC performance open 2018.