Paul Marsh

This was over 10 years in the making. Back in June I passed my Cat I IPF referees exam at the world classic open 2025 in Chemnitz, Germany. I wasn’t exactly given the easiest session, infact it was the longest session of the entire championships with a 6am start for weighin, 2pm finish. Regardless of this I survived the session under the scrutiny of a 5 person Jury, hitting a couple of milestones RE: my national federation with it as well. My point here is, just because it’s not been done before, or you do not see people like you in senior positions doesn’t mean you can’t be there, be the first, the youngest, the only one. Be the trail blazer, prove the point and do what you feel is right. Be the one to open the door for future generations and show what is possible.

Just under a year in as GB Classic Open Head Coach. 2 euros & 1 worlds, sadly no pictures from euros this year. 2023 in Estonia 1st women’s, 1st men’s. 2024 in Croatia 1st men’s, 2nd women’s, 2024 worlds in Lithuania 2nd men’s 5th women’s. Some phenomenal results from the athletes. Champions, record breakers, @twg2025 invites and the rest. Thanks to you all for the trust you have put in me and the coaching staff. To the coaching staff, my sincerest thanks, the time and money you put into this voluntary role is admirable. You do not ask for thanks for praise and without you none of this would be possible. I’m sorry for all of the hoops you’ve had to jump through but with recent results I feel it’s fully justified. A final shout out to all of the sponsors, those who support us the coaching staff and the athletes directly and from a distance, your continued support doesn’t go unnoticed The thing that has continuously been at the forefront of my mind was something that happened at the European bench ‘23, speaking to a junior lifter at the event being told how GB Coaches aren’t great… I think we’re starting to break out of that mould. What were your highlights of the most recent world championships? What mistakes did the GB coaching staff make?

Now commonwealths is all said and done I can crawl back into my little hole of silence & being unknown. Shout out to the entire English team, lifters (everyone including our adopted athletes made a total, 0 bombers!) coaches & officials and an honourable mention to the home nations teams, always great to spend time with the extended team of athletes who is typically never see. congrats everyone!

Get more out of your wrist wraps - Updated wrist wrap tutorial. Probably the most important thing when it comes to ‘progressing’ onto a stiffer wrist wrap, and the main reason I see people disliking the SBD stiff wraps is that they do not know how to set the first wrap. The biggest benefit of a soft wrist wrap is that regardless of how you set the wrap it will bite and hold if you crank it enough. However if and when you can master setting the first wrap to ensure full contact around the wrist you will notice considerably more support especially when it comes to a stiff wrap. My suggestion would be to learn how to wrap your wrists using soft medium-long wrist wraps, and then for lifts where you need your wrist fixed in one position you use stiffer wrist wraps. In the real world what this ends up being is max length ‘soft’ wrist wraps for squat & max length ‘stiff’ wrist wraps for Bench. You can find an old school tutorial on my archives below, but you may find this ‘tweak’ may make a huge difference in the support you get from your wraps. If you find you’re struggling on figuring this out & have the bad luck of seeing me at a competition don’t hesitate to come over and ask, more than happy to take a couple of minutes to run through it.

Its been a busy few weeks and finally I have some downtime! So here’s a quick summary 29-31st October World Bench, Vilnius 7/11/21 Greater London Women’s divisional @bethnalgreenwlc followed by GL AGM 7/11/21 - Fly to Norway for World Open 7/11/21-12/11/21 World Open Stavanger 13/11/21 - @p10.fitness Class testing 14/11/21 - Hosting p10 Greater London Mens divisional (two sessions) Handling and helping out a lifter on the day at a competition IS NOT COACHING, its handling… its doing your best to make sure the lifters do not make a mistake. if it was the same thing, I would be sitting here right now claiming all kinds of medals, records and achievements of the lifters from the past few weeks. Over the past months worth of competitions I have had actual coaching involvement in atleast 23 of the lifters who have competed. programming, planning, technical coaching and 1-1 coaching. Lifters who would say In their own words that I coach them in some shape or form. Alongside that I have had a hand in handling an additional 22ish lifters, helping on the day so all they need to do is lift. Thats involvement in 45+ lifters AT competition. All of this alongside my clients who haven’t been competing. Note the difference in those numbers. Be wary of what you see on social media, its easy to blow up your involvement in someone else achievement and journey. the person who ended up handling someone on the day is not always the person who actually got them there. Shout out to all of the lifters, volunteers, officials, coaches and ‘other’ people who I have no doubt shared a drink with over the past few weeks. To many more! I’d tag the lifters but I really cba :D

Not entirely sure what to say about worlds. But one thing I will say is that I’d do it all over again in a heart beat. To all of the lifters who have thanked me over the past couple of weeks you’re more than welcome. To those of you who apologised to me please never feel the need to do that again. I do this job because I love it so thank you all for trusting me and well done, enjoy your spotlight. Shout out to @mac_created for grabbing this picture

Unconventional conventional deadlift variations - There are a number of variations that you can use to build your deadlift, here are a few that I use myself and often give to my clients to work in specific areas and issues within the lift. i program them based of their actual deadlift max. - One word of warning, these are not easy variations and do not suit everyone so make sure that it is right for you (even if what I write about each lift seems like it would be perfect for you it may not - 1. The Devils Deadlift - as the name implies this variation is hell. Lift from a deficit and lower the bar back down to where the floor should be. PAUSE. And then stand up with the bar. Ensure that you keep your legs active throughout the lift and do not let your hips shoot up as you initiate the lift from the pause. On the way down, as the bar goes past. Your knees let your knees track forwards. 2. Tempo Concentric Deadlift - as the name implies, SLOWWW on the way up, I like to have this as a constant speed throughout the entire lift for a 2-4 second count. Make sure you lift ‘perfectly’ and do not accelerate too much at any point, the entire lift should be at one tempo on the way up 3. Deadlift to the knee - never felt your quads work in the deadlift before? Often told that your deadlift is all back? This is the variation for you. Lift the bar to the point that your shins are vertical and then lower it back down (in the exact same way that you lifted it!) by allowing your knees to track forwards. Brownie points if you maintain tension on the floor between reps. For your final rep lift the bar all the way through to lockout ensuring that your lockout is smooth (knees and hips finishing at the same time! - This is 1 of a 3 part series, the next will be on primary deadlift accessories with the third being on conventional conventional deadlift variations (no thats not a typo) - If you have ANY questions on these variations please give me a shout here or DM me Continued in comments 👇

Deadlift Warmup - The Barbell Complex - There are many ways to skin a cat, one of my preferred is using a barbell complex, depending on the main lift you’re doing on the day you can put as many or as few exercises into the complex for you needs. For me and my deadlifts I use - Jefferson curl - make sure my spine is moving and feels good, see what feels off - Stiff legged deadlift - rebuild some tension back into the system and stretch into the hamstrings - Romanian deadlift - get my glutes and hamstrings firing - Narrow grip barbell row - get the upper back firing especially mid thoracic - Good mornings - more hamstring, glutes and upper back integration - Wide grip barbell row - slightly different angle, I typically feel my lats more here. - Bare in mind this is what I do, It raises my heart rate and gets my body ready for the work to come. From here I start straight with the bar to deadlift (120kg is the bar on deadlift for me these days…. Those 50kg plates) - Another few things that I’ll sometimes add include overhead press, hang cleans, behind the neck press, back and front squats lunges etc. let your imagination run wild and pick 4-8 movements for 5-15 reps to get things moving and firing, get your heart rate up so you can just get on with it. At very least you will save some time warming up. - Barbell Complexes are also something you can use as a conditioning tool, but you’re going to have to wait a few months before I’m doing anything that crazy

Short video on deadlift grip fundamentals as well as running through some self analysis of 170kg deadlift singles using different grip types. For me hook grip is best, some with longer fingers may find mixed grip puts them in a better position. Regardless, the fundamentals remain the same.

Deadlift Grip Fundamentals & Considerations 1 - Wrist remains straight 2 - The bar should be in your fingers Assuming these are constant there are two practical grips you could use when competing in powerlifting Hook grip and mixed grip. Hook grip would look to be the obvious decision as it is symmetrical and would often hangs lower down but as with many things IT DEPENDS One thing often over-looked and something to consider when choosing your grip is the size of your hand, specifically the length of your fingers. A lifter with a small hand size may struggle to hook grip on a 29mm power bar Lifters with longer fingers (aka salad fingers) may find (assuming they have confidence in their grip) that using mixed grip hanging low in the fingers over hook grip could be beneficial, improving their starting position and slightly reducing the range of motion of the lift The higher up in the hand that the bar sits, the worse the starting position (less upright torso position) and greater the range of motion. Its also common to find when the bar is tighter into the palm that a lifter will ‘wrap’ themselves into/around the bar, increasing the chance of the wrists not being straight when intitiating the lift. If the wrists are not straight at the start you will typically find a lifters arms slightly bent, torso less upright and the shoulders more rounded My recommendations Priority no.1 - ensure that your wrist is straight when setting up and when initiating the pull of the deadlift Priotity no.2 - make sure the bar is set into your fingers, as low as possible and not in the palm of your hand Two final points It is often overlooked that how you tie your straps can impact your starting positions. make sure that how ‘tight’ you wrap your straps (if you decide to use them) is representative to the grip you do in competition. DO NOT have very loose straps if you find that the bar typically sits high in your hand in competition if you are doing weightlifting movements, Snatch / cleans / power cleans / clean pulls etc you may want the bar buried into your palm as much as possible If you find this series useful or have any thoughts on any of this I’d love to hear f

Find Your Squat Stance - A nice little drill here to find a starting place for your squat stance, you may find that you end up pointing your toes further forwards than this drill suggests (especially under load) so you can create more tension and be ‘tighter’ - See this is a great place to start to have a unrestricted and natural feeling squat, be that low bar, high bar or a front squat and personalise / tweak it from there. - in this position you’re able to get your glutes maximally engaged which will make it easier to get everything into alignment, the last thing you need is to be fighting against your own restrictions - Now you have all of the parts for your squat setup & walkout all you need to know is how to initiate the descent of the lift. - Think your hips sitting straight down onto your heels. That’ll give you and initial slight drift backwards but the further down you go into the movement the more ‘down’ it becomes - For now just focus on not losing your position, especially that of your feet and torso. Do not fight the squat, go with it, allow yourself to tilt but do not let the weight bully you. Hold your position. - Oh and remember rule no.1 The bar rests on your back. - Question - What do you look for in a good squat? What would you say are the fundamentals?

The Unrack 3/3 - The final part, a two step walkout - Dependant on your stance width you may want to do 3 steps, but the majority of raw lifters should be able to get away with a very stable 2 step walkout. - A key point with your walk out is to make sure that as you stand the bar up your base is narrow (feet pretty much together) and once up pause for a moment to let the bar settle before you step back. - Once you step back, ensure the foot is planted and stable then bring the trailing foot straight back and then out into position. - it takes time to perfect, but there is no reason to be far out from the rack. All and any excess movement and steps leads to wasted energy so try and keep your walk out as economical as possible. - Minimal steps backwards, minimal lateral movement. You’ll also notice in this video that there is very little movement of the bar / plates (spinning etc), this is what we want - Something thing to remember is that when it comes to competition you are able to have help by the spotters to get you out of the rack and stable (Although this isn’t something that you will see often) - A light touch is often all it takes and helps with stability and reminding you to keep tight. - The walk out is probably the most important part of the squat, it sets up the rest of the movement, perfect this and you’ll be well on your way to mastering the lift - If you have any further questions on this topic comment below or send me a DM